Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 27

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 27

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Anthony Mason. father of Rev. William F. Mason, was a native of Kentucky and of stanch English lineage. the family having

been founded in America in the colonial epoch of our national history. He came to Indiana in an early day and became one of the honored pioneers and influential citizens of Sullivan County, where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness and where he con- tinued to be identified with the great basic industry of agriculture until his death, which occurred about the year 1890, at which time he was eighty-four years of age. His wife also lived to a venerable age and their names have a secure place on the roll of the honored pioneers of the county mentioned. Thomas H. Lynch, the maternal grandfather of him whose name initiates this article, was born ni Ohio, where his parents settled in the early pioneer days and where he was reared and educated. He was of English and French descent. He continued to reside in Ohio un- til 1850, when he removed with him family to Kentucky and then came to Indiana, taking up his abode in Indianapolis, where for a number of years he was president of the In- diana Female College, having been a man of marked ability and wide erudition. He was finally ordained a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to whose service he devot- ed many years of his signally noble and use- ful life. He was summoned to eternal rest in 1892, at the venerable age of eighty-five years, and of his three children one is living.

Augustus L. Mason was a child at the time of his parents' removal from Indiana to the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father had engaged in business. In the Queen City he was reared to maturity and to its public schools he is indebted for his early scholastic discipline, which was continued in Northwest- ern University, now Butler College, Indian- apolis, where his parents took up their resi- dence in 1872, when he was seventeen years of age. Mr. Mason was matriculated in De- Pauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, in which institution he was graduated as a mem- ber of the class of 1879 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then returned to Indianapolis, where he be- gan reading law under effective preceptor- ship, and here he was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1880, since which time he has been engaged in the active practice of his profession in the capital city. For a number of years his practice was of a general order and he soon proved his mettle as an able and versatile trial lawyer and as a counselor well fortified in the minutiae of the science of jurisprudence, but for a long period he has confined his efforts more specially to the do- main of corporation law, in which he holds an authoritative position and in connection

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with which he has gained marked success and high prestige. For some time he was asso- ciated in practice with Joseph E. McDonald and John M. Butler, under the title of Mc- Donald, Butler & Mason. This alliance con- tinued for a period of eight years, and since that time Mr. Mason has conducted an indi- vidual professional business, having finely equipped offices at the present time in the American Central Life Insurance building. It may be stated that his former partners were men of distinction at the bar and that Mr. McDonald was United States Senator from Indiana and Mr. Butler was long dis- tinguished as one of the prominent railroad lawyers of the state and nation. Mr. Mason's professional business is of large and repre- sentative order, involving his retention as counsel for extensive corporate interests, and the incidental work engrosses the major por- tion of his time and attention, though he has large capitalistic interests and served from 1893 to 1898 as president of the Indianapolis Street Railway Company.

As a citizen Mr. Mason has even shown a broad-minded and progressive attitude, and his interest in his home city and state has not been one of mere sentimental order but one of definite fealty and action. Thus it may be noted that he was the author of the reform charter of Indianapolis in 1891, the same having been adopted by the legislature of that year and having been the direct result of a civic movement instituted by the Board of Trade and the Commercial Club for the reorganization of the municipal government of the capital city and the incidental correct- ing of many abuses that had crept into the municipal service, both through negligence and malfeasance. Mr. Mason was also the originator of the plan of the county and township reform laws adopted by the state legislature in the session of 1899, and this system also has inured greatly to the benefit of the people and the insurance of effective governmental policy in connection with such organic divisions of the state. He rendered able assistance in the formulating and prep- aration of the new laws, in connection with which he co-operated with the members of the assigned committee from the Indiana State Board of Commerce.

In politics Mr. Mason gives an unequivocal allegiance to the Republican party, and while he has rendered effective service in the pro- motion of its cause he has manifested no de- sire for the honors or emoluments of public office, preferring to give his undivided atten- tion to the profession for which he has so ahly fitted himself and in which he has risen

to a position of prominence. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and he is identified with various fraternal and civic organizations of representative character in his home city, where he is held in high esteein in his profession and as a generous and pub- lic-spirited citizen.

On the 25th of January, 1893, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Mason to Miss Annie Porter, of Indianapolis, the only daughter of Hon. Albert G. and Minerva (Brown) Porter. Her father has held various offices of high public trust in Indiana, in- eluding that of governor, and has left a defi- nite and beneficent impress upon the history of this commonwealth. Mr. and Mrs. Mason have no children. They are prominent and enjoy unqualified popularity in the leading social circles of the capital city, taking much interest in the amenities and interests which represent the higher ideals of life, and their pleasant home is a recognized center of re- fined and gracious hospitality.

WILBUR S. WYNN. One of the most benefi- cent forces that has entered into and per- meated modern civilization is that of life in- surance. Its primary functions are in the protection of those who are nearest and dear- est to the individual, and thus they touch the home-that conservator of all that is best and most enduring in the scheme of human existence. Among the concerns offering in- demnity along these lines and maintaining a high sense of stewardship is the State Life Insurance Company, of Indianapolis, of which Mr. Wynn was not only one of the founders but the original promoter and of which he is now vice-president, secretary and actuary. It has been his privilege to accom- plish a notable work in his field of endeavor and especially in the matter of securing prop- er legislation for the control of life insurance business in Indiana. The operations of the company of which he has been secretary and actuary from the time of its initiation arc regulated upon a broad, safe and humani- tarian basis, enlisting in the management the highest personal integrity and executive abil- ity, while the financial affairs of the com- pany are manipulated for the distinct bene- fit of those who seek security through its interposition. The magnificent growth of the business of this corporation has been the diametrical result of effective service, honor- able methods and popular appreciation. To Mr. Wynn's efforts have been due in large measure the development and upbuilding of the important enterprise, and it may be said without fear of legitimate contradiction that he is recognized as one of the representative

HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

life insurance men of the Union, even as he is one of the honored and influential business men of Indiana's capital city.

Wilbur Sylvester Wynn was born on a farm in Monroe County, New York, on the 25th of January, 1850, and is a son of Joseph and Emeline (Harmon) Wynn, both of whom were likewise natives of Monroe County, where they passed their entire lives and where the father followed the vocation of farming until the time of his death. The Wynn and Harmon families, of English line- age, were both founded. in New England in the early colonial era of our national his- tory, and a great grandfather of the subject of this review in each the paternal and ma- ternal line was found enrolled as a valiant patriot seldier in the Continental line during the war of the Revolution.

When Mr. Wynn was but five years of age both of his parents died, and he was then taken into the home of his maternal grand- father, Sylvester Harmon, of Monroe County, New York, with whom he remained until he had attained to the age of fourteen years. In the meanwhile he had been duly afforded the advantages of the public schools, and at the age noted he came to Indianapolis to live with his uncle, Wesley J. Wynn, who was at that time general agent in Indiana for the New York Life Insurance Company. In In- dianapolis young Wynn continued to attend school until he had completed the curriculum of the high school. At the age of seventeen years he secured employment in the book- publishing house of Bowen, Stewart & Com- pany, of Indianapolis, with which concern he was identified for a period of eight years. during a portion of which interval he was a traveling salesman for the house. He then began reading law under effective preceptor- ship, in Indianapolis, and when twenty-seven years of age he went to Hamburg, Iowa, where he was admitted to the bar of the Hawkeye state and where he engaged in the successful practice of his profession. While a resident of Hamburg he served one term as city attorney, an office to which he was chosen by popular vote. His health finally became somewhat seriously impaired, and in 1882 he took up his abode in Sioux Falls, South Da- kota, which state was then still a part of the undivided territory of Dakota. There he engaged in the newspaper business, by estab- lishing the Daily Argus, of which he became editor and publisher. This is now the lead- ing daily paper of the state of South Dakota. In 1886 Mr. Wynn disposed of his interests in the newspaper business and became a rep- resentative of the Michigan Mutual Life In-

surance Company, of Detroit, for which he was an agent in Illinois and Iowa. Later he represented the Northwestern Life Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, in the territory of Dakota, and the Mutual Benefit in Nebraska. During this time he inade a close and pro- found study of the scientific basis and ge- nerie methods and principles of the life in- surance business. in connection with which he is now a recognized authority.

After having made a splendid record as an underwriter, Mr. Wynn returned to Indian- apolis in the year 1892, and here he became associated with others in the organization of a stock company which was duly incorporated under the title of the Atlas Life Insurance Company and of which he became actuary and manager. The precipitation of the panic of 1893 made inexpedient the attempt to build up at that time a new company of this kind, and the Atlas Company reinsured its business and retired from the field. Mr. Wynn then assumed the office of Indiana state manager for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Philadelphia.

In 1894 Mr. Wynn associated himself with Andrew M. Sweeney and Samuel Quinn and effected the organization of the State Life Insurance Company, of which he was the original promoter. As Indiana had at that time no legal reserve law covering the life insurance business, the company was organ- ized under the assessment law, and was in- corporated in September, 1894. Mr. Wynn, as the original actuary and secretary of the company, placed its business on an old-line basis from the initiation of operations, and at no time did the company issue any policy that failed to require the payment in advance of the full and regular old-line standard par- ticipating rate. From the beginning the com- pany regularly valued its policies and main- tained full old-line reserves. For this reason, while still operating under the assessment law in Indiana, it was admitted to do business in Ohio as a regular legal-reserve company. Mr. Wynn has been secretary and actuary from the beginning of operations and has served as vice-president of the company since March, 1907.

Aside from all personal considerations Mr. Wynn has done a work which entitles him to lasting commendation and esteem in In- diana-a work which brought about the cor- rection of many abuses of the life insurance business in the state and that gives adequate protection to those who seek indemnity through this source. He was the author ' of the famous legal-reserve deposit law of In- diana, which requires all companies incor-

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porated thereunder to maintain with the state a deposit of the full net cash value of all outstanding policies, and he was also largely instrumental in securing the enact- ment of this bill by the legislature. The State Life Insurance Company itself was the first to be incorporated under the provisions of the new law. It may be said that this law has been of incalculable value in inspiring public confidence in Indiana companies and in making the capital city an insurance cen- ter. The State Life Insurance Company now controls a very large and substantial bnsi- ness, and the same shows a constantly cumu- lative tendency, thus offering assurance of popular appreciation of its solidity and of the advantages offered by it in its assigned field of indemnity.

Mr. Wynn exemplified all the elements of loyal and public-spirited citizenship and is a firm believer in the great future of the capi- tal city, whose remarkable industrial and civic progress within later years he has noted with all of satisfaction. In politics he is aligned as a stanch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party.

He is identified with the Commercial, the Century, the University, and the Country Clubs, of Indianapolis.

In the year 1879, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Wynn to Miss Kate Slack, who was born at Mount Savage, Maryland, and who is a daughter of the late Cornelius Slack, who was long a prominent official of the Bal- timore & Ohio Railroad, maintaining his res- idence in Cumberland, Maryland, and who was a representative of old and honored fam- ilies of Maryland and Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Wynn have two children-Gladys, who is the wife of C. Edgar Elliott, of Indianap- olis, and Iris, who is the wife of J. G. Van Winkle, now of Chicago.

HON. LEWIS C. WALKER. Among the old- est and most honored members of the Indian- apolis bar, Hon. Lewis C. Walker has been both an active and successful practitioner and took a very prominent part in the reorganiza- tion of the courts of the state. He was a member of the general assembly of Indiana, and his high record in connection with the judiciary of the state was further increased by his twelve years' able service as judge of the Superior Court. Mr. Walker is a native of Ohio, born on a farm near Wilmington, December 4, 1837, of substantial English lineage. His American ancestors first settled in the rich valley of the Shenandoah, Vir- ginia, whence his grandparents moved to Ohio. The judge's boyhood in Ohio was one of industry and hard work, developing strong

traits of self-reliance. He had obtained a fair English education by attending the win- ter terms of the country schools and his men- tal training was continued in the Wilming- ton, Ohio, Academy and the Southwestern Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio. He grad- uated from the latter with high honors, and entered the office of Judge A. W. Doan ot Wilmington, and began the study of law. Upon his adinission to the bar he associated himself with his preceptor and soon rose to local prominence, hoth in his profession and in Republican politics.

It was rather against his personal wishes that he was elected mayor of Wilmington, but having assumed the office it was charac- teristic of him that he performed his duties with entire faithfulness and efficiency. The result was that his popularity increased and he was twice elected to the office of prosecut- ing attorney of the county. He also served as chairman of the Republican County Com- mittee. In 1869 Mr. Walker located at Rich- mond, Indiana, there engaged in partnership in the practice of law with his brother, Hon. Calvin B. Walker, later appointed United States Deputy Commissioner of Pensions. Mr. Walker became a representative of the general assembly of Indiana in 1872, from Wayne County, and during the two terms of his service in that capacity was chairman of the judiciary committee at both sessions. He largely contributed to the abolishment of the Common Pleas Court, and he also aided in the reorganization of the state into new cir- cuits, and in a thorough revision of the di- vorce laws of Indiana.

Judge Walker came to Indianapolis in 1873, and has since been a continuous resi- dent, a progressive citizen and prominent practitioner at the bar. He was a member of the well-known law firm. of Ritter, Walker & Ritter from 1873 to 1880 when he was elect- ed judge of the Superior Court. He served in that position with honor and distinction for twelve years, always with impartiality and dignity as a judge; his decisions being so based upon sound principles that few of then were ever reversed by the higher courts. Since leaving the bench, he has had an ex- tended and high-class practice, and his great undisturbed geniality contributed to his standing. For many years he has been an elder of the Second Presbyterian Church, and is a Mason of the Knight Templar de- grec. In 1870 Judge Walker married Miss Camilla Farquhar, daughter of Dr. Allen Farquhar, formerly of Portsmouth, Ohio, and their only child, Camilla, became the wife of Howard A. Bill, of Richmond, Indiana.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

EDWARD DANIELS is the junior member of the well-known law firm of Baker and Dan- iels, who have established a large general practice in the local state courts. He is a na- tive of Greene County, Ohio, born November 11, 1854, and is a son of Joseph J. and Clar- issa J. (Blessing) Daniels. His father was a well-known general contractor and most of the childhood of Edward was spent at Rock- ville, Indiana, where he received a common school education, and afterward became a student at the Wabash College, from which he graduated in 1875, commencing his pro- fessional studies at Columbia University law school in 1876. In the fall of the year 1877 Mr. Daniels located in Indianapolis.and en- tered the law office of Baker, Hord & Hen- dricks as a student, being admitted to prac- tice in 1879.

In 1880 Mr. Daniels became associated with Albert Baker in the practice of law and since that time they have been identified in a grow- ing and select practice. Aside from his high standing as a lawyer, he has become quite widely known in literary circles, having for the past twenty-five years been a member of the Indianapolis Literary Club. He also served as the first president of the Columbia Club. He is both a popular and highly re- spected citizen. His wife, to whom he was married in 1887, was known in her maider days as Virginia Johnston.

JOHN E. SCOTT. A prominent and able member of the Indiana bar is John Eugene Scott, who has here been engaged in the gen- eral practice of his profession since 1874, and who has attained to success and. prestige through his close application, marked re- sourcefulness and broad and exact technical information. He is an effective advocate be- fore court or jury, a conservative and well fortified counselor, and he has long retained a clientage of essentially representative char- acter.

John Eugene Scott was born on a farm in St. Clair County, Illinois, on the 20th of Jannary, 1851, and is a son of John and Susan A. (Hart) Scott, both of whom were likewise natives of Illinois, where the respec- tive families were founded in the pioneer epoch in the history of that commonwealth. The father of John Scott was a native of Virginia and was of stanch Scotch-Irish line- age. John Scott was reared and educated in Illinois and there he continued to be actively engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred when the subject of this review was six months of age. His wife survived him nearly fifty-eight years and died May 28, 1909, at the age of eighty-five years

and five months. She passed the closing days of her life in Indianapolis and Chicago. Qt the four children two are now living.

He whose name initiates this article passed his childhood and early youth on the farm and his preliminary education was secured in the public schools of his native state, after which he attended McKendree College, at Lebanon, Illinois, for a time, after which he was matriculated in the Illinois Wesleyan University, at Bloomington, Illinois, in which well ordered institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1873, duly receiving his well earned degree of Bachelor of Arts. He thereafter studied law under the able preceptorship of the firm of McNulta, Aldrich and Kerrick, of Bloomington, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar in 1874, since which year he has given his attention to the work of his profession, which he has honored by his loyalty and able services. In 1874 Mr. Scott took up his residence in Indianapolis, and here he soon won for himself a secure place as an able and worthy member of his chosen profession, besides which he has ever com- manded unqualified confidence and esteem in the community which has represented his home for a quarter of a century.

In politics Mr. Scott has ever given an un- swerving allegiance to the Republican party, and he has been an effective exponent of its principles and policies. In 1900 he was the candidate of his party for the office of judge of the Superior Court, but the decisive Demo- cratic victory of that year brought defeat to the entire Republican ticket. - In 1893 Mr. Scott was appointed city attorney, of which office he continued incumbent for two years, making an admirable record in handling the municipal interests demanding his attention.

Upon taking up his residence· in Indianap- olis, Mr. Scott entered into a law partnership with Ambrose P. Stanton, and the firm of Stanton & Scott continued in successful busi- ness about fourteen years, after which Mr. Scott became associated in practice with Al- bert Rabb under the firm name of Scott & Rabb. This professional alliance obtained un- til 1904, when a dissolution took place, and since that time Mr. Scott has had as his pro- fessional coadjutor his son Elmer E., under the title of Scott & Scott. The son was for a time a student in the law department of the University of California and later continued his professional studies in the Indiana Law School, in Indianapolis, in which latter in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1903, with the degree of Bach- elor of Laws. The father was for a number of years a member of the faculty of Indiana

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Law School and proved an effective and pop- ular instructor. Both Mr. Scott and his son hold membership in the Indianapolis Bar As- sociation. The subject of this sketch was the president of the Indianapolis Bar Association for the year 1906. He is a member of the Commercial and Columbia Clubs, and a char- ter member of the Marion Club. He is affil- iated with the Phi Gamma Delta college fra- ternity and he and his wife hold member- ship in the Meridian Street Methodist Epis- copal Church.

On the 24th of December, 1874, Mr. Scott was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Crist, who was born in Ohio, a daughter of the late Dr. Daniel O. Crist, who removed to Illinois when she was a child. She was reared and educated in the latter state and her marriage to Mr. Scott was solemnized in the city of Bloomington, Illinois. They have one son, re- ferred to above.

ROBERT G. MCCLURE, who is the able sec- retary of the Indianapolis Commercial Club and controls large industrial interests of that city, as well as several mining enterprises in the southwest, is a citizen of great practical abilities and one of the foremost representa- tives of Greater Indianapolis. His broad and pronounced business successes were achieved in Tennessee and Missouri, prior to his com- ing to Indianapolis as secretary and treasurer. of the National Refining Company's Indiana field. Mr. McClure has also attained wide prominence in Sunday school and fraternal work; so that altogether his career and his life have been well balanced and rounded and have evinced a manly zeal in the promotion of both the practical and the higher forces of American progress.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 27

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