Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 3

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 3

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In 1871 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Murphy to Miss Ida Templin, who was born at North Manchester, Indiana, and who is a daughter of the late Benjamin F. Templin. Besides the one son Mr. Murphy is survived by one daughter, Miss Ruth, who remains with her widowed mother in the pleasant home that has long been a center of gracious hospitality.

From the Directory Bulletin of November, 1902, are taken the following appreciative words. which were there given in connection with an appreciative reference to the death of Mr. Murphy: "Mr. Murphy was blessed with a sunny disposition, and had a genial, kindly, whole-souled manner which attracted and held friends. He was a man of the strictest integ- rity and possessed. marked business ability".

MEREDITH NICHOLSON. In the domain of literature, Indianapolis has gained a place of distinction and pre-eminence and among those who have contributed materially to its prestige as a literary center, stands Meredith Nicholson, who is a native son of the state and whose pro- ductions, marked by gracious fancy, have given him a high reputation and a stanch following among the readers of the best in the fields of fiction and poesy. It is, of course, extraneous to the functions of this publication to enter into manifold details concerning the career of the many representative citizens whose names find a place within its pages and in the case at hand it can be hoped to present only a brief tribute to this talented son of the Hoosier com- monwealth.

Meredith Nicholson was born in Crawfords- ville, Montgomery County, Indiana, on the 9th

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of December, 1866, and is a son of Edward W. and Emily (Meredith) Nicholson. Edward Willis Nicholson was born in Kentucky and was a son of James Nicholson, who was a na- tive of North Carolina and a scion of a fam- ily founded in America in the colonial era. Representatives of the name were found en- rolled as valiant soldiers in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution. As a young man, Edward Nicholson came to Montgomery County, Indiana, where he for a time made his home with one of the brothers of his mother. He eventually became one of the substantial farmers of that section of the state, was a member of the Montgomery Guards, a zouave company, which became the nucleus of the Eleventh Indiana Infantry, commanded by the late distinguished General Lew Wallace. At the end of the three months' service, Mr. Nich- olson enlisted in the artillery, becoming captain of the Twenty-second Indiana Battery. He continued with his command until the close of the war, was with Sherman on the ever- memorable march to the sea, and his battery opened the battle of Shiloh, Captain Nicholson sighting and firing the first gun. For a time during the war he was assigned to detail duty in the drilling of new batteries in the City of Indianapolis, in which city he took up his residence in 1872. Here he remained until 1888, when he removed to Washington, D. C., where he was connected in various capacities with the treasury department until his death, on the 19th of August, 1894. He was a valued member of the Grand Army of the Republic and also of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He was married at the close of the war to Miss Emily Meredith, who was born at Centerville, Wayne County, Indiana, a daughter of Samuel Caldwell Mere- dith, who was an early settler at Centerville, where he became editor and publisher of a newspaper in the pioneer days and whence he joined in the hegira to California, at the time of the great gold excitement, in 1849. He finally returned to Indiana in 1852 and estah- lished his home in Indianapolis, where he passed the residue of his life. He was a son of John Wheeler Meredith, who was born in the West Indies, of Welsh parentage, and who served as a soldier in the War of the Revolu- tion, at the close of which he resided in Penn- sylvania for some time and then removed to Ohio, passing the closing years of his life at Troy, where his remains were interred. The mother of Meredith Nicholson gave effective service as a nurse in the South during the progress of the War of the Rebellion, and she is now living in Indianapolis, having the rev- rent affection of all who have come within the

sphere of her gracious influence. Of her two children, the subject of this sketch is the elder, and his sister Margaret is the wife of Robert Peclle Noble, of Indianapolis.

Meredith Nicholson was five years of age at the time the family removed to Indianapolis, where he was reared to maturity and where he attended the public schools until he had com- pleted a portion of the first year's work in the high school. Thereafter he was variously em-, ployed, having partially mastered the mysteries of the "art preservative of arts", and also hav- ing learned stenography. At this period in his career there was slight indication that he was destined to achieve so much of distinction in the field of literature, but in a perspective view it can be seen that his varied experience had much to do with fortifying him for effective literary work. When nineteen years of age he began the study of law in the office of the firm of Dye & Fishback, and later he continued his technical reading under the able preceptorship of the late William Wallace, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work. While a law student he began writing and he showed a natural predilection for this line of endeavor, with the result that he soon became identified with newspaper work in Indianapolis. After a year on the Sentinel he was for somewhat more than a decade, from 1885 to 1897, a valued and versatile member of the editorial staff of the Indianapolis News. Thereafter he devoted one year to the stock-brokerage business and he then went to Colorado, where for three years he held the dual position of auditor and treas- urer of, a coal mining corporation. At the expiration of this time he returned to Indian- apolis and it may be considered fortunate in- deed that he has since devoted his entire time to literary work. His first production was "Short Flights" (poems), which was published in 1891, and then followed in consecutive or- der "The Hoosiers" (historical), "The Main Chance", "Zelda Dameron", "The House of a Thousand Candles", "The Port of Missing Men", "Rosalind at Red Gate" and "The Lit- tle Brown Jug at Kildare". In the autumn of 1909 was published his attractive novel, "The Lords of High Decision". Appreciative recog- nition of his accomplishment in his chosen field of endeavor was that accorded by Wabash Col- lege, in 1897, when he received therefrom the degree of. Master of Arts, and in 1901 a further tribute was paid him bv this institution, which conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. Mr. Nicholson is a mem- ber of the Phi Beta Kappa and of the Phi Gamma Delta. He is an inheritance member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Society of the Sons of the American Revo-

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lution, and is identified with various civic and social organizations of representative charac- ter in his home city. In politics he accords stanch allegiance to the Democratic party and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal Church. In 1906 Mr. Nicholson arranged a collection of his verses in a volume entitled "Poems", the same being made up partly of productions which had appeared from time to time in the Century, Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly. 'His essays on social, literary and political subjects have appeared frequently in the Atlantic and elsewhere. The published works of Mr. Nicholson are too well known to require more definite mention in this article.

On the 16th of June, 1896, Mr. Nicholson was married to Miss Eugenie Kountze, a daughter of Herman Kountze, an influential citizen of Omaha, Nebraska. They have three children-Elizabeth Kountze, Meredith Junior and Lionel. Mrs. Nicholson's mother was the daughter of Thomas Davis, of Sinker & Davis, a firm that has had a continuous existence in Indianapolis for half a century.

CHARLES S. GROUT. In the field of prac- tical benevolence and organized charity, Charles S. Grout has been able to accomplish a most beneficent work, and it has been his to attain a high reputation in this province, to which he has devoted many years of service as an executive and administrative officer, being at the present time general secretary of the Char- ity Organization Society of Indianapolis, whose headquarters are at 306 North Delaware street. He has given close study to the work which has thus engrossed his attention, has exerted much influence in the amelioration of suffer- ing and distress in the capital city, and is a citizen to whom is accorded the fullest meas- ure of popular confidence and regard.

Mr. Grout is a scion of families founded in New England in the early colonial epoch of our national history, and his genealogy in the agnatic line is of German origin; in the ma- ternal line of stanch English extraction. Though reared among the green and rugged hills of Vermont. Mr. Grout claims Iowa as the place of his nativitv, as he was born on a farm near the city of Dubuque, that state, on the 31st of August, 1859, being a son of Will- iam W. and Augusta A. (Spaulding) Gront. William Wirt Grout was born on the old fam- ily homestead near Cavendish, Windsor County, Vermont, and there the major portion of his long and useful life was passed. His death occurred on the farm which was his birth- place and he was about seventy-three years of age when he was summoned to the life eternal. He was a son of Daniel and Lucy (Adams) Grout, both of whom were likewise natives of

the old Green Mountain State, where their entire lives were spent and where the father followed the great basic industry of agriculture. Augusta A. (Spaulding) Grout was .likewise born and reared in Vermont, and there her death occurred when she was about thirty-nine years of age. Both she and her husband were devout members of the Baptist Church, and the latter gave his allegiance to the Whig party until the organization of the Republican party, when he transferred his support to the latter, of whose principles he ever afterward contin- ued a stalwart advocate. Of the five children the subject of this sketch and his sister, Lucy A., now deceased, were born in Iowa, and the other three were born after the return to Ver- mont. One of the number died in infancy ; Elsic is now the wife of Edward N. Woodbury and they reside in Mitchel County, Kansas; and Augusta is the wife of Edward Crawley, of Wichita, that state. William W. Grout be- came one of the pioneers of Iowa, where he secured a tract of government land and ini- tiated the work of developing a farm, but he became dissatisfied with conditions in that sec- tion. of the Union and returned to the old homestead in Vermont after a few years' resi- dence in the Hawkeye state.

Charles Spaulding Grout, the immediate subject of this review, was a child of about two years at the time of the family removal from Iowa to Vermont, and he was reared to maturity on the old Grout homestead farm, to whose work he early began to contribute his assistance, in the meanwhile duly availing himself of the privileges offered in the public schools of the locality. At the age of eighteen years he was matriculated in Black River Academy, at Ludlow, Vermont, in which well ordered institution he was graduated as a mem- ber of the class of 1881. Immediately after his graduation, at the suggestion of Mila F. Ritzinger, of Indianapolis, who was tempora- rily residing in Ludlow, he came to this city, where he assumed the position of salesman in a tea store. About one year later he was given the position of timekeeper of the Atlas Engine Works, with which concern he continued for a period of eleven years.

In the autumn of 1893 Mr. Grout was chosen incumbent of his present office of gen- eral secretary of the Charity Organization So- ciety of Indianapolis, and to its administrative and practical affairs he has since given his attention, bringing to bear marked capacity for the handling of the manifold details of the benevolences of the organization and showing that deeper human sympathy which transcends mere sentiment to become an actuating motive and the producer of definite results in the

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succor and aid of "those in any way afflicted in mind, body or estate". He was also the organizer of the Mutual Service Association, in 1903, a corporate organization of young women and one which purchased and has ef- fectively developed the Mutual Service Park, devoted to co-operative work in an outing and boarding home for working young women. A noteworthy outgrowth of Mr. Grout's work as general secretary of the Charity Organization Society is the Fairview Settlement, one of the noble institutions of the capital city. This social settlement, organized and conducted ac- cording to the most approved system of prac- tical helpfulness, has as its purpose the pro- viding of houses rent free for mothers support- ing families through their own efforts, and none can doubt the beneficence of this work, as it enables such devoted women to make proper provision for their children and give them educational and other advantages which would otherwise be in the realm of the impos- sible. Mr. Grout's service has been one that may well be designated as consecrated, and he is constantly studying ways and means to further the work committed to his charge, hav- ing a high sense of his stewardship and an abiding human tolerance and sympathy. It should be stated that the Charity Organization Society is an incorporated institution and has for its object the bringing together of the charitable efforts in the city and the developing of such agencies as tend to be of the greatest good to our poorer people.

Loyal and public-spirited as a citizen, Mr. Grout takes a deep interest in all that concerns the progress and prosperity of his home city and he gives his influence and aid in support of all measures and enterprises tending to con- serve the general welfare of the community. Though never desirous of entering the arena of practical politics and never a seeker of political office, he is a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party in a generic way, though in local affairs, where no issues are involved, he gives his support to men and measures meeting the approval of his judg- ment, irrespective of partisan lines. Both he and his wife are zealous and valued members of the North Park Christian Church.

Mr. Grout has been twice married. In 1888 was solemnized his union to Miss Minnie F. Staggs, daughter of Mrs. Sarah F. Staggs, of Riverside, California, and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1890, leaving no children. In 1892 Mr. Grout was united in marriage to Miss Emma Doran, who was born and reared in Indianapolis, and who is a daughter of William M. E. Doran. Mr. and Mrs. Grout

have no children of their own, but adopted four, one of whom has died.

WILLIAM H. THOMAS, M. D. In both the paternal and maternal lines the honored sub- ject of this memoir was a scion of pioneer fam- 'ilies of Indiana, and in his native common- wealth it was his to gain much of distinction as a physician and surgeon and to hold the inviolable confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was for many years one of the hest known and leading representatives of his profession in the City of Indianapolis and here he continued in active and successful practice until the time of his death, which occurred on the 30th of September, 1903, only a few weeks prior to his seventieth birthday anniversary. He served with utmost loyalty as a gallant soldier of the Union during the greater por- tion of the Civil War, and in all the varied associations of the "piping times of peace" his loyalty and fidelity were of the same in- sistent type, making him a strong and noble character and a citizen whose influence ever worked for good.

Dr. William H. Thomas was born at Water- loo, Dekalb County, Indiana, on the 22d of November, 1833, and was a son of Hewit L. and Charlotte C. (Helm) Thomas, the former of whom was a native of the State of New York and the latter of Kentucky. They be- came the parents of three children, all of whom are now deceased and of whom the subject of this sketch was the youngest. Hewit L. Thomas was a son of Lyman Thomas, and was about eight years of age at the time of the. family removal from the old Empire State to Fayette County, Indiana, where his father was a pio- neer, there continuing to reside until his death, at a venerable age. Dr. William Helm, the maternal grandfather of Dr. Thomas, was a native of Virginia and a scion of one of the patrician families of the historic Old Dominion. From Kentucky he came to Indiana in an early day and he was one of the sterling pioneers of Fayette County, where he died at an ad- vanced age, having reared a large family of children. He was one of the early physicians of Fayette County, and there lived up to the full tension of the strenuous labors devolving upon a member of his profession in a pioneer community. He served in the Indian war in the early days and was an influential citizen of the county which long constituted his home.

Hewit L. Thomas was reared to manhood in Fayette County, this state, where he received a common-school education and where his early discipline was that secured in connection with the work of his father's pioneer farm. Some time during the early thirties . Mr. Thomas re- moved to Cass County, this state, where he

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engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1855 he removed to Minnesota and established his home at Afton, Washington County, where he be- came a prominent and influential citizen. He there served as associate judge, and during the administration of President Lincoln he served as a member of the committee of three ap- pointed by the president to adjust some In- dian claims in Minnesota. After the close of the Civil War Judge Thomas returned to In- diana, taking up his residence in Galveston, Cass County, where he passed the residue of his life, which was prolonged to the patriarchal age of ninety-one years. His widow, surviving him by two years, was ninety years of age at the time of her demise. Both were devout members of the Baptist Church, in which he long held the office of. deacon.

Dr. William II. Thomas was three years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Cass County, where he was reared to maturity and where his early educational advantages were those afforded by the primitive subscription schools, in which he had as an instructor for some time his father, who devoted himself to teaching during the winter terms at varying intervals.

In 1854. when twenty-one years of age, Dr. Thomas celebrated the attaining of his legal majority by taking unto himself a wife, and in the following year he removed with his par- ents and his bride to Minnesota, where he found employment at the tinner's trade, which he had previously learned. With the thunder- ing of .rebel guns against the ramparts of old Fort Sumter his patriotism was roused, and he was not long in tendering his services in de- fense of the Union. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company C. Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and with this gallant command he continued in active service, through a period of three years and eight days, marked by varied and ardnous operations. terminating his association with his regiment only when the war closed and peace was de- clared. He advanced through the various grades of promotion until he became captain of the company in which he had enlisted as a private, and he proved a gallant and popular commanding officer. His regiment first saw service in the northwest and took part in bat- tle with the Little Crow Indians at the foot of the Black Hills. The regiment was finally sent from the northwest to Memphis, Tennessee. and in that state it took part in the battle of Tupelo. The following winter was passed at East Point. Mississippi. from which place it moved forward and assisted in the investment of the City of Mobile. It was in action in the heaviest battle at that point and also partici-

pated in many minor battles and skirmishes, after which it was found taking a valiant part in the historic and sanguinary battle of Nash- ville. From the latter city the regiment went to Jackson, Mississippi, where it was assigned to garrison duty and where it remained until the close of the war. The command was mus- tered out at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and its members duly received their honorable dis- charges. The regiment was in command of Col. William Marshall, and the same was in service as a part of the Sixteenth Army Corps, under Gen. Andrew J. Smith. . Dr. Thomas ever retained a deep interest in his old comrades and signified the same by his membership in the Grand Army of the Re- public.

After the close of the war Captain Thomas returned to Cass County, Indiana, and located in the village of Galveston, where he engaged in the tin and stove business, to which he de- voted his attention for several years, at the expiration of which he sold the business and removed to Indianapolis, where he took up the study of medicine and where he finally com- pleted the prescribed course in the Indiana Medical College, from which well ordered insti- tution he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thereafter he continuously followed the work of his exacting profession in this city until the close of his long and useful life, and it is said of him that during the long interven- ing period not even a week marked his with- drawał from the active labors of his profes- sion, as his final illness was of very brief dura- tion. About five years after his graduation the Central College of Physicians and Sur- geons was organized and he became one of the founders of this stanch institution, which con- tinued in effective work until it was merged with the present medical department of the University of Indiana. He was a member of the original faculty of the college, serving as demonstrator of anatomy during the first four years and thereafter lecturing on various other technical subjects. His last incumbency was that of the chair of nervous diseases, and dur- ing all these years of service no member of thé faculty held a higher place in the esteem of the student body or the confidence of the as- sociate members of governing body of the in- stitution. The doctor devoted his attention to general practice and gained high prestige and marked success as a physician. He retained a representative clientage and ever commanded the high regard of his professional confreres. He was a valued member of the Indiana State Medical Society and the Marion County Med- ical Society. · In politics he was a stalwart ad- herent of the Republican party and while ever

LateNight.

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nowing a vital interest in public affairs, and standing exponent of loyal and liberal citizen- ship, he never sought or desired political office of any order.

On the 16th of October, 1854, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Thomas to Miss Ann M. Copeland, who was born in Hull, England, whence her parents removed to America when she was a child, finally settling in Indiana, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Dr. and Mrs. Thomas became the parents of one child, Edwin C., who is now a representa- tive physician and surgeon of Indianapolis and of whom individual mention is made on other pages of this volume. Mrs. Thomas was summoned to the life eternal on the 9th of April, 1900, at the age of seventy-one years, and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gracious influence. In May, 1901, Dr. Thomas contracted a sec- ond marriage, being then united to Mrs. Polly (Tucker) Wysong, who survives him.

CHARLES E. WRIGHT, M. D. It was given Dr. Wright to attain marked distinction as a physician and surgeon and as a writer and author in the line of his profession. He was a prominent figure in the educational work of his chosen calling, was a recognized authority in his specialty-the diseases of the eye, ear and nose-and was a man of the loftiest per- sonal integrity and honor. He was in the most significant sense the architect of his own for- tunes, and in gaining so great distinction and success he showed the will to do and to dare, so that he proved himself equal to the sur- mounting of obstacles that would have com- passed the overthrow and discouragement of a man of less determination, pluck and perse- verance. The word failure found no place in his vocabulary, and thus he worked forward to the goal of success along many lines. He was a man of singular simplicity of manners, seem- ingly unconscious of his intellectual superior- ity and ever free from professional bigotry or personal intolerance. He well merited the proud American title of self-made man, and his services to humanity were such as to justify him a place among the world's benefactors and practical philanthropists, though he himself, with characteristic modesty, would never have claimed such priority. In his death, at his home in Indianapolis, on the 22d of February, 1893, there passed away one of the most emi- nent and honored representatives of the medi- cal profession in Indiana, and a citizen who was loved for his many generous attributes of character.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 3

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