Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 31

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 31

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GUSTAVUS B. JACKSON, M. D., is one of the younger generation of physicians and sur- geons engaged in practice in the capital city of Indiana, where he stands as one of the rep-

resentative members of his profession and where he has control of a large and import- ant practice, implying not only marked pro- fessional ability but also distinctive personal popularity.

Dr. Gustavus Brown Jackson was born in Owensboro, Daviess County, on the 15th of October, 1877, and is a scion of old and hon- cred families of our American republic, where they were founded prior to the war of the Revolution. Through his paternal grand- mother he is descended in direct line from Samuel Hawes, who was one of the committee of safety in Caroline County, Virginia, in the Revolutionary period and who held the ex- eentive office of clerk of this committee. One of his sons was a patriot soldier in the Continental line and served with distinction as colonel of his regiment. ( American Ar- chives. page 103: Peter Force's Archives, page 974.) On the maternal side the doctor is a direct descendant of Hon. Robert Ridge- ly, of Maryland, whose will was attested in 1680: of Hon. John Dorsey, 1714; and of Major General John Hammond, who died in 1713. (See "Griffith Genealogy," published by M. K. Boyle & Son, in 1892.)

Dr. Jackson is a son of Christopher D. Jackson, Jr., and Anna (Crow) Jackson, both natives of Kentucky. His father was a suc- cessful farmer and influential citizen of Daviess County, Kentucky, and was a Demo- crat in politics, and both he and his wife held membership in the Baptist Church. Dr. Jackson gained his preliminary education in the common schools of his native state, after which he continued his studies in the literary department of the historic old University of Virginia, at Charlottesville. For one year thereafter, from 1898 to 1899, he was a stu- dent in the medical department of the Uni- versity of Cincinnati, after which he was matriculated in Rush Medical College, repre- senting the medical department of the Univer- sity of Chicago, in which he was a student for three years and in which he was graduated in June, 1902. with the well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. After his graduation he became house surgeon of Michael Reese hospi- tal, one of the leading institutions of the kind in Chicago, and he held this position until 1904, in the meanwhile gaining most valuable clinical experience. In 1904-5 he further for- tified himself for the work of his exacting profession by taking effective post-graduate studies in the medical department of Berlin University and other leading medical institu- tions in Germany. Upon his return to the United States he took up his residence in In- dianapolis, where gratifying snecess and pres-

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

tige have been his in the active work of his chosen profession.

In politics Dr. Jackson gives his allegiance to the Democratic party, and he and his wife hold membership in the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis. He is affiliated with Oriental Lodge No. 500, Free and Accepted Masons, with the Nu Sigma Nu medical col- lege fraternity, and is identified with the In- diana chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. On the 30th of November, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Jackson to Miss Lena Bentley, of Syracuse, New York, in which city she was born and reared, being a danghter of F. F. and Jeanette Bentley. Her father is deputy sheriff of his county and he still maintains the family home in Syra- cuse. Dr. and Mrs. Jackson have two chil- dren, Jeanette 'Alice, who was born on the 8th of April, 1907, and Mildred Glover, born November 28, 1909. They enjoy marked popularity in the social life of the capital city and their home is a center of gracious but unpretentious hospitality.

JUDGE ROBERT W. MCBRIDE, who is engaged in the active practice of his profession in Indianapolis, is recognized as one of the rep- resentative legists and jurists of the state, and his achievement affords the best voucher for his ability and his devotion to the work of his chosen field of endeavor. He served for six years on the bench of the thirty-fifth judicial circuit of the state and for somewhat more than two years was a justice of the supreme court of Indiana. He is now en- gaged in practice alone, and his associate and individual clientage is of large and impor- tant order. He is also counsel for the loan department of the State Life Insurance Com- pany, of Indianapolis, in which city he has maintained his residence since 1893.

Judge McBride claims the fine old Buckeye commonwealth as the place of his nativity, having been born in Richland County, Ohio, on the 25th of January, 1842, and being a son of Augustus and Martha A. (Barnes) McBride, the former of whom was born in Washington County. Pennsylvania, and the latter in Richland County, Ohio, in which latter state their marriage was solemnized. The paternal grandfather of Judge McBride was born in Scotland and was a scion of stanch old stock in the land of hills and heather. The family was founded in America shortly after the close of the War of the Revolution, and the original settlement was made in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Augustus McBride was an infant at the time of his parents' removal from the old Key- stone state to Ohio, where he was reared to

maturity and where he received such educa- tional advantages as were afforded in the somewhat primitive schools of the pioneer epoch. He learned the trade of carpenter, to which he devoted his attention until the inception of the war with Mexico, when he tendered his services to his country, enlisting in an Ohio volunteer command and proceed- ing with the same to the scene of hostilities. While thus in service as a soldier he died, in the City of Mexico, in February, 1848, when only twenty-nine years of age. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was also his wife, who survived him by many years. They became the parents of three sons and one daughter, and .of the three now living Judge McBride is the eldest ; Mary J. is the widow of Robert S. McFar- land and resides at Lawrence, Kansas; and James N. is and has been for many years a justice of the peace at Waterloo, Indiana. Mrs. McBride eventually contracted a second marriage, by which she became the wife of James Sirpless. She died on her homestead farm, five miles distant from the city of Mansfield, Richland County, Ohio, in 1896, and the place of her death being but a half mile distant from that of her birth. She was seventy-two years of age at the time of her demise and was one of the revered pio- neer women of Richland County. She sur-" vived her second husband also, and of their four children three are living, namely : Albert B., who resides at Lawrence, Kansas; Will- iam A., who is a representative farmer near Shiloh, Richland County, Ohio; and Nellie, who is the widow of John W. Beeler and a resident of Lawrence, Kansas. Mrs. Martha A. (Barnes) McBride Sirpless was a daugh- ter of Wesley and Mary (Smith) Barnes, the former of whom was born in Virginia, in 1794, of stanch English lineage. Mr. Barnes was one of the sterling pioneers of Richland County, Ohio, where he took up his residence in 1816 and where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness. He there continued to main- tain his home for many years, but finally re- moved to Iowa, settling near Kirksville, where he died in 1862, at the age of sixty-eight years, having been likewise one of the pio- neers of that state. His remains rest in the cemetery at Kirksville. as do also those of his cherished and devoted wife, whose father was a patriot soldier in the War of the Revo- lution.

Judge Robert W. McBride was but six years of age at the time of his father's death and he continued to reside in his native county until he had attained the age of thir- teen years, when he accompanied an uncle

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on his removal to the State of Iowa, where he was reared to manhood, in Mahaska County, where he availed himself of the advantages of the common schools and laid the founda- tion for the broad and liberal education which he has sinee secured through self-disci- pline, careful study and reading and active association with men and affairs. For three years he was a sueeessful and popular teacher in the distriet sehools of Mahaska County, Iowa, and then, at the age of twenty years, he returned to Ohio, where he forthwith ten- dered his serviees in defense of the Union, whose integrity was then in jeopardy through the rebellion of the south. He enlisted in the Seventh Ohio Independent Squadron of Cavalry, in November, 1863, and he eventu- ally became a non-commissioned officer in this command, which eventually became the body- guard of President Lincoln, serving as the mounted escort of the martyr president until his assassination. Judge McBride received his honorable discharge in September, 1865, and his continued interest in his old com- rades in arms is significantly shown by his membership in George H. Thomas Post No. 17, Grand Army of the Republic, in Indian- apolis. He is a past post commander.

After the war Judge MeBride resumed the work of the pedagogie profession, teaching in the public schools of Ohio and Indiana and also prosecuting the study of law under effective preceptorship. In April, 1867, he was admitted to the har, at Auburn, DeKalb County, Indiana, where he initiated the active practice of his profession, in which he beeame associated with Judge James I. Best, under the firm name of Best & McBride. It may be noted that Judge Best is now one of the leading members of the bar of Minne- apolis, Minnesota, and that he was a member of the supreme court commission of Indiana during the entire period of its existence. The partnership alliance of the two young and ambitious attorneys continued for one year, after which Judge MeBride eondueted an in- dividual professional business for some time. He finally entered into partnership with Jo- seph L. Morlan, and this association eon- tinued until the death of the latter, in 1879. Thereafter Judge McBride again conducted an individual practice until 1882, when he was elected to the bench of the thirty-fifth judicial circuit. comprising the counties of DeKalb, Nohle and Steuben. He presided over this tribunal with distinctive ability and gained the unqualified approval of the bar of his distriet, as well as that of the general public. He brought to bear exact and com- prehensive knowledge of the minutiæ of the

seience of jurisprudence, showed his familiar. ity with precedents, and through his wise decisions signally conserved justice and equity. He has a distinetively judicial cast of mind, is not to be diverted from the main points at issue and thus his rulings on the beneh, marked by fairness and impartiality, seldom met with reversal by the higher courts He continued on the circuit bench for a period of six years, and in 1890 he removed from Waterloo to Elkhart. In December of the same year he was appointed an associate judge of the supreme court of the state, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Joseph S. Mitchell. He made an admirable record of service on the supreme bench, from which he retired in January, 1893, at the expiration of the term for which he had been appointed. He then resumed the practice of his profession, and in April of the same year he formed a partnership with Caleb S. Denny, with whom he continued to be asso- ciated in practice in Indianapolis until the 1st of February, 1904. In the meanwhile William M. Aydelotte was admitted to the firm in 1900, and after his withdrawal Mr. Denny's son, George L., was admitted to partnership, under the firm name of Me- Bride, Denny & Denny, which continued until February, 1904, since which time Judge Me- Bride has been alone and has been counsel for the loan department of the State Life In- suranee Company. Judge McBride is known as a resourceful and versatile trial lawyer and as a counselor his ability has drawn to him a very large and important elientage, so that he has gained no little precedenee as a cor- poration lawyer. He has served as counsel of the loan department of the State Life In- suranee Company since 1904 and this position demands no small part of his time and atten- tion.

In politics Judge McBride accords an un- wavering allegianee to the cause of the Re- publiean party, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Central Avenue Meth- odist Episcopal Church. In the Masonie fraternity the affiliations of Judge MeBride are here briefly noted : Pentalpha Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Keystone Chap- ter, Royal Areh Masons; Raper Command- ery, Knights Templar; Consistory of the Valley of Indianapolis, Aneient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which. he has attained to the thirty-second degree; and Murat Temple. Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystie Shrine. He is past eminent com- mander of Apollo Commandery No. 19. Knights Templar, of Kendallville, Indiana. He is identified with Indianapolis Lodge No

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465, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Indianapolis, and has represented the same as a member of the grand lodge of the state. He is also affiliated with Star Lodge No. 7, Knights of Pythias, of Indianapolis, and has likewise been a member of the Indiana grand lodge of this popular fraternal order. He is a member of Columbia, University, Marion County and Century clubs. Judge MeBride was a member of the Indiana National Guard front 1879 to 1893, having been made captain of his company at the time of its organiza- tion and the same having finally become Company A of the Third Regiment. He was the first to hold the rank of lieutenant colonel of this regiment and was afterward its colonel, an office which he resigned in Janu- ary, 1891, after his elevation to the bench of the supreme court.

On the 27th of September, 1868, was sol- emnized the marriage of Judge McBride to Miss Ida S. Chamberlain, who was born and reared in Indiana and who is a daughter of Dr. James N. and Catherine (Brink) Cham- berlain, who passed the closing years of their lives in DeKalb County, this state. Dr. Chamberlain was a graduate of the Western Reserve College of Physicians and Surgeons, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and became one of the most distinguished representatives of his profession in the State of Indiana. In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the four children of Judge and Mrs. McBride. Daisy I. became the wife of Frederick C. Starr, and the two children of this union are Kathryn M. and Robert McBride Starr. She is now the wife of Kent A. Cooper, of In- dianapolis, by whom she has a daughter, Jane. Charles H. McBride, who is employed in Springfield, Illinois, married Miss Minnie Cohu, who died a few months later. Herbert W. McBride, who now resides at the parental home and is employed by the Du Pont Pow- der Co., was identified with mining enter- prises in British Columbia for a period of about two years. Martha Catherine is the wife of James P. Hoster, of Indianapolis, and they have two children, George McBride and James Perry, Jr.

JAMES MARTINDALE MCINTOSH is widely known in Indianapolis and throughout the State of Indiana as a successful lawyer, bank- er and an influential representative of the Re- publican party. He was born at Connersville, Indiana, November 14. 1858, and is. a son of the eminent James C. McIntosh, an attorney whose fame spread throughout southeastern Indiana, a man of the highest standing in the councils of the Methodist Church and a trus- tee of Asbury University (now DePauw). He

was twice a delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

At Asbury University James M. McIntosh received his education, and he began life as a clerk in the Citizens' Bank at Connersville. In 1882 he entered upon the practice of the law in that city, and was very successful in his chosen work there for ten years or until he was chosen the cashier of the First Na- tional Bank of Connersville in 1892, resuming again the practice of the law in 1895. Dur- ing his residence in Connersville he was also a stockholder in various manufacturing con- cerns. Mr. McIntosh early in life began to take an active interest in the success of the Republican party, and served as chairman of the Fayette County Central Committee for twelve or thirteen years, while in 1886 he was elected the mayor of the City of Con- nersville, and at the close of that term in 1890 was made clerk of the Fayette Circuit Court. Following his termination in that office in 1894 he was elected in the same year joint representative in the legislature, where .he made a splendid record, and during his one term in that body made himself one of the most influential young Republicans of In- diana. He was an efficient member of the ways and means committee that placed the finances of the state upon a sound business basis and reduced the commonwealth's expen- ditures to less than its income. To Mr. Mc- Intosh also belongs the honor of pushing through the legislature the bill placing the educational institutions of Indiana upon an independent basis and providing for them an ample income without the necessity of lobby- ing in every legislature. In 1899 he was ap- pointed national bank examiner for Indiana and later was assigned work as special exam- iner for the department of justice. He re- signed this position in 1907 to accept the presidency of the Union National Bank which position he is now filling. He has won many friends in his professional and public life, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Knights of Pythias and the Delta Kappa Epsilon, and of various clubs in the city.

He married Miss Anna L. Pepper at Con- nersville in 1890, and they have four children, Mary E., Jessie C., Dorothy J. and James P. THEODORE C. STEELE. There is a distinc- tive correlation in all forms of art expres- sion, including painting, sculpture, music and poesy, and each claims its own devotees and appreciative as well as creative talent. The "Greater Indianapolis" has no reason to deny claim to precedence as' an art center, for painting, music and literature here re-

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ceive due recognition, and among the success- ful and able representatives of the first ele- ment in this list is found Theodore C. Steele, whose talent as a landscape and portrait artist rests seeure in the many evidences given thereof in the products of his brush. In his chosen field he well merits consideration as one of the leading artists of the country and as one who has thus conferred a meed of honor upon his native state.

Theodore C. Steele was born in Owen County, Indiana, on the 11th of September, 1847, and is a son of Samuel H. and Harriet N. (Evans) Steele, both of whom were like- wise born and reared in Indiana, where the respective families were founded in the early pioneer epoch. The paternal grandfather, James Steele, was of Scotch-Irish lineage and was a native of Kentucky, where he devoted his attention to the great basic industry of agriculture until his removal to Indiana, where he became a pioneer, even as had his father in Kentucky, whither the latter re- moved from Virginia, with whose annals the name became identified in the early colonial era of our national history. James Steele married Anna Johnson, and they became the parents of eleven children. Samuel H. Steele was born in Owen County. Indiana, where he was reared to manhood and received such ad- vantages as were afforded in the pioneer schools. There he followed the trade of saddler for a number of years and later he engaged in the general merchandise business. In 1852 he removed to Montgomery County and established a general store at Waveland, where he died in 1862, at the age of thirty- seven years. He was a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church and his wife held membership in the Presbyterian Church. She long survived him, passing the closing years of her life in the City of Portland, Oregon, where she died in 1908, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. Of the five children Theodore C. was the first born; Charles A. is a resident of Wichita, Kansas; William J. resides in Jefferson, Oregon : Samuel N. main- tains his home at Portland, Oregon ; and Alice II. resides in Nevada.

Jesse Evans, father of Mrs. Harriet N. (Evans) Steele, came to Indiana from Ten- nessee and was one of the first settlers of Owen County, this state. He was a soldier in the Blackhawk Indian War and was a citizen of sterling worth of character, having no little influence in public affairs in the pioneer community, where he reared his family of seven children. The Evans family is of Welsh origin and was early founded in North Carolina.

A recent article relative to the career of the well known Indianapolis artist contained the following pertinent statements, and the same are worthy of reproduction: "In trae- ing the life history of Mr. Steele we find no indication of the source of the artistic talents which have made his name known all through his native state. Good, worthy farming peo- ple, his ancestors possessed the courage and enterprise of pioneers, living useful, exem- plary lives and dying respected by all who knew them, but not showing that unmistak- able talent that differentiates the art lover from the simple tiller of the soil." It may well be said that artists, like poets, are born, not made. Mr. Steele was reared in the vil- lage of Waveland, Montgomery County, where his educational advantages were those afforded in the village school. His talent was inborn and found due expression when he was but a child, his success in painting portraits without instructions having been re- garded as one of the wonders of his little home town. He pursued his art study and work with unremitting love and zeal and in later years was able to secure the advantage of foreign studies, having passed the interval between 1880 and 1885 under the instruction of the best masters of the Royal Academy in the City of Munich. Since his return to his native land his interests have centered in In- dianapolis, where he has been unflagging in his efforts to foster the cause of art and to build up an art institute creditable to the city and state, especially in the exploitation of the work of Indiana artists. For a number of years after his return from abroad Mr. Steele devoted much of his time to teaching art in Indianapolis, but for the past several years he has not found it expedient to carry, forward this work, as he has been able to accomplish more in other directions. He is a member of the board of directors of the In- dianapolis Art Association, whose principal and definite object is to secure the founding of a great and representative art institution of permanent order in the fair capital city of the state. He has an individual place in the art history of his native state and, indeed, of his native country, though, with character- istic modesty, he would personally lay claim to no such pretension. He is a valued and appreciative member of the Society of West- ern Artists, of which he was president from 1898 until 1900 and in whose affairs he main- tains a most insistent interest. Mr. Steele's eity studio is located in the Security Trust building and in picturesque Brown County, Indiana, he now has a most attractive summer home and well equipped studio. In the

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idyllic, pastoral scenery of that seetion of the state, whose hills and valleys have as yet been traversed by no railroad and whose people are, in a sense, sequestered in an idyllic way from the "madding crowd's ignoble strife", he finds ample lure for his brush, having produced some of his choicest canvases from the restful seenes there de- picted. No one with less artistie appreeia- tion could thus transform the practical and prosaic into such charming conceptions as are his paintings of Brown County seenery. He now devotes the greater portion of the summer season to landseape work in south- ern Indiana, whose attractions never fail in appeal to his artistic sensibilities. Of his technique and definite skill as an artist it is not necessary to speak in this artiele, for his work and his reputation sufficiently denote his powers.

Mr. Steele has painted five portraits of the late Gen. Benjamin Harrison, former presi- dent of the United States and distinguished and honored citizen of Indianapolis, which he hinself described as "no mean city". One of these portraits of General Harrison was painted prior to his death and two of the number were painted for John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, a great friend and admirer of General Harrison. Mr. Wanamaker pre- sented one of his two portraits to the Union League Club of Philadelphia and the other he has in his own home. Mr. Steele has ex- ecuted a portrait of Hon. Charles W. Fair- banks, former vice-president of the United States, for the Columbia Club of Indianapo- lis, and the University Club claims one of the portraits of General Harrison. He also painted a portrait of Senator Albert J. Bev- eridge for the Columbia Club of Indianapolis. Among his other noteworthy portraits may be mentioned those of several of the former presidents and of other members of the faculty of the University of Indiana, and those of five former governors of Indiana, which are in the state library. Governors Porter, Gray, Hovey, Chase and Matthews have thus been subjects of Mr. Steele's faith- ful and versatile brush, and his list of por- traits also includes those of many other dis- tinguished men of the state and nation.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 31

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