Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 29

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 29

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

has carried through many important engineer- ing projects and enterprises. His firm has a large and representative clientage and holds distinctive precedence among similar concerns in the state. Mr. Jeup is a valued member of the Indiana Civil Engineering Society, a member of the Indianapolis Board of Trade and the Commercial Club, and at all times he manifests a lively interest in all that tends to advance the material and civic welfare of his home city and state.

In politics Mr. Jeup is aligned as a stanch advocate of the cause of the Democratic party, he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and holds member- ship in various civic and social organizations, including the Indiana Democratic Club.

In the year 1895 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Jeup to Miss Emma Dithmer, daughter of Henry L. and Agnes (Seiden- sticker) Dithmer, the father being a success- ful business man of Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Jeup have two children-Florence Ger- trude, and Bernard Henry.

WILLIAM C. SMOCK. A scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Marion County, which has represented his home from the time of his nativity. William C. Smock is one of the well known and highly esteemed citizens of Indianapolis, where he has resided for many years and where he has held various offices of distinctive public trust. His career has designated in a positive way the strength of a strong and loyal nature, and to him has ever been accorded unqualified confidence and regard, indicating the popular appreciation of his worthy life and worthy deeds. He is now engaged in the practice of law in In- dianapolis and is one of the venerable repre- sentatives of his profession in the capital city of his native state.

Mr. Smock has reason to find pride in re- verting to his genealogical history, for he is a member of a family founded in America about the middle of the seventeenth century. and one that is of the stanch Holland Dutch extraction.

In the quaint old city of Utrecht, Holland, was solemnized the marriage of Hendrick Matthysen Smock and Geerje Hermann, and in the year 1654 this worthy couple came to America and become the founders of the fam- ily of which the subject of this sketch is a worthy scion. They settled on Long Island, New York, where Mr. Smock acquired a tract of land, and to the little settlement that gradually formed about his home he ap- plied, with affectionate remembrance of his fatherland. the name of New Utrecht. The names of his children were as follows: Ma-

779

HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

thias, John, Elizabeth, Leondert (Leonard), Sarah, Martynje, and Rebecca.

Mathias Smock was married, in New York, on the 13th of September, 1701, to Elizabeth Stevens, a widow, and about 1718 they re- moved to Piscataway, New Jersey. Their children were: Hendrick, Jan (John), Eliz- abeth, Lucas, Mathias, Gastie, and Mary. Jan (Jolın) Smock and his wife Lena had chil- dren whose names and respective dates of baptism are here noted: John, April 10, 1735; Jacob, May 20, 1744; Gertie (Ger- trude), October 26, 1751; Catrina, April 29, 1753; Abraham, February 11, 1755; Jan- nette (Joan), December 11, 1757; and Bar- ney, the date of whose baptism is not given. From the long intervals between the bap- tisms of the first and second and the second and third of these children it is probable that there were others, whose names were omitted in the foregoing list, the data for which were obtained from the ancient records of the Dutch Church at Raritan, New Jersey.

John Smock, of this family, married Sarah Fontaine, and they figure as the great-grand- parents of William C. Smock in the paternal line. Jacob Smock, brother of the last men- tioned John, married Catharine Demarest, daughter of Samuel Demarest, or Demaree, and they were the great-grandparents of the subject of this review in the maternal line. John Smock, son of John and Sarah (Fon- taine) Smock, married Ann Van Arsdallen, daughter of Major Simon Van Arsdallen, and their youngest son. Isaac (youngest son in a family of twelve children), was the father of him whose name initiates this article. John Smock:, . son of Jacob and Catharine (Dem- arest, or Demaree) Smock, married Catharine Carnine, daughter of Peter Carnine, and their daughter, Ann Terhune Smock, who was one of twelve children, was the mother of William C. Smock. Three of the latter's great-grandfathers, Jacob Smock, Major Si- mon Van Arsdallen, and Peter Carnine, were valiant and patriotic soldiers in the Conti- nental line in the War of the Revolution. John and Peter Smock, sons of Jacob and Catharine (Demarest) Smock, were captured by the Indians in Shelby County, Kentucky, in 1793, when they were fourteen and twelve years of age, respectively. They were with Winemac, a powerful Pottawatomie chief, and. through the agency of a French Indian trader, were surrendered to their father, at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795. The price of ran- som was a keg of rum.

John Smock, son of John and Sarah (Fon- taine) Smock, married Ann Van Arsdallen, as already noted, and they became the parents

of twelve children. He died, near Harrods burg, Mercer County, Kentucky, on the 5th of August, 1824, and his children began to immigrate to Indiana in an early day and soon after his demise. In 1829 his widow and her youngest son, Isaac, came to Indiana, and she purchased a large tract of land fronting on the Madison road, five miles south of In- dianapolis. To this property she took title in the names of her twelve children. A large part of this land is now (1909) owned by Eli Heiny.

John Smock, son of Jacob and Catharine (Demarest) Smock, entered land just south of Indianapolis in the year 1821, and the same is now known as the Hoefgen farm. In 1822 he and his family took up their abode on this homestead, and at this time his daughter Ann Terhune, mother of the subject of this review, was not quite two years of age. On the farm mentioned the death of John Smock occurred on the 10th of Jan- mary, 1829, and his wife, Catharine (Car- nine) Smock, died on the 11th of September, 1835.

Isaac Smock was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, on the 22nd of April, 1817, and on the 18th of January, 1838, he was united in marriage to Ann Terhune Smock, who was born in Kentucky on the 1st of December, 1820. His death occurred at Southport, Mar- ion County, Indiana, on the 4th of February, 1895, and his cherished and devoted wife was summoned to the life eternal on the 8th of September, 1906.

. William C. Smock, eldest son of Isaac and Ann Terhune (Smock) Smock was born on the homestead farm, four miles south of In- dianapolis, Indiana, on the 3rd of December, 1838. At the age of three years he received, while at play, an insignificant injury, and this afterward resulted in anchylosis of the right knee joint, rendering him a permanent crip- ple. Mr. Smock received his early educa- tional discipline in the common schools in the vicinity of his home, and through wide and well-directed reading and through the experi- ences and association of mature life, he has become a man of broad and exact knowledge and of marked intellectuality. At the age of seventeen years he assumed a clerical position in the office of the county recorder of Mar- ion County, and when nineteen years of age he was matriculated in Franklin College, at Franklin, Indiana, where he was a student for nearly two years. thus effectively supple- menting his earlier educational training. Aft- er leaving this institution he devoted his at- tention to teaching a country school for two terms, and in April, 1860, he secured a posi-

^SO

HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

tion in the office of the county clerk, under the late Hon. John C. New. In 1862 Mr. Smock secured the nomination for the office of county recorder of Marion County, but his party, wishing to unite all elements in sup- port of the prosecution of the war, desired to nominate a war Democrat for that office, under which conditions Mr. Smock withdrew his candidacy and General William J. Elliott, a Douglas Democrat, was nominated in his stead. Mr. Smock continued his service in the offices of the county clerk, and in Novem- ber, 1865, he was himself elected clerk of the county, in which position he served five years and in which he gave an administration that has passed on to record as one commendable and able in every respect. One year was added to his regular term byreason of the passage of the biennial election law.

Upon retiring from the office of county clerk, Mr. Smock became associated with John B. Cleaveland, Ebenezer Smith and Daniel M. Ransdell in the real estate business. In No- vember, 1878, Mr. Ransdell was elected county clerk and Mr. Smock responded to the request of his former partner by again entering service as a deputy in the office of the county clerk, where he continued as an able and popular incumbent during the en- suing eight years, at the expiration of which he resumed his operations in the real estate business. In November, 1898, he was elected a justice of the peace for Center Township and continued in tenure of this office for eight years. As tending to show the popular esti- mate placed upon his services in this office it. may be noted that during his incumbency of the same he filed more than eleven thou- sand seven hundred cases and performed more than thirteen hundred marriage ceremonies. Since retiring from the office of justice of the peace Mr. Smock has been engaged in the practice of law, having been admitted to the bar of his native state in 1884, and being well versed in the minutiae of the science of juris- prudence.

In politics Mr. Smock is well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public policy, and is arrayed as a stanch supporter of the prin- ciples and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor. In February, 1854, when seventeen years of age, Mr. Smock be- came a member of the Baptist Church, and he has long been a zealous and active worker in the same. He served for ten years as church .clerk, was for many years a member of the board of trustees of his church, and for seventeen years he presided as superintendent of the Sunday school. He has been a deacon of the church for the past thirty years, and

he was chorister for thirty-five years and four months, having a well trained bass voice and taking marked interest in musical affairs. He and his wife are now devoted and valued members of the First Baptist Church of In- dianapolis, and in the capital city their eir- cle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintance.

On the 6th of December, 1860, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Smock to Miss Me- lissa A. Smock, his- second cousin. She was born and reared in Marion County, Indiana, and is a daughter of the late Captain Jacob Smock. Mr. and Mrs. Smock became the parents of six children, of whom only two are living-Eva L., who is the wife of Henry Schurmann, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Harry, who is a successful veterinary surgeon, engaged in the practice of his profession at Franklin, Indiana.

CHARLES E. AVERILL, a substantial and honored member of the Indianapolis bar, is a native of Lovell, Oxford County, Maine, born April 12, 1853. In 1863 his parents moved to Portland, that state, which remained the family home for years. The son was first educated in the city schools and then entered Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1873. His law studies were self-imposed and self-conducted, but to such purpose that when he went to Colorado in 1879 he was ad- mitted to the bar of that state and located at Durango for practice.

Mr. Averill remained at that city until 1885, but conditions were then in the forma- tive period in the Centennial state and he decided that his prospects would be improved by locating in some settled, yet progressive community of the east. Fixing then upon In- dianapolis, he has had no cause to regret his choice by any professional or personal events which have transpired within the past quar- ter of a century. In 1884, the year before Mr. Averill became a resident of Indianap- olis, he was married in Colorado to Miss Jes- sie M. Stubbs, daughter of Hon. George M. Stubbs, of that city, and that fact had a strong bearing upon his coming to the In- diana capital.

WOODBURN MASSON in his youth early be- came dependent upon his own resources. He had ambition,' courage and persistence, and worked his own way in one of the most ex- acting of professions, defraying the expenses of his technical education and ever placing a true valne upon men and affairs. It is thus pleasing to note that today he is numbered among the representative members of the In- dianapolis bar and is one of the highly es- teemed citizens of his native city.

LEONARD WOOLLEN

JOSHUA BLACK

781

HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Woodburn Masson was born in Indianap- olis, on the 9th of July, 1869, and is a son of James P. and Eliza T. (Ross) Masson, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Indiana. The father, who was a commercial traveler by vocation, died when his son, of this review, was an infant, and the widowed mother continued her resi- .dence in Indianapolis, where she reared her three sons and one daughter with all of self- abnegation and zealous devotion. She was sunimoned to the life eternal on the 15th of March, 1908, and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and gracious influence.

He whose name initiates this article contin- ued his studies in the public schools of In- dianapolis until he was fifteen years of age, when he found it incumbent upon him to as- sume practical responsibilities, as his mother had met with the loss of her savings and the returns from insurance policies held by her deceased husband, owing to the failure of the bank in which she deposited her funds. Under these conditions young Woodburn Masson de- voted himself assiduously to learning stenog- raphy and typewriting, and to this line of work he devoted his attention nearly three years after becoming proficient in the same. He then began the study of law, in the office of the general attorney of the Lake Erie & Western Railroad. in Indianapolis, and later he completed a course in the Cincinnati Law School in the class of 1895. In 1891 he was admitted to the bar of his native city and state, where he has since continued in the active work of his chosen profession and where he has so utilized his fine natural and technical powers as to gain a position of prominence and a worthy reputation in his chosen vocation, to which his devotion and loyalty have been of the most insistent order. From 1891 until 1894 he was assistant to the general attorney of the Lake Erie & Western Railroad, and since the expiration of that period he has devoted his attention to gen- eral practice in the State and Federal courts, in which he has won many decisive victories as a trial lawyer. while as a counselor he is known to be fortified with a broad and exact knowledge of the law and to have marked facility in the application of such informa- tion.

The political views of Mr. Masson are indi- cated by the zealous service which he has ren- dered to the cause of the Democratic party, and as a citizen none could be more public. spirited or more zealous in the promotion of good government and needed reforms. In all measures and enterprises tending to make for

good citizenship and eivic and material prog- ress, he lends a ready co-operation, and his interest in his native city is deep and abid- ing. He and his wife hold membership in the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

In the year 1904, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Masson to Miss Nellie G. Wells, daughter of Dr. Merritt Wells, the oldest resident .dentist of Indianapolis, and Mrs. Masson is popular in connection with the best social activities of her home city.

LEONARD WOOLLEN was born near Elli- cott's Mills in Maryland in the month of June, 1774. Richard Woollen, his father, a descendant of John Woollen, who emi- grated from England to North Carolina, early in the seventeenth century, was a Revo- lutionary soldier. He died when Leonard, the subject of this sketch, was eight years old. The boy, after the death of his father, was apprenticed to a Hickory Quaker who lived- in Maryland, and who treated him so cruelly as to cause him to run away. After his escape, he first got employment on a farmi for two or three years. He was next em- ployed * at Nashville, Tennessee, in Iron Works that then were in operation in that city. He worked there for six years, and then emigrated to Bowman's Station, near to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. There he became acquainted with Sarah Henry, to whom he was married June 19, 1802. By this union twelve children were born. They moved from Kentucky to Indianapolis, In- diana, in 1835. Upon his arrival in this city, he purchased the lot at the corner of Capitol avenue and Ohio street, where now is located the Imperial Hotel. Upon this he built his residence in which he lived until his death, which occurred February 21, 1858, his wife having died November 3, 1856. His occupa- tion was that of a farmer, and as such he purchased a farm which is now a part of the Riverside Park. Politically, he was a Demo- crat. Both he and his wife were members of the Christian Church, and as such assisted in organizing the First Christian Church of this city, the church building of which was located on Kentucky avenue.

The brothers, William Watson Woollen, Greenly V. Woollen and Milton A. Woollen, each of whom has taken an active part in the civic affairs of Indianapolis, are grandsons .of Leonard Woollen.

JOSHUA BLACK, of Dutch descent, was born October 3, 1788, near Ellicott's Mills, in Maryland, and died December 4, 1879. in In- dianapolis. His father. Christopher Black, was a Revolutionary soldier. His loyalty to

782

HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

his country was such that he enlisted in the War of 1812 and became a lieutenant by pro- motion from the ranks. He enlisted as a Home-guard in the Civil War and would have enlisted as a soldier but for his ad- vanced age. He married Elizabeth Burgess February 21, 1811, and by this union four children were born. He moved from Mary- land by way of the old National road to In- dianapolis in 1826, and located at the south- west corner of Illinois and Ohio streets. He was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker, and as such worked on many of the best public buildings in this city, including the first State Capitol built in it. Asbury Chapel, now Meridian Street Church, . Roberts Chapel, now Roberts Park Church, and Ames Chapel, long since abandoned and torn down. In 1841, 1842 and 1843 he was councilman from the First ward in this city. Originally he was a Whig but he became a Republican when that party was organized. He was a Methodist and prominent in the early his- tory of that church in this city.

MI.TON ASBURY WOOLLEN. The career of Milton Asbury Woollen, president of the American Central Life Insurance Company, of Indianapolis. has been marked by consecu- tive endeavor and definite results. He is one of the essentially representative men of the Indiana capital and is one who has been loyal to all of the interests of the city. So it is but consistent that he be here accorded recogni- tion among other of the leading citizens of "Greater Indianapolis".

Mr. Woollen is a native of Indiana, hav- ing been born on a farm in Lawrence Town- ship, Marion County, January 18, 1850. He is a son of Milton and Sarah Black Wool- len, the former of whom was born in Ken- tueky and the latter in Maryland. Milton Woollen came to Indianapolis in the pioneer period of its history and for a number of years was engaged at his trade, that of black- smith, and having received a serions injury while thus engaged, he quit that occupation and removed to a farm in Lawrence Town- ship. about eight miles northeast of the cen- ter of the City of Indianapolis. He never fully recovered from the injury thus re- ceived. In 1861 he resnmed his residence in the capital city and continued to reside there until his death, which occurred in 1868. He was a man of sterling integrity and strong mentality and as such maintained a secure place in connection with the practical husi- ness activities and civie affairs of Indianap- olis and was one of.its honored citizens. His wife survived him by a number of years and

of their ten children, three sons and three daughters are now living.

Milton Asbury Woollen was reared to ma- turity in Indianapolis and was educated in its public schools. He began his business ca- reer at the age of fourteen years, when he was accorded the trusted place of special messenger of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in whose service he continued abont two years. He then completed a special com- mercial course in a local business college and this training secured him employment as bookkeeper in the local offices of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, which position he retained for two years. In 1868 he com- menced business as a feed and grain mer- chant. The beginning of his operations was on a modest scale but by giving his personal attention to the administration of his affairs, he soon succeeded in building up a prosper- ous trade and one that eventually attained large proportions. He continued in this busi- ness until 1893, when he became one of the interested principals in an extensive whole- sale produce commission concern, with which he continued to be actively identified as vice- president until March of 1902. He then dis- posed of his interest in the business and pur- chased a large amount of the stock of the American Central Life Insurance Company of Indianapolis, of which he became secre- tary. He retained this position until Jann- ary 4, 1905, when he was elected president of the company. In this chief administrative office he has since continued and to his able and conservative executive policy and his careful supervision of the manifold details of the great enterprise has been in a large meas- ure achieved the splendid progress and dis- tinctive success of this company. It now con- trols a business of large scope and import- ance and is known as one of the well ordered life insurance institutions of the country.

In politics Mr. Woollen, though never am- bitious for public office of any kind. is a stanch supporter of the principles and poli- cies of the Republican party. He has been and is identified with various civic organiza- tions of a representative character, includ- ing the Board of Trade, of which he was president in 1908, the Commercial Club, Co- lumbia Club, Marion Club, and several char- itable organizations. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accept- ed Scottish Rite. Both he and his wife are active members of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis.

Jannary 7. 1878, Mr. Woollen was married to Miss Ida Baird, who was born in Cincin-

783

HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

nati, Ohio, and reared in Indianapolis, and who was the daughter of the late Willian Baird. Mr. and Mrs. Woollen became the parents of one son, Herbert Milton Woollen, and two daughters, Elma Woollen Dark, now deceased, and Orin Woollen Smith. The son is now secretary of the American Central Life Insurance Company.

HON. JOHN WORTH KERN, whose name has been well known throughout the United States since the presidential election of 1908, when he was the Democratic nominee for the office of vice-president, is well known in the vicin- ity of Indianapolis, having distinguished him- self in the profession of law. He was born December 20, 1849, in Howard County, In- diana, son of Jacob H. Kern. His grandfa- ther, Jacob Kern, was born July 4, 1777, and was a native of Kernstown, Frederick Coun- ty, Virginia, and was of German extraction. The great-grandfather was Adam Kern, who emigrated to America from Germany, in 1750, in company with his two brothers. The brothers settled in Pennsylvania, but Adam Kern, the founder of Kernstown, Virginia, settled in that place. Jacob Kern, his son, settled in Shelby County, Indiana, in 1836, and there followed his trade of blacksmith; he had several children, among whom was Jacob H.

Jacob H. Kern was born in Virginia, in 1813, and became a physician; he came to Shelby County, Indiana, at the same time as his father, but nine years later removed to Howard County, a former Indian Reserva- tion, which was opened up to settlement by whites about that time. Dr. Kern returned to his native state in 1871, and until the time of his death, in April, 1900, lived near Dale- ville, Botetourt County.

In political views he was a Democrat. In his habits he was an example of temperance, sincerity and probity. Dr. Kern was married first to Nancy Liggett, who was born in Ohio, a daughter of George Liggett, of Indiana, but formerly of Ohio and a native of Virginia. Mr. Liggett, who was the father of twelve children, was a miller by occupation, and died in Shelby County, Indiana, when about sev- enty-five years old. Dr. Kern's children were Sarah E. (Mrs. Isaac Engel, of Daleville, Virginia) and John Worth. Mrs. Kern died in 1859, and in 1860 Dr. Kern married as his second wife Sarah Engel, who died soon after his decease.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 29

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