Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 24

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 24

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Judge Daniel W. Howe gained his prelim- inary education in the common schools of his native state, after which he entered Franklin College, at Franklin, this state, in which in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1857 and from which he received

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the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During the winters of 1858 and 1859 he devoted his at- tention to teaching in the public schools, and in the following winter he attended a course of lectures in a law school in Indian- apolis. The call to higher duty came to him soon afterward, when the integrity of the na- tion was thrown into jeopardy by armed re- bellion, and, subordinating all personal inter- ests, he was among the loyal sons of Indiana who responded to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers. In April, 1861, he en- listed as a private in the Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, of which his honored stepfather became major, and he was in active service for three months, in West Virginia, where he participated in the battle of Car- rick's Ford. After the expiration of his first term of enlistment he became a member of the Seventy-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infan- try, entering the same as first lieutenant of Company I, of which he was later promoted captain. With this gallant command ile made a record of most faithful and gallant service as a loyal soldier of the republic, hav- ing taken part in the battles of Stone's River, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and also in the East Tennessee campaign and the ever memorable Atlanta campaign. He was made the subject of special compliment in the offi- cial reports for meritorious service in the bat- tle of Missionary Ridge. He was severely wounded in an engagement at Kenesaw Moun- tain, Georgia, on the 23rd of June, 1864, and being thus incapacitated for further active service in the field, he received his honorable discharge on the 10th of the following No- vember. His continued interest in his old comrades in arms is signified by his member- ship in the Grand Army of the Republic, in which patriotic order he is affiliated with George H. Thomas Post, No. 17, of Indian- apolis.

After the close of the war Judge Howe re- sumed his study of the law, in connection with which work of preparation he was finally matriculated in Albany Law School, in the capital city of New York, in which institu- tion he was graduated in 1867, with the de- gree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith admitted to the bar of his native state and he initiated his professional career by enter- ing into partnership with his stepfather, Col- onel Oyer, with whom he was associated in practice at Franklin, Indiana, for several years, within which he amply justified his choice of vocation. He was called upon to serve as city attorney of Franklin and also made an excellent record as prosecuting at-

torney of Johnson County, of which position he was incumbent for two years.

In 1873, desiring a wider field of action iu his profession, Judge Howe removed to In- dianapolis, of whose bar he has since con- tinued a representative member. In 1876 he was elected a judge of the Superior Court, and he continued to preside on the bench un- til 1890, since which time he has given his attention to the general practice of his pro- fession, in connection with which his clientage is of distinctively representative order. On the bench he evinced the highest judicial acumen and his decisions were marked by broad and comprehensive knowledge of the law and full appreciation of the equity in- volved in the varied causes presented for his adjudication. In neither his professional career or private life has there been aught of obliquity or indirection, and none holds a more secure place in the confidence and es- teem of the bar and the general public. Judge Howe has much felicity in diction, both as a speaker and writer, commanding a clear and forceful English of classical purity. He has been president of the Indiana Historical So- ciety since 1901 and his interest in its affairs is of the most insistent and helpful order. He is also a member of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and has served as president of the Indianapolis Bar Associa- tion. His literary productions have included various books and pamphlets, and among these it may be noted that he is author of the "Puritan Republic", published in 1899, and of "Civil War Times", a most valuable and interesting historical volume, published in 1902. For some time past he has been giving attention to the compilation of the genealogi- cal history of the Howe family in connection with which his researches have been wide and intimate. In politics he is a Republican. In his religious faith he inclines to that of the Congregational Church, the church of his ancestors, and in the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has attained the Knight Tem- plar degree in the York-Rite and Thirty-sec- ond degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.

In 1871, while a resident of Franklin, In- diana, Judge Howe was united in marriage to Miss Inez Hamilton, daughter of Robert A. and Susan (Saunders) Hamilton, who came from Kentucky to Indiana, in which latter state Mrs. Howe was born. The Ham- ilton genealogy is traced back to stanch Scotch-Irish origin and the original repre- sentative in America settled in Pennsylvania. Judge and Mrs. Howe became the parents of three children; Ruth died at the age of eight-

A.C. Agres

Levi types

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een years; Lucy, who is a graduate of Ab- bott Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts, and also of the Indiana State University and Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York, is now the wife of Archibald M. Hall, of Frank- lin, Indiana; and Miss Susan remains with her parents at the attractive family residence, No. 1007 North New Jersey street.

ALEXANDER C. AYRES. To have been for nearly two score of years a representative mem- ber of the bar of Indiana and the City of In- dianapolis, in itself bears evidence of marked ability and power of leadership. This is true of Alexander C. Ayres, who as a legist and jur- ist has dignified his profession by his charac- ter and services and who is now one of the recognized leaders of the bar of the capital city, where he is senior member of the law firm of Ayres, Jones & Hollett. He has used his intellect to the best purpose, has directed his energies along legitimate channels, and his career has been based upon the wise assumption that nothing save industry, perseverance and fidelity to duty will lead to success in an ex- acting profession which offers no opportunities save to valiant souls; to such its attractions are unrivaled and its rewards unstinted.

Mr. Ayres finds much of satisfaction in re- verting to Indiana as the place of his nativity and he is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of this commonwealth. He was born at Mount Carmel, Franklin County, on the 9th of November, 1846, and is a son of Levi and Jane C. (Cregmile) Ayres, whose marriage was solemnized in Franklin County, this state, in 1840. Levi Ayres was born in Cumberland County, New Jersey, on the 3d of September, 1808, and his death occurred in Marion County, Indiana, in 1888. He was a son of John and Margaret (Powner) Ayres. the for- mer of whom was born in Cumberland County, New Jersey, in 1777, a son of John and Sus- anna (Jarman) Avres. John Avres. Sr., was likewise born in New Jersey, of Welsh lineage, and in that historic old commonwealth the family was founded in the carly colonial enoch of our national history. He entered the Con- tinental service in the War of the Revolution, and was captured by the enemy, after which he was retained as a prisoner of war. in New York harhor, until the close of the great strng- gle for independence. The British refused to permit his exchange by reason of the fact that he was a skilled blacksmith and as such was of special value in their service. Levi Avres was reared and educated in New Jersey. whence he came to Indiana in the vear 1832. He located in Franklin County, and that he was a man of no inconsiderable scholarship. according to the standards of the period, is evident when we re-

vert to the fact that soon after his arrival in Franklin County he secured an engagement to teach school. In 1833 he removed to Vicks- burg, Mississippi, where he followed the trade of painter until 1836, when he returned to Franklin County, Indiana, where he secured a tract of land and turned his attention to agri- cultural pursuits, having reclaimed much of his land from the virgin forest. He remained on this homestead until 1858, when he came to Marion County and purchased a farm in Cen- ter township, where he passed the residue of his life. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of his township, was a stanch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party and was called upon to serve in various public offices, including County Commissioner and that of representative of Franklin County in the state legislature, in 1857. He was a man of strong individuality and broad mental ken, and his life was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor. Sin- cerity, tolerance and kindliness marked his in- tercourse with his fellow men, and such was the man and such his works that his name merits an enduring place on the roster of the sterling pioncers of the Hoosier state. Both he and his wife were members of the Presby- terian Church. Mrs. Ayres, at the time of her marriage was a resident of Franklin County, Indiana, where her parents, Alexander and Rachel Cregmile, were early settlers. The Creg- mile family, whose cognomen was originally spelled Craigmile, is of Scotch-Irish origin and was founded in America prior to the Revolu- tion. Levi and Jane C. (Cregmile) Ayres be- came the parents of seven children, of whom two died in infancy; John T. and R. Jennie are now deceased; Alexander C. is the imme- diate subject of this review; Franklin is de- ceased and Levi P. maintains his home in Indianapolis.

Alexander C. Ayres passed the first twelve years of his life in Franklin County and in 1858, as already noted, his parents removed to Marion County, where he has maintained his home during the long intervening years and where he has won a generous measure of distinction and success. After duly availing himself of the advantages of the common schools he entered the Northwestern Christian University, now known as Butler College, and located in Irvington, a suburb of Indianapolis, in which institution he completed the pre- scribed curriculum and was graduated as a member of the class of 1868, with the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. He then taught school for one year, at Greenwood, Johnson County. after which he came to Indianapolis and entered the offices of the firm of Hendricks,

Vol. II-8

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Hord & Hendricks, under whose preceptorship he read law for the ensuing three years, with- in which period he also completed the regular course in the law department of his alma ma- ter, the Northwestern Christian University, in which he was graduated in 1872, with the de- gree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith admitted to the bar of his native state, and shortly afterward he formed a professional partnership with Hon. Byron K. Elliott, with whom he continued to be associated in practice until 1876, when Mr. Elliott was elected to the bench of the superior court of Marion County. Judge Ayres then formed a partner- ship alliance with Hon. Edgar A. Brown, who later became judge of the circuit court of Marion County. The firm of Ayres & Brown continued in practice until 1882, when Judge Ayres was elected to the bench of the nine- teenth judicial circuit, composed of Marion and Hendricks Counties. After serving ir this position for a little more than three years Judge Ayres resigned and resumed the active work of his profession,. in connection with which he became associated with his former partner, Judge Brown, and Lawson M. Har- vey, under the title of Ayres, Brown & Har- vey. In 1890 Mr. Brown became judge of the Marion circuit court and the firm was then dissolved. In January, 1892, Judge Ayres and Aquilla Q. Jones entered into a profes- sional partnership, under the title of Ayres & Jones, and upon the admission of John E. Hollett to the firm, in 1897, the present firm designation of Ayres, Jones & Hollett was adopted. The firm now ranks among the strongest in the state and controls a large and lucrative business.

Judge Ayres has gained distinctive recogni- tion and high reputation by reason of his broad and exact knowledge of the science of jurisprudence and his ability in applying this information effectively both as a trial lawyer and as a counselor, as well as on the bench, in connection with whose work his rulings were signally effective and equitable, meeting with but very few reversals, by the higher tribunals. His firm has had to do with large interests and with important litigations in the state and federal courts and he personally has long held prestige as one of the admirably equipped members of his profession in his native state. In politics he has ever been arrayed as a sup- porter. of the cause of the Democratic party, of whose principles he is an able exponent, and he has been a leader in the councils of his party in Indiana and was a delegate to the convention which nominated Cleveland for president. Judge Ayres is a member of the Phi Delta Theta.

In the year 1881 was solemnized the mar- riage of Judge Ayres to Miss Anna Fay, daughter of Amos F. Fay, who was at that time a resident of Indianapolis, whence he later re- moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he still resides. To Judge and Mrs. Ayres have been born five children, whose names, in order of birth, are as here noted: Elliott, Mabel, Franklin, Henry L. and Alexander C., Jr. All are living except the last named, who died in infancy.

THEODORE STEIN. The conditions under which industrial and commercial enterprises of magnitude are prosecuted in this new cen- tury of electrical advancement in all lines of human activity, demand men who are force- ful and of strong potentiality, courage and judgment. Numbered among such repre- sentatives in the personnel of the successful business men identified with the material and civic progress of "Greater Indianapolis" is Theodore Stein, who is president of the Ger- man Fire Insurance Company of Indiana, and a director of the Indiana Title Guaranty and Loan Company, two of the substantial and important institutions in the capital city.

Theodore Stein was born in Indianapolis on November 7, 1858, as the oldest. of five sons of Ernest Christian Frederick Stein and Catherine Elizabeth Stein, the one a poor, but worthy scion of the highest German no- bility, the other the daughter of a well-to-do German Gutsbesitzer.

Mr. Stein's father, Frederick Stein for short, immediately after settling in this city, took an active interest in the organization of the Republican party, and became that party's first elected candidate for city clerk in 1856.

It is said of him as a matter of distinction, that when later he became a justice of the peace, he invariably tried to arrange the dif- ferences of the people brought before his court on an amicable basis, and thereby avoid- ed imposing heavy money penalties and inci- dentally curtailing his own income, so dif- ferent from his contemporaries and later "Squires".

Theodore Stein acquired the rudiments of his schooling in the old "German English Independent School" of this city, a school attended by many of the most prominent of our present day men of affairs. While Mr. Stein's years at school were limited, he was a student, and never idle, and by self-applica- tion acquired much knowledge which his more fortunate contemporaries obtained in school and college.

That Mr. Stein is a man to do things is illustrated by the fact that while he was fo !-

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lowing his daily vocation of bookkeeper and manager of a large lumbering institution, he was secretary of four savings and loan asso- ciations and treasurer of another.

He has created an abstract of title busi- ness second to none anywhere, and which finally became the nucleus for the establish- ment of the Indiana Title Guaranty and Loan Company, with which Mr. Stein's name will be indelibly connected, and an institution which merits the confidence of all good peo- ple.

In 1896 he was a most influential factor in saving from destruction at the hands of ruthless schemers, the old German Mutual Insurance Company, brought into a flourish- ing state by his friends, Adolph Seidensticker and Lorenz Schmidt, and on its reorganiza- tion in the same year into a stock company under the name of the "German Fire Insur- ance Company of Indiana" he became its president, and to his indefatigable labors the great success of the company is largely due.

Mr. Stein, in common with many latter day Americans, is much interested in ances- tral story, but unlike most of his country- men, he can trace back his line of descent a thousand years or more, all because of the historical prominence of the family, whose possessions, constituting one of the petty principalities of the German Empire, became mediatized in 1806, along with those of other princely houses. The ruins of the Stein an- cestral castle called "Burg Stein" erected in 1050 A. D. may still be seen along with those of Nassau, the ancestral home of the present Queen of Holland, on a mountain near the River Lahn not far from the City of Cob- Jentz on the Rhine.

Theodore Stein is one of that class of busi- ness men who lend a helping hand in all mat- ters pertaining to the advancement of the glory of his home city. Recognizing the need of a modern club in the city, he became one of the charter members of the Columbia Club. As a good Republican he helped in the early efforts of the Marion Club. As a believer in Christian teachings he has aided church en- terprises. As a lover of music and all else that tends toward better family social life he became a member of the German House. As a patriot whose ancestors participated, in the American Revolution, he became one of the charter members of the Indiana State So- ciety Sons of the American Revolution, and ultimately its president. He is also a Scot- tish Rite Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.

Mr. Stein married an Indianapolis girl, Miss Bertha Kuhn, on March 15, 1882, and to

them were born a daughter, Pauline, and a son, Theodore Stein, Jr.

HILTON U. BROWN. Indiana's capital city has reason for satisfaction in the presenta- tion of her claims for metropolitan facilities and due relative precedence in the matter of the newspaper press, as well as in the per- sonnel of its representatives. Among these is Hilton U. Brown, general manager of the In- dianapolis News, the leading evening daily of the Hoosier state and one that can well bear comparison with the great dailies of the en- tire ·Union.

Mr. Brown finds no small measure of pleas- ure in reverting to Indianapolis as the place of his nativity. He was born in this city on the 20th of February, 1859, and is a son of Philip and Julia A. (Troster) Brown, the former of whom was born in Butler County, Ohio, and the latter in Germany, whence she came with her parents to America when a child. Philip Brown was reared and educated in the old Buckeye state and was a scion of one of its honored pioneer families. His mar- riage was solemnized at Hamilton, that state, and in 1855 he came with his wife to Indian- apolis, which was then scarcely more than a thrifty village, but claiming priority by rea- son of being the capital of the state. He was one of the pioneer lumbermen of the city, having established a lumber yard on grounds not now remote from the center of the busi- ness district, at the corner of Massachusetts and Bellefontaine avenues and in juxtaposi- tion with the tracks of the old "Peru" (I. P. & C., now Lake Erie) Railroad, from which `a private switch was extended into his yards and became known as Brown's switch. It is of historic interest that this switch led to the establishment of the railroad station on Mas- sachusetts avenue. Mr. Brown was one of the influential business men and honored citi- zens of the Indiana capital until his death, in 1864, at the age of sixty-four years. He was a man of scholarly instincts and attain- ments and a friend of the educational move- ments of his time. His name merits an en- during place on the roll of the pioneers who laid the foundations upon which has been reared an industrial and commercial city, a city that "vaunteth not itself", but one whose prestige has now reached remote re- gions by reason of the products sent forth from its manufactories and commercial houses. Philip Brown was enrolling clerk of the Home Guards during the time of the Civil War, having been beyond the age limit for active service as a soldier. He died about one year before the close of the great conflict. In politics he was originally a supporter of

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the cause of the Democratic party. Later he became a Whig, but upon the organization of the Republican party, the avowed champion of abolition of slavery, he transferred his allegiance to that party, remaining an advo- cate of its principles until the close of his life. His wife, who survived him until 1874. was forty-four years of age at the time of her death. Of their children only two attained to years of maturity-Demarchus C., who is now State Librarian of Indiana at Indian- apolis, and Hilton U., who is the immediate subject of this review.

To the public schools of Indianapolis Hil- ton U. Brown is indebted for his early edu- cational discipline. After completing the grammar grades he was matriculated in But- ler College, located at Irvington, now one of the attractive suburban districts of this city, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1880, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then for a year was a school teacher and was nominal head of. what was known as "Oaktown Academy", a public school at Oaktown, Knox County, this state. He had in the meantime made appli- cation to John H. Holliday for a reporter's place on the News. The assassination of Gar- field caused a demand for extra men on the paper and this gave the applicant a chance. His newspaper career has been marked by consecutive advancement and success. Thus, in 1881, he became a member of the staff as market reporter of the Indianapolis News, with whose affairs he has been identified dur- ing the intervening period of nearly thirty years and of which he is now general man -- ager. In 1890 he became city editor of the News, retaining its incumbency until 1898, when he was appointed receiver of the same during litigation growing out of a dissolution of the company's partnership. As such he sold the paper for the litigants for nearly a million dollars-a great price for those days. Following the receivership he was made gen- eral manager, of which position he has con- tinued incumbent. In the meantime the paper has reached metropolitan standards, both as a news vehicle and as an exponent of local interests. Representing the owners he has been intrusted with many important com- missions all of which he executed with dis- cretion and success. Among them was the purchase for the owners of the News of the Indianapolis Press and the Indianapolis Sen- tincl .. He has served in almost every capacity on a newspaper and his intimate knowledge of all departments of newspaper work has given him standing as one of the representa- tive members of the journalistic fraternity in

Indiana, and has led to his repeated election as director of the American Newspaper Pub- lishers' Association. Progressive and public- spirited as a citizen, he has championed all legitimate causes and enterprises which have tended to conserve the general welfare of the community and make for the upbuilding of "Greater Indianapolis".

In politics Mr. Brown is a Republican with somewhat insurgent leanings. He is a Mas- ter Mason and is affiliated with Irvington Lodge, No. 666, Free and Accepted Masons. He and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church. He has been a valued member of the board of trustees of his alma mater, Butler College, for a period of nearly twenty years, and has been president of its board of trustees since 1903. He takes a deep interest in the affairs of this excellent institution with which he and his people have been identified almost from its beginning.

In 1883 he was married to Miss Jennie Hannah, daughter of Captain Archibald A. Hannah, who was a representative citizen of Paris, Illinois, and the names of the ten chil- dren of this union are here entered, in order of birth : Mark H., Philip (deceased), Louise (now Mrs. John W. Atherton), Mary, Hilton, Jr., Jean, Archibald, Paul, Jessie and Julia.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 24

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