Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 32

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 32

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Mr. Steele served as a member of the jury that selected the work of American artists for exhibition at the Paris Exposition in 1900, said jury having made its selections in New York City. In 1902 he served on the jury to which was assigned the selection of paint- ings and other art works for the Carnegie In- stitute, in the City of Pittsburg, and he was a member of the jury of award in the art

department at the Louisiana Purchase Expo- sition, in St. Louis, in 1903. He has found pleasure in securing a collection of the works of other artists, both in Europe and America.

In polities Mr. Steele is an independent Republican and while he has never entered the arena of practical polities nor public life he takes a deep interest in all that concerns the welfare of his home city, state and coun- try, and is essentially a loyal and progressive citizen. He is identified with various civic organizations of local order.

On the 14th of February, 1869, Mr. Steele was united in marriage to Miss Mary Eliza- beth Lakin, daughter of Simmons and Mary (Matson) Lakin, of Rushville, this state. Oť the five children of this union one died in infancy and another, Charles, died in early childhood. Rembrandt T. is a designer by profession and resides in Indianapolis; he married Miss Helen Mckay and they have one son, Horace Mckay Steele; Margaret married G. A. Neubacher, of Indianapolis, and has two children, Lewis and Robert, and Shirley L., who resides in Indianapolis, mar- ried Miss Myra Daggett, who has borne hill one daughter, Margaret. Mrs. Steele, the de- voted wife and mother, was summoned to the life eternal in 1900, having been a devoted member of Plymouth Congregational Church. On the 9th of August, 1908, Mr. Steele was united in marriage to Miss Selma Neubacher, who was born and reared in Indianapolis and who is a daughter of Lewis Neubaeher.

E. OSCAR LINDENMUTH, M. D. Dr. Linden- inuth stands as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of the capital city, where he has been engaged in the practice of his profession sinee 1906 and where he is professor of dermatology, electro-therapeu- ties and X-ray in the Indiana University School of Medicine. In the special field designated in the lines covered by his pro- fessorship in the medical school he is a recog- nized authority and he is a valued and popu- Jar member of the faculty of this admirable institution.

Dr. E. Osear Lindenmuth is of stanch Ger- man lineage and is a native of the old Key- stone state of the Union, having been born at Ringtown, Schuylkill County, Pennsyl- vania, on the 17th of March, 1872, and being a son of William D. and Hannah (Frye) Lin- denmuth, who now reside in Ringtown, Penn- sylvania, where the father is living virtually retired, after having devoted the major part of his aetive career to agricultural pursuits. Dr. Lindenmuth gained his early education in the publie sehools of his native town and in 1890 he entered Bloomsburg Literary In-

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

stitute and State Normal School, at Blooms- burg. Pennsylvania, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1892. In the same year he was matrienlated in Potts College, at Williamsport, Pennsyl- vania, in which he was graduated in the fol- lowing year, after which he devoted one year to the study of law. From Potts College he received the degree of M. E. After leaving college he was engaged in teaching in the public schools for six terms, after which he devoted five years to mercantile business, within which period he also prosecuted a care- ful study of medicine, under effective pre- ceptorship. In 1902 he entered the Medico- Chirurgieal College at Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania. in which institution he completed the prescribed course and was graduated in 1906, with the degree of Doetor .of Medicine. While attending the medical college he uti- lized his summers and other vacation periods in taking special courses in X-ray and elec- tro-therapeutics, diseases of the eye, and physical and clinical diagnosis. In 1906 he completed a special course in dermatology in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1905-6, while attending medical college, the doctor served as assistant radiographer to the Medico-Chirurgical Hos- pital in Philadelphia. and in 1905 he was also radiographer to the Howard Hospital, of the same city.

In Angust, 1906, Dr. Lindenmuth estab- lished his residence in Indianapolis and opened an office at 320 North Meridian street. where he has since maintained his pro- fessional headquarters. He has built up a substantial and representative practice, and the same has ample basis on his unquestioned ability in both the theoretical and practical phases of his profession. Soon after locating in Indianapolis Dr. Lindenmuth was made incumbent of the chair of dermatology, elec- tro-therapeutics and X-ray in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which was then in affiliation with the University of Indiana, at Bloomington. In 1908 the school became the organie and definite medical department of the state university. under the present title of the Indiana University School of Medicine, and upon this readjustment of management. Dr. Lindenmuth was elected to the chair of which he had previously been incumbent and in whiel he had given most effective service. On the 1st of January. 1908, he was elected superintendent of the well equipped hospital maintained in connection with the medical school, and to the duties of this important position he now gives much of his time and attention, proving an able administrative offi-

eer as well as being thoroughly well fortihed in a professional way. The doctor is a mem- ber of the American Medical Association, the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Indiana State Medical Society, and the Indianapolis Medical Society. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Republican party and also holds membership in the Marion Club. Dr. Lindenmuth is one of those able physicians and surgeons who are well upholding the high prestige of the profession in the capital city of Indiana and he is thus specially en- titled to recognition in this publication.

EMSLEY W. JOHNSON. A representative of old and honored pioneer families of the State of Indiana and, in the maternal line, of one whose name has been identified with the an- nals of Marion County from a very early period in its history, Emsley W. Johnson is a native of this eounty and here he has gained no little precedence as one of the able and successful younger members of its bar, being engaged in the practice of his profession in the capital city, as senior member of the firni of Johnson & Mehring.

Emsley Wright Johnson, named in honor of his maternal grandfather. a distinguished figure in the history of Marion County. was born in the village of Old Augusta, Marion County, Indiana, on the 8th of May, 1878, and is a son of Joseph M. and Mary (Wright) Johnson, both natives of Marion County, where the former was born on the 1st of April, 1843, and the latter on the 23rd of November, 1848. Joseph M. Johnson is a son of William K. Johnson, who was of staneh English lineage and a member of a family that was founded in Virginia in the colonial era of our national history. From the Old Dominion state representatives of the family removed to Ohio, where Joseph M. was born and reared, and from Butler County, that state, he came to Indiana in 1825, becoming one of the early settlers of Marion County, where he reelaimed and developed a farm and beeame one of the influential citizens of his section. He remained on his old homestead until near his death, and in succeeding gen- erations the prestige of the name has been ably upheld in this county. Joseph M. John- son is now numbered among the representa- tive farmers and honored citizens of Wash- ington Township, this county, within whose borders his entire life has been passed. He is a man of strong individuality and sterling integrity and has ever maintained a seeure hold upon popular confidence and esteem in the community where he has lived and la- bored to goodly ends. Ile served four years in the Union cause of the Civil War as a

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

member of Company F, Fifth Indiana Cav- alry, and was taken prisoner at Macon, Georgia, being confined in Andersonville Prison for nine months. He is a Republican in politics. Of his three children Emsley W., of this review, is the second child; the eldest, Cora, is unmarried and lives with her parents, and Dr. William F., the youngest, is a suc- cessful physician and surgeon engaged in the practice of his profession in Indianapolis.

Emsley Wright, the maternal grandfather of him whose name initiates this article, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, in 1820, and was but six weeks old at the time his parents removed thence to Marion County. He was a son of Joel Wright and the latter was a son of Philbert Wright, a native of Scotland. Joel Wright was a cousin of Gover- nor Joseph A. Wright. Emsley Wright mar- ried Lucy Strong, a descendant of Ira Strong, who came from Holland to America and set- tled in the present County of Addison, Ver- mont, later moving to Indiana. Joel Wright, father of Emsley Wright, was numbered among the first settlers of Marion County, In- diana, where he took up his abode at a time when this section was practically an unbroken forest, and near what is now known as Merid- ian Heights. He secured a tract of govern- ment land and reelaimed a good farm before his death. The majority of his descendants have been identified with the great basic in- dustry of agriculture, and his son Emsley was no exception to the rule. Emsley Wright not only became a successful farmer and business man, but was also one of the early and spe- cially able lawyers of Marion County. He continued to reside on his farm in Washing- ton Township but his professional services were in requisition in all parts of the county, and he was identified with many important litigations in the early days, besides being a valued counsellor of broad and exact knowl- edge of the law. He died at an advanced age, and of his children two are now living.

Emsley W. Johnson passed his boyhood days on the old homestead farm and early began to assist in its work. After complet- ing the limited curriculum of the district school in the home district he continued his studies in the New Augusta high school, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893. In 1896 he was matriculated in Butler College, located in Irvington, a suburb of Indianapolis, and in this institution he was graduated in 1900, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For effective work in But- ler College while a student there he received a scholarship in the University of Chicago, in which celebrated institution he was gradu-

ated in 1901, with the supplemental degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. After leaving this university he was matriculated in the Indiana Law School, in Indianapolis, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1903, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was ad- mitted to the bar of his native state and county in the month of his graduation and during the initial year of his practical work in his profession he was with the well known law firm of Elliott, Elliott & Littleton, of Indianapolis, of which firm Judge Byron K. Elliott was the head. In September, 1904, Mr. Johnson entered into partnership with Orval E. Mehring, a graduate of the Indiana Law School, and they have since been able and valued coadjutors in the practice of their profession, in which their success has been of nnequivocal order and in which their business is constantly increasing in scope and importance. The firm title of Johnson & Mehring has been maintained. from the time the alliance was formed.

In politics Mr. Johnson is well fortified in his opinions and he is aligned as a stanch advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor. He is affiliated with Broad Ripple Lodge No. 643. Free and Accepted Masons, and Indian- apolis Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, besides which he is identified with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Im- proved Order of Red Men, in which last he is past sachem. He also holds membership in the Marion Club and the Commercial Club, two of the representative civic organizations of the capital city.

On the 8th of August, 1906, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Griffin, who was born and reared in Green- field, Indiana, a daughter of Dr. L. B. Griffin, a representative citizen of that place.

AUGUST B. MEYER. One of the designated functions of this publication touching the his- tory of "Greater Indianapolis" is to accord recognition to those who stand representative in their various fields of business activity, and from this consistent viewpoint there is pro- priety in noting the salient points in the career of August B. Meyer, who is president of the corporation of A. B. Meyer & Com- pany, dealers in coal and builders' supplies and known as one of the successful and in- fluential business men of his native city, where he is held in unqualified popular eon- fidence and esteem.

August B. Meyer was born in Indianapolis, on the 24th of December, 1853, and is a son of George F. and Catherine (Ang) Meyer, both

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

of whom were born in Germany. Their mar- riage was solemnized in Cincinnati, Ohio, from which city they removed to Indianapolis in 1850. In Cincinnati George F. Meyer had learned the cigarmaker's trade and business, and upon coming to Indianapolis he here established the first specific cigar and tobacco store in the city. He continued to be actively identified with this line of business until his death, which occurred in 1872, at which time he was only forty-three years of age. He be- came a citizen of prominence and influence in business and civic life and the high regard in which he was held in the community is shown in the fact that he served two terms as treas- urer of Marion County, giving a. most able and satisfactory administration. He was a worthy representative of the class of sterling German citizens who have contributed ma- terially to the industrial, commercial and civic upbuilding of Indiana's fair capital city. He was prominently identified with the Ma- sonic fraternity and also the Knights of Pythias, having been one of the first Scottish Rite Masons in the city. He was a man of the highest integrity in all the relations of life and well merited the high regard in which he was held. His wife survived him by more than thirty years, having been summoned to the life eternal in 1903, at the age of seventy- three years. They became the parents of eight children, of whom five are living, all being residents of Indianapolis, namely : Charles F., August B., George F., Edward H., and Adolph J.

August B. Meyer is indebted to the public schools of Indianapolis for his early educa- tional training, and he also attended school for a time in Cincinnati. As a youth he found employment in his father's store, with whose conducting he was identified until it was closed, shortly after the death of his honored father. He then became associated with his brother in the operation of a cigar and tobacco store in the building now utilized by the concern of which he is president, the same being located on 17 and 19 North Penn- sylvania street. In 1877 Mr. Meyer initiated his identification with his present line of en- terprise, by purchasing a small coal yard and beginning operations on a limited capital and essentially small scale. At the initiation of his efforts he made his deliveries with but one horse and a coal cart. Energy, perseverance and good "management brought results, and the eventual outgrowth of this modest enter- prise is represented in the large and substan- tial business conducted by A. B. Meyer & Company, who now have the largest coal vards and control the largest business of the

kind, both wholesale and retail, in the city. It is needless to say that the highest in- tegrity and honor figure as the real basis of the fine enterprise now controlled by the con- cern whose upbuilding is mainly the result of the efforts of Mr. Meyer. The present title has been utilized since 1879, and under the same there has been a consecutive growth and expansion during the long period of more than thirty yeara. The business is now in- corporated as a stock concern, Mr. Meyer having the controlling interest. The handling of building material has been an adjunct of the enterprise since 1892, and this depart- ment is now one of importance, with ample equipment and facilities.

In 1903 Mr. Meyer became interested in the mining of coal, being associated in the organization of the United Fourth Vein Coal Company, whose mines are located near Lin- ton, Greene County, Indiana, and whose gen- eral offices are in Indianapolis. He is still a stockholder and director of this corporation, whose property is valuable and productive. Mr. Meyer is secretary and treasurer of the A. & C. Stone & Lime Company, with gen- eral offices in Indianapolis and plants at Greencastle, Ridgeland and Portland, this state. In 1886 he was elected president of the Western Coal Dealers' Association, rep- resenting a membership in eleven states, and he was also one of the organizers of the Michi- gan & Indiana Retail Coal Association, of which he is now a director, and also vice- president. He is also a member of the direc- torate of the National Builders' Supply Asso- ciation. He is essentially liberal, loyal and progressive as a citizen, and this is typified by his membership in the Indianapolis Board of Trade, of whose board of governors he was a member in the '80s. He also holds member- ship in the Commercial Club, the Marion Club and the Columbia Club, representative civic organizations of his home city. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the thirty-second de- gree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and is also identified with Murat Temple, An- cient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mys- tic Shrine, as well as with Marion Lodge No. 1, Knights of Pythias.

In 1892 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Meyer to Miss Minnie B. Unger, of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, and she was sum- moned to the life eternal in March, 1905, being survived by one child, Sara Catherine.

DR. JOHN M. KITCHEN has for many years been prominently associated with the medical profession in Indianapolis. He was born at Piqua in Miami County, Ohio, July 12, 1826,

I.tr. Kitchen

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

and resolving early in his life to make the practice of medicine his life's work and after suitable instructions in the office of a local practitioner of good standing, he attended lectures at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia and at the University Medical College of New York City, graduating from the latter institution in March of 1846. Dr. Kitchen entered upon- the work at Fort Wayne, Indiana, but remained there only un- til 1849, when he started upon the then long journey to California as second physician on an emigrant ship. Arriving in that state after a seven months' voyage around Cape Horn he began practicing in San Francisco, and continued there until March of ' 1850, when he went on foot to the mining regions near the head waters of the Yuba River and established a small hospital for the miners there, performing the manifold duties of cock, nurse and physician. The experience that he gained there proved valuable to him in his after life. He had great difficulty in procuring medical supplies, and it was fre- quently necessary for him to rely almost en- tirely on nature to furnish him his remedies, and the often unexpected favorable results which followed were splendid lessons for him in his later practice.

Choosing Indianapolis for a permanent lo- cation in 1851, he has for more than forty years endeavored conscientiously to perform the duties required of a general practitioner of medicine and surgery, and has. occasion- ally contributed brief articles for medical journals. He is a member of the Marion County Medieal Society, of the Indiana State Medical Society of the American Medie- al Association, and he has at different times held publie office, including president of the board of trustees of the city hospital, trustee of the Indiana Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, physician to the state institution for the blind, consulting physician to the city hospital, consulting physician to the state institution for the deaf, from 1861 to 1865 surgeon in charge of the United States Gen- eral Army Hospital at Indianapolis, president of the Board of United States Examining Physicians for Pensions from 1886 to 1893, and has for many years been medical exam- iner for many of the leading life insurance companies of this country. Having acquired a competency by his professional skill, indus- try and good business management, Dr. Kitchen has retired from general practice and during late years has confined himself to office and consultation practice, and the en- joyment of the recreation and repose which

his long and faithful devotion to his profes- sion so justly entitles him.

Dr. Kitchen married in Indianapolis in 1853 Mary F. Bradley, a daughter of John H. Bradley, of this city, and they have one son, John B., a broker in Chicago.

EDWARD L. McKEE. A member of one of the thonored pioneer families of Indiana and one tvhose lineage, both direct and collateral, is of distinguished order, Edward Lodge Me- Kee has well maintained the prestige of the name which he bears, through his leal and loyal services as a citizen and as a man of large and important business activities. He is one of the representative factors in the financial and business circles of the capital city of his native state, where he is president of the Merchants' Heat & Light Company, an important public-utility corporation, and where he is a principal and official in a num- ber of other corporations of representative order. Not only has he large capitalistie in- terests, but he is also a man whose integrity and resourcefulness have been potent influ- ences in connection with the upbuilding of "Greater Indianapolis", where his interests are centered and where he holds an impreg- nable position in · popular confidence and esteem.

Edward Lodge MeKee was born in Madi- son. Jefferson County, Indiana, on the 13th of March, 1856. and is a son of Robert S. and Celine Elizabeth (Lodge) MeKee. To sturdy Scotch-Irish stock is the lineage of the Me- Kee family traced, and in the maternal line the subject of this review is a seion of promi- nent pioneer families of Kentucky and In- diana. The MeKees were Scotch Covenanters and were among those of this faith who were driven from Scotland to the north of Ireland to escape religious persecution in their native land. In Ireland the direct line of descent is traced back to Sir Patrick McKee, who be- came seized of a fine landed estate of two thousand acres in the province of Ulster, where he owned a castle, besides a bawn in County Down. From this same section of Ireland have immigrated to America many families whose names have been prominent in connection with the annals of our republic- the Grants, MeClellans, Camerons, Stuarts, Polks, Todds and many others who aided in laying broad and deep the foundations of our national prosperity.

.James McKee, grandfather of Edward L., was born in Ireland on the 23rd of May, 1793. and there his wife, whose maiden name was Agnes MeMullan, was born on the 14th of November in the same year. Their marriage was solemnized on the 6th of December, 1813

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Mrs. McKee died in Ireland, October 5, 1837. and is buried at Slane, and her husband passed away in Wheeling, West Virginia, in August, 1863, at the venerable age of seventy years. The names of their children, with re- spective dates of birth, are here noted : James M., November 4, 1817; William H., August 10, 1819; Robert S., January 8, 1823; Eliza Ann, April 29. 1824; Margaret, Sep- tember 18, 1825; and Sophie, August 3, 1828. William H., the second son, came to America and settled in Philadelphia, and he became a successful and influential business man. He passed the closing years of his life in the West, where he died on the 24th of Novem- ber, 1867.

Robert S. McKee was born in Tullycavy, Downpatrick, County Down, Ireland, and the date of his nativity has already been noted. Concerning his career the following pertinent data are given in a previously published sketch, and so appreciative is the estimate that it is found expedient to make but slight metaphrase in having recourse to the same.

"His educational advantages, compared with modern facilities, were meager. But uncompromising circumstances did not seem to hamper him. The spirit which dominated his life was early made manifest. When only thirteen years of age he pluckily left the land of his birth to join his brother William, who had settled in Philadelphia. Crossing the ocean alone, the boy duly found his brother. Within a short time after his arrival he ob- tained employment as clerk for a company en- gaged in transporting goods over the moun- tains between Baltimore and Wheeling. In this connection he gained an experience that gave him confidence to start in business for himself while still a young man. In 1847 he floated down the Ohio River on a flat boat and located at Madison, Indiana, where, in partnership with Josiah S. Weyer, he engaged in the wholesale grocery business, under the name of Weyer & McKee. The business was subsequently conducted by R. S. McKee & Company, and the house became well known all over the country, and before the Civil War its business attained to such proportions that its trade amounted to a million dollars annually. As his capital increased he became interested in other lines of enterprise, being prominently associated with the National Branch Bank at Madison and with the Madi- son Fire & Marine Insurance Company. In 1865, removing to Louisville, Kentucky, he there founded the wholesale grocery house of McKee, Cunningham & Company, which gained control of a large patronage through- ont the entire south. To meet the demands

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 32

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