Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 122

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 122

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Grand Army of the Republic. In politics his support is usually given to the cause of the Republican party, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Second Presby- terian Church, in which he has served for many years as a member of the board of rul- ing elders.

On the 28th of October, 1869, while a resi- dent of Lafayette, this state, Major Richards was united in marriage to Miss Mary Alice Hoover, daughter of Alexander and Melinda Hoover, of that city. The only child of this union is Hugh Robertson Richards, who was born on the 23d of December, 1871, and who is now president and general manager of the Noelke-Richards Iron Works, one of the im- portant industrial concerns of Indianapolis. and who, with his father, owns a controlling interest. On February 14, 1909, an unusual sorrow came to Major Richards and his son in the death of his beautiful and accomplished wife. A loss as well to the highest type of womanhood of the city, as feelingly voiced by the Indianapolis press of that date.

WILLIAM H. BENNETT. The honored sub- ject of this memoir was long and prominently identified with industrial and civic interests in the City of Indianapolis, where he estab- lished his home more than, half a century ago and where he ever maintained a secure place in popular confidence and regard. He contributed his powers and abilities to the commercial upbuilding of the capital city and was one of its representative business men at the time of his death, whichi here occurred on the 12th of January, 1899.

William H. Bennett was born in the City of Albany, New York, on the 2nd of July, 1828, and was a son of Henry and Sarah Ann (Tracy), both of whom were born in Albany County, that state, whither the original rep- resentatives of the family came from New England, with whose annals the name became identified in the early Colonial epoch. Henry Bennett studied law in the office of Aaron Burr, in New York City and when the sub- ject of this sketch was a boy, the family re- moved to Perryburg, Ohio, whence removal was made to Toledo, that state, about the year 1830. The father was one of the pioneer members of the bar of that state and at- tained much prestige in his profession. He continued to reside in Toledo until his death in 1887.

William H. Bennett was afforded the ad- vantages of the common schools of Toledo and later attended a well conducted academy. As a youth he secured a clerical position in the postoffice in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, where he continued to reside until 1853, when

he came to Indianapolis, and became asso- ciated with the manufacturing of stoves, as one of the interested principals in the firm of the Root Company. The title of the con- cern was subsequently changed to the Root- Bennett Company and under this name the enterprise was continued with ever increas- ing success for many years. Mr. Bennett was actively identified with the company and it was in a large measure due to his business ability and well directed efforts that its af- fairs were so significantly prosperous with the passing of years. The concern is the oldest of its kind in the state, dating its in- ception back to the year 1850, and the busi- ness is now conducted under the title of the Indianapolis Stove Company, of which Henry W. Bennett, son of William H. Bennett, is president.

Mr. Bennett was essentially progressive and public-spirited as a citizen and his civic loyalty manifested itself in diverse ways. He was ever ready to lend his aid in tangible co-operation in the support of measures and enterprises tending to conserve the advance- ment and prosperity of his home city and to bring about wise and economical administra- tion of the municipal government. In poli- tics, though never a seeker of public office, he gave a stanch allegiance to the Republican party and he was a zealous member of the First Presbyterian Church, in which his wife also has long held membership.

On the 8th of November, 1853, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Bennett to Miss Helen Louise Root, a daughter of the late Aaron Root, a native of Connecticut. Of this union were born four children, namely : Florence Helen, who married Arthur S. Brooks, a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; Henry W., who is president of the Stove Mannfac- turing Company with which his father was so long identified; Robert Root, of Washing- ton, D. C .; Herbert D., of Columbus, Ohio, who died at the age of thirty-four years.

JOSEPH EARNSHAW. A strong and influen- tial factor in the civic and industrial history of the City of Indianapolis, the late Joseph Earnshaw, was identified with local manufac- turing and commercial interests for nearly half a century. His life was marked by in- superable integrity and honor, which, com- bined with his buoyant, generous and kindly attributes of character, gave him place as one of the most popular citizens as well as a representative business man of the capital city, where his circle of friends was coin- cident with that of his acquaintances. There was naught of obliquity in his mental or

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moral vision, and he made his life count for good in its every relation.

Joseph Earnshaw was a native of Wake- field, Yorkshire, England, where he was born on the 20th of June, 1831, and was a son of Jonathan and Mary (Stringer) Earnshaw, both representatives of stanch old English stock. Mr. Earnshaw gained his early educa- tional discipline in well ordered private schools in his native place and when fifteen years of age he came with one of his uncles to America, whither his parents also came at a later date; they passed the closing years of their lives in the State of Pennsylvania.

At Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the subject of this memoir became associated with his uncle, in the manufacture of woolen cloths. Later he came to Indiana and engaged in business at Cambridge City, Wayne County. There he also began the manufacturing of furni- ture and there he continued to reside until 1865, when he removed with his family to Indianapolis, which thereafter continued to be his home until his death, which here oe- curred on the 16th of May, 1900. For some time after locating in the capital city of In- diana Mr. Earnshaw continued to devote his attention to the manufacturing of furniture, and after disposing of this business he en- gaged in the manufacturing of elm hoops, as a member of the firm of Earnshaw & Wright. Through his well directed efforts along this line he built up an enterprise that was one of the most extensive of its kind in the Union. In the manufacturing of patent coil elm hoops this concern utilized fully three hun- dred and seventy-five carloads of lumber each year, making 6,000,000 hoops annually. Mr. Earnshaw continued his active associa- tion with this important industry until about seven years prior to his demise, and, after disposing of his interest in the same, he lived retired until he was summoned from the scene of life's activities. He gained pres- tige as one of the leading business men of the city, was aggressive, energetic and pos- sessed of marked executive and administra- tive ability, and through his endeavors along normal lines of business enterprise he con- tributed materially to the commercial prece- dence of Indianapolis. His was a most en- gaging personality and he was by nature a thorough optimist, so that he radiated good will and geniality wherever he made his way, and won to himself warm and enduring friendships among all classes with whom he came in contact. His course was dominated by the highest principles, and upon his career as a citizen and as a business man there rests no shadow of injustice or equivocation. His

name shall long be held in grateful memory by those who came within the sphere of his generous and noble influence.

Mr. Earnshaw maintained a deep and abid- ing interest in all that touched the welfare of his home city, and his aid and influence were ever given in support of measures and enterprises tending to foster its material and social prosperity. He was a stanch advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and he aided materially in the promotion of its cause. He served for some time as a member of the city council, but was never ambitious for public office save to the extent of being loyal to civic duty. He was a member of the Masonfc fraternity, was identified with the Columbia Club, and his religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife also has long been a zealous member. He was vice-president of the In- diana Society for Savings at the time of his death and had other capitalistic interests of importance. He was a man of broad men- tal ken and ever continued to take great in- terest in reading of the best in literature, the while he kept in close touch with current events and was well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public import. He mani- fested a deep interest in young folk and his genial spirit and kindly acts drew them to him by close ties. He was specially earnest and considerate in encouraging and counsel- ing young men, many of whom owe much of their success in life to his guidance and ad- monition. He was not self-centered, for his sympathies were without compass and he was ever ready to lay aside the exactions of business to extend aid to those in need ør distress. Such men, unostentatious and un- selfish, are to be considered benefactors of the world, and their lives offer both lesson and incentive.

At the time of the Civil War Mr. Earn- shaw was most carnest in his support of the cause of the Union, and he was among the first to tender his services in its defense. In 1861 he enlisted in an Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in which he was commissioned first lieutenant of his company. The command was not called to the front, but Mr. Earn- shaw himself was assigned to important service in the construction of bridges for the use of the Union forces in the south. He re- ceived an honorable discharge at the expira- tion of his term of enlistment

On the 23rd of December, 1861, Mr. Earn- shaw was united in marriage to Miss Eme- line Carey, who was born at Milford, Dela- ware, and who is a daughter of Nathaniel and

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Sarah (Lindell) Carey, both of whom were natives of the State of Delaware and both of whom passed the closing years of their lives at Cambridge City, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw became the parents of two chil- dren, William J., who was a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and who died in Indianapolis on the 26th of June, 1887, at the age of twenty-four years; and Mary S., who is now the wife of Henry Dana Hamilton, of Indianapolis. Mrs. Earn- shaw still resides in the homestead at No. 226 East Pratt street, and has long been identified with the best social activities of the community.

WILLIAM H. WISHARD, M. D. That "man lives not to himself alone" is an assertion that is amply verified in all the affairs of life, but its pertinence is most patent in those instances where men have so employed their inherent talents, so improved their op- portunities and so marshaled their forces as to gain prestige which finds its sphere of in- fluence ever widening in beneficence and human helpfulness. Greater than in almost any other vocation is the responsibility that rests upon the physician, since in his hands rest at times the very issues of life and death. To those who attain determinate suc- cess in the profession must there be not only given technical ability but also a broad hu- man sympathy which shall pass from mere sentiment to be an actuating motive for help- fulness. The subject of this brief sketch has dignified and honored the medical profession by his able and self-abnegating services and is today undoubtedly the most venerable physician and surgeon of the State of In- diana, where he continued in the active prac- tice of his profession for nearly seventy years-the span of man's life as designated by the psalmist. He is ninety-four years of age at the time of this writing, in 1910, and considering his patriarchal age is admirably preserved in mental and physical vigor, as is evident when we revert to the fact that not until 1906 did he retire from the work of the profession in which he attained notable distinction and unqualified success. His long and useful life as one of the world's workers was one of devotion, almost conse- cration, to the noble profession of which he has been so worthy a representative, and well does he merit a place of honor in every history touching upon the lives and deeds of those who have given the best of their pow- ers and talents for the aiding and betterment of their kind. He has been in the most sig- nificant sense humanity's friend, and to all familiar with his life there must come a feel-

ing of reverence in contemplating his serv- ices and their beneficent results. Dr. Wish- ard showed the most insistent loyalty and patriotism at the climacteric period of the Civil War, and represented Indiana as a surgeon in the volunteer service. He is one of the sterling pioneer citizens of Indian- apolis today, and here the gracious evening of his life is being passed under conditions and surroundings that prove a consistent se- quel to former years of earnest toil and en- deavor.

Dr. William Henry Wishard was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, on the 17th of January, 1816, and is the eldest of the eleven children of John and Agnes H. (Oliver) Wishard, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Kentucky. Both families were founded in America in the colonial epoch of our national history and the names of both have been closely identi- fied with the annals of our republic. Of the eleven children two others besides the doctor are living-Rev. Samuel E., who is a clergy- inan of the Presbyterian Church and a resi- dent of Los Angeles, California, and Mar- garet A., who resides in Greenwood, Indiana, being the widow of Dr. Thomas B. Noble.

The father, John Wishard, was but one year old at the time of the family removal from the old Keystone state to Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood and received such educational advantages as were afforded in the primitive schools of the period. His entire active career was one of close identifi- cation with the great basic art of agriculture, and in connection with the same he became one of the sturdy pioneers of Indiana, whither he came in 1825, locating ten miles south of Indianapolis, near Glenn's Valley, just in the edge of Johnson County, where he secured a tract of heavily timbered land and valiantly set to himself the herculean task of reclaiming the same to cultivation. He was an active participant in the Black Hawk Indian War, in which he was a mem- ber of a company of riflemen, and later he became colonel of the Fifty-ninth Regiment of the Indiana militia. The family has been notable for longevity, and he himself at- tained to the venerable age of eighty-six years. He died as the result of a partial sunstroke, passing away at Greenwood, John- son County, in September, 1878. One of his brothers attained the age of ninety years, and a sister was ninety-five years and seven days old at the time of her death. His wife died in August, 1849, in her fifty-eighth year. Both were zealous and devoted members of the Presbyterian Church, and he was long

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one of the honored and influential citizens of Johnston County, to the material and civic development of which he contributed in lib- eral measure.

The paternal grandfather of the subject of this review was William Wishard, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, but whose lineage was of stanch Scottish origin, his an- cestors having been Covenanters in religion and having removed from Scotland to Ire- land to escape religious persecution in their native land. William Wishard became the founder of the family in America, whither he immigrated about the year 1774, locating first in the State of Delaware, and having entered the patriotic service as a soldier in the War of the Revolution, in which he took part in the historic battle of the Brandy- wine. From Delaware he removed to Red- stone Fort, near Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and in 1793 he took up his residence in Nicholas County, Kentucky, where he de- voted the residue of his life to agricultural pursuits. His death occurred on his old homestead farm, from a stroke of apoplexy, after he had attained advanced age, and there also his wife died. They became the parents of thirteen children.

Agnes H. (Oliver) Wishard, mother of Dr. William H. Wishard, was a daughter of John and Martha (Henderson) Oliver. Her father, who was of English descent and a native of Virginia, became one of the sturdy pioneers of Kentucky, having taken up his abode at Lexington, that state, as early as 1782 and having been a friend and companion of Dan- iel Boone. He assisted in the building of the block house at Lexington, and was a man' of prominence in the pioneer community, where he made farming his occupation until his death, at an advanced age. Of his children, five attained to years of maturity.

Dr. William H. Wishard was about ten years of age at the time of the family re- moval from Kentucky to the pioneer farm in Johnson County. Indiana, where he was reared to maturity, early beginning to assist in the reclamation and other work of the farm, with whose management he continued to be identified until he was twenty-two years of age. In the meanwhile his educational advantages had been those afforded in the old log school house of the type common to the locality and period, but through self-discipline and judicious reading he rapidly amplified his store of knowledge, and as a young man had far better practical and academic education than the average youth of the period. In the winter of 1837-8, he began reading medicine under the pre-

ceptorship of Dr. Benjamin S. Noble, of Greenwood, with whom he was later asso- ciated in the practice of his profession for a decade, this alliance being terminated by the removal of Dr. Noble to Iowa, where he died in 1869. Dr. Wishard finally entered the Ohio Medical College, in Cincinnati, where he attended a course of lectures, and later he was matriculated in the Laporte Medical Col- lege, which was then a well ordered institu- tion, at Laporte, Indiana, and in the same he was graduated, duly receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thereafter he completed an effective post-graduate course in the Ohio Medical College, so that he was well fortified for the work of his chosen profession. He initiated practice in the Village of Green- wood, Johnson County, on the 22nd of April, 1840, and there remained until the outbreak of the Civil War. He continued to devote his attention to the work of his profession until January, 1906-a period of practically sixty-six years of devotion to his exacting pro- fession. There have been but few records of so long and able service on the part of those who have given their lives to the practice of medicine.

At the inception of the Civil War Dr. Wishard gave prompt evidence of his intrin- sic loyalty by tendering his services in the Union cause. He became a volunteer sur- geon in the Fifty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and later served in the same ca- pacity with the Eighty-third Indiana Regi- ment. Concerning his able and self-sacri- ficing labors as an army surgeon the fol. lowing pertinent statements have been writ- ten : "While acting in the capacity of volunteer surgeon he rendered a notable service to the wounded and disabled soldiers -one that was of sufficient importance to make it a matter of historical record. Realiz- ing that the facilities were insufficient for the proper care of the sick and wounded soldiers on the field and in hospitals, and removing them to their northern homes, Dr. Wishard reported these facts to General Stone, quarter- master general of Indiana, who requested him to obtain all possible information regarding the disabled troops belonging to the Depart- ment of the Mississippi after the surrender of Vicksburg and to turn his records over to Indiana's celebrated war gov- ernor, Oliver P. Morton. So complete was Dr. Wishard's report that Gover- nor Morton secured through the war de- partment an order to remove all sick and wounded troops from the front to northern hospitals-the first order of the kind to be issued. Dr. Wishard was present during the

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of prominence in the army have repeatedly stated that the entire credit for this order, which brought untold relief to the suffering, was due to Dr. Wishard. For all the time and services thus given to his country in its time of peril, covering a period of over two and one-half years, he never accepted any compensation except his personal expenses. During almost the entire period of the Civil War his residence was at Glenn's Valley, on the old homestead, which he had purchased from his father and which the latter pur- chased from the government. In the spring of 1864 he removed to Southport, Marion County, Indiana. where he practiced medicine until the fall of 1876, when he was elected coroner of Marion County, in which office he served four years. To facilitate the dis- charge of the duties of that office he removed to Indianapolis, where he has since maintained his home. His professional services were still in demand to a flattering degree when he retired from practice, in January, 1906, after celebrating his ninetieth birthday."

siege of Vicksburg and on the morning of July 4, 1864, marched into that city with General Grant's army. General Stone ar- rived the same day with a communication from Governor Morton to the chief surgeon of General Grant's staff, requesting the re- moval of soldiers according to the order re- ferred to. In a pompous manner, character- istic of him, the chief surgeon declined, tell- ing General Stone to present his compliments to Governor Morton and to tell him the med- ical department was able to discharge its duties without his assistance. At General Stone's request Dr. Wishard then personally secured from each of the hospitals a list of disabled Indiana soldiers, with their capacity for providing for them: also a list of the boats for the transportation of soldiers, with information as to their accommodations. Gen- eral Stone returned to Indianapolis at once and gave the facts to Governor Morton. who started for Washington the same night. He applied to Secretary Stanton for an order that would insure the execution of the first order, but Secretary Stanton refused to com- There is much of lesson and incentive in the life history of this venerable physician and honored citizen. Generous, tolerant and sympathetic. he devoted more than the aver- age period of human life to work in the alle- viation of suffering and distress, and he has been spared to a wonderful age, constituting a veritable link between the primitive, pioneer past and the twentieth century with its wealth of achievement and opulent prosperity. In these latter days, with all of modern facili- ties and conveniences, it is difficult for the younger generation to conceive how great were the trials and sacrificing labors of this sterling physician during the earlier years of his practice. He ministered faithfully to those afflicted, subordinating his own comfort and pleasure to thus respond, often under trying circumstances, to the call of the suf- fering. He remembered those who were for- gotten, and as a physician and as a man his has heen in the most significant sense the "faith that makes faithful." He has held the needle of life true to the pole-star of hope and in his mortal tenement has burned the purest of spiritual flame. He attained marked snecess and distinetion in his profes- sion, and has been one of its best known representatives in the Hoosier state and its fair capital city. As a citizen he has stood exponent of the highest ideals, and as a man among men he has represented the highest type of integrity and honor. Until within comparatively a recent date his splendid memory remained unimpaired and his wealth ply, whereupon Governor Morton immediately appealed to President Lineoln. Without de- lay a cabinet meeting was called, attended by Governor Morton, who personally pre- sented the matter in an earnest and effective speech. Secretary Stanton claimed the re- ports were not to he relied upon, and that if the order was granted, other states would complain of partiality being shown to In- diana. The President called in Surgeon Gen- eral Barnes and on investigation it was found that the report made by Dr. Wishard to Gov- ernor Morton did not vary three per cent from the reports made by the surgeon general through official channels. Secretary Stanton was told by the President to issue a general order, whereby all sick and wounded soldiers could be sent home, and soliciting the co- operation of all the governors of the different states. At first the order was resented by the medical officers in high authority, who thought their prerogatives were being ig- nored, but the President said it was a humane act and must be complied with. Immediately upon the order going into effect hospital boats were equipped, the transportation to the north of the sick and wounded became the first work of the medical department, and thus many lives were saved. With the steamer 'Sunnyside' Dr. Wishard was the first surgeon to make a trip for that purpose, going from Vicksburg to Natchez, thence to Cairo, and from the latter point to Indian- apolis. General Lew Wallace and other men of reminiscence of the early days must con-

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 122

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