Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 33

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 33


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placed upon the institution Mr. McKee erected a large building for its use and ex- tended its operations in various ways. He became prominent in other connections in Louisville, being a member of the first board of directors of the Citizens' National Bank and otherwise active in the promotion of various enterprises that tended to advance the material and civic prosperity of the city.


"In 1872 Mr. McKee removed to Indian- apolis, where he met with a degree of success that completely overshadowed his earlier achievements. Organizing the wholesale boot and shoe house of McKee & Branham, which later became incorporated under the name of the McKee Shoe Company, Mr. McKee was made the president and continued to serve as such until his death. It was largely a re- sult of his intelligent and effective manage- ment that the concern met with the success which made it one of the notable commercial enterprises of the capital city. Under his guidance the company became foremost among the leading shoe houses of the country and held an important relation to the trade at large.


"Though he started in life with no mate- rial advantages, Mr. McKee demonstrated the fact that ability and strength of will are su- perior weapons with which to fight the battle of life. His mental faculties were clear, his mind active and receptive, and his intelli- gence keen and broad. He became noted for his intellectual acquirements and remarkable fund of information. His qualities as a leader were unquestioned, and he became one of the foremost figures in commercial and financial circles in Indianapolis, where the last thirty years of his life were spent. Hc was a director of the Indiana National Bank, was the first secretary of the Belt Railroad & Stock Yards Company, and during his later years he owned a large amount of valuable realty in the city. All his investments were marked by a judgment and foresight that testified to his exceptional business acumen. Of a most positive character, he had a force of personality that well befitted his Scotch- Irish blood. He was noted for his integrity and for the honorable methods that character- ized all his dealings, and perhaps his most notable trait was his abhorrence of debt. Consistent in his adherence to the faith of his forefathers, Mr. McKee was long recog- nized as a leader in the First Presbyterian Church, in which he served many years as an elder. His death, which occurred at his home in this city, on the 10th of June, 1903, re- moved from Indianapolis one who had done much to promote its best interests and to


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bring it to a position among the leading busi- ness centers of the United States. His high civic ideals and public spirit made him ready to lend his active co-operation to whatever promised to serve the public interests or benefit his fellow men in any way. His re- mains were interred in Crown Hill cemetery, with simple funeral services, conducted by the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and his sons acted as pall bearers."


In a thoroughly unostentatious way Mr. McKee gave much to worthy charitable and benevolent objects and institutions, as well as to individual persons deserving of his aid and sympathy. His nature was strong and true, and, knowing men at their real value, he had no toleration of deceit or meanness in any of the relations of life. He did not come so largely into the attention of the public eye as did .many of his contemporaries who ac- complished less and who did less for the world, but he felt the responsibilities which success imposes and ever endeavored to live up to these responsibilities, in the straight- forward undemonstrative way characteristic of the man. His name merits an enduring place on the roster of the honored and valued citizens and pioneers of the State of Indiana. Though manifesting naught of ambition for political preferment, he was a stanch and in- telligent advocate of the principles of the Re- publican party, and ever kept in close touch with the questions and issues of the hour, the while never neglecting any civic duty. Mr. McKee was a man whose spirit was never soiled by unfaithfulness or unkindness. His was not a vacillating character and he ever had the courage of his convictions, but he was tolerant in his judgment of his fellow men, devoted to those allied to him by consan- guinity, and in a most quiet way showed his charitable spirit in effective lines. A noble and gracions personality indicated the man, and his life was one worthy of the honored name which he hore.


Robert S. McKee was twice married. In 1850 was solemnized his union with Miss Celine Elizabeth Lodge, who was born in the State of Indiana, and who died in 1861. In 1866 he married Miss Mary Louise Lodge, a sister of his first wife, and of his six children four were born of the first and two of the second marriage. Concerning them the fol- lowing brief data are given: William J., who served as brigadier general of Indiana Volunteers in the Spanish-American War, is a representative citizen of Indianapolis; Ed- ward L., of this review, was the next in order of birth; James Robert, who married Miss Mary S. Harrison, daughter of the late Gen-


eral Benjamin Harrison of Indianapolis, former president of the United States, is now general manager of the General Electric Company, of New York City; Frank Latham is engaged in business in the national metrop- olis; Richard Boone was a successful business man of Indianapolis and died in 1907; and Celine Lodge is the wife of Charles W. Mer- rill, one of the interested principals in the Bobbs-Merrill Company, the well known pub- lishers of Indianapolis. Mrs. McKee was born at Madison and was a daughter of Will- iam Johnston Lodge and Mary Grant (Lemon) Lodge. In the agnatic line she was a descendant of Christopher Clark, and in the maternal line she was connected with the Boone, Grant and Morgan families. From the sketch to which recourse has previously been taken, the following genealogical ex- tracts are made :


"William Johnston Lodge was named for his mother's family, her maiden name having been Johnston. She was a direct descendant of Christopher Clark, who came to this coun- try in 1625, receiving a grant of land from the king. He settled in what is now Hanover County, Virginia. His daughter, Agnes Clark, married Lord Robert Johnston, a younger son of the Earl of Shaftsbury. In two generations there were only two sons. They dropped the 't' and were known by the name of Johnson.


"Captain William Grant, great-great- grandfather of Edward L. McKee, was born February 22, 1726, and married Elizabeth Boone, born February 5, 1733, daughter of Squire and Sarah (Morgan) Boone and a sis- ter of the historic character, Daniel Boone. Mr. and Mrs. Grant died June 22, 1804, and February 25, 1814, respectively. Their chil- dren were as follows: Mary, born September 22, 1752, married Moses Mitchell; John, born January 30, 1754, died November 11, 1825, having been a colonel of militia; he married Molly Mosby ; Israel, born December 14, 1756, married Susanna Bryan, and his death oc- curred in October, 1796; Sarah, born January 25, 1759, married John Sanders, and her death occurred March 28, 1814; William, born January 10, 1761, married Sarah Mosby, and he died February 20, 1814: Samuel, born No- vember 23, 1762, married Lydia Craig, and he was killed by Indians, August 13, 1789; Squire Boone, born September 19, 1764, mar- ried Susanna Hand, and his death occurred June 10, 1833; Elizabeth, born August 28, 1766, married John Mosby, and died January 18, 1804; Moses, born October 3, 1768, was killed by Indians, August 13, 1789; Hannah, born March 30, 1771, died March 30, 1777;


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and Rebecca Boone, born June 4. 1774, mar- ried John Lemon, and died December 7, 1858. "The father of this family. Captain Will- iam Grant, was a man of good education for the time in which he flourished, had substan- tial standing as an extensive land owner, and was a stanch patriot during the Revolution. being a trusted member of the committee of safety in North Carolina. He also gave active service in that struggle. Later, in company with his intrepid brother-in-law, Daniel Boone, he was among those who de- fended the frontier, and he was one of the few who escaped with Boone at the battle of the Blue Lick in Kentucky, Majors Hugh McGary and Levi Todd being also among the survivors of that encounter. 'The Story of Bryan's Station,' Kentucky, sets forth that it was founded by those North Carolinians, William, Morgan. James and Joseph Bryan, of whom the first named was the leading spirit. With them was William Grant, whose wife, like the wife of William Bryan, was a sister of Daniel Boone. All the Bryans were elderly but stalwart woodmen at the time of their settlement in Kentucky, and each was blessed with a large family of children. As the children were all grown, they felt 'pre- pared for straggling Indians at least, as with dogs and flint-lock rifles, pack horses and eows, they set out from the valley of the Yad- kin.' At the battle of the Elkhorn, William Grant was wounded. and his brother-in-law. William Bryan, was killed. In the record of William Grant's family previously given it will be noted that two of his sons, Samuel and Moses, were killed by the Indians. They had come over to Indiana from Kentucky. with Colonel Johnson, on an expedition to punish thieving Indians, and with others were ambushed. a number being killed, among them one of the Grants. The other brother went back to look for him. in company with a relative who volunteered to assist him. and they, too, were slain. Grant Countv, Indiana. is named in their honor. William Grant lived to a good old age, and to the close of his life was respected as a superior character-a typical gentleman of the old school. dignified, honorable and worthy of the regard in which he was held. He left property. including slaves, and many of his descendants still re- side in Indiana and Kentucky."


Edward Lodge MeKee. to whom this re- view is dedicated, gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of his native town of Madison, Indiana, and was nine years of age at the time of the family removal to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1865. In that city he continued his educational discipline in the


public schools; and later he returned to Madi- son, where he attended the high school for a time. He initiated his business career as a youth of sixteen years, by securing employ- ment in a wholesale shoe house in Indianapo- lis, and with this important line of enter- prise he has continued to be identified during the long intervening years, marked by large and worthy success, gained through his well directed endeavors. It may truthfully be said that, beginning as a clerk, he has been employed in every capacity in connection with the wholesale shoe trade except that of travel- ing salesman, and he has long been a recog- nized authority in connection with this line of commercial enterprise. After having gained thorough experience in the details of the busi- ness, in 1879, when but twenty-three years of age, he became associated with his brother James R. and Aquilla Jones in the founding of the wholesale shoe house of Jones, McKee & Company, of Indianapolis. The enterprise was continued under this title, and with con- stantly expanding trade, until 1896, when the McKee Shoe Company was organized and in- corporated for the continuing of the business with larger internal and commercial facilities. Of this company Edward L. McKee has been vice-president from the beginning, and to his progressive ideas, energy, application and marked administrative talent has been in large measure due the upbuilding of the splendid institution which contributes in large degree to the commercial prestige and stabil- ity of the capital city.


Mr. McKee's facility in the handling of af- fairs of broad scope and importance has marked him for interposition in other repre- sentative enterprises in his home city. In 1896 he was elected vice-president of the In- diana National Bank, an incumbency which he retained until 1904, when he resigned the office, though he still continued a member of the directorate of this strong and conservative financial institution. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Union Trust Company, vice-president of the extensive re- tail dry goods house of H. P. Wasson & Com- pany, and president of the Atlanta Tin Plate & Sheet Iron Company. He was one of the organizers and incorporators of the Mer- chants' Heat & Light Company, of which he has been president since 1904, and to the de- veloping of whose fine service he has given his personal attention.


Aggressive and broad-minded, Mr. McKee has wielded a potent influence in commercial and financial affairs in the Hoosier metrop- olis, and none is more appreciative of the at- tractions and advantages of Indianapolis or


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whose faith in its still further growth and ad- vancement is of more insistent type. He is identified with various civic and fraternal or- ganizations of a representative character, is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Re- publican party, though never an aspirant for public office, and he holds to the religious faith in which he was reared, being a member of the First Presbyterian Church. His wife holds membership in the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church.


The following tribute from Volney T. Ma- lott, one of the most honored and influential citizens and leading capitalists of Indian- apolis, is well worthy of perpetuation in this connection, as he has been associated in an intimate way both with the late Robert S. McKee as well as with Edward L. McKee.


"Robert S. McKee was one of our best citizens, a man of sterling worth, possessed of the highest honor, a merchant of the old school, thoroughly and carefully trained, ex- act with himself and others in all business transactions. He took a large interest in civil affairs. He was liberal in his contribu- tions to his church and various charitable in- stitutions. As a bank director in Madison, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, and Indian- apolis, covering a period of more than fifty years, he was always prompt and regular in attendance and was a valuable member of the board, his business training and large experi- ence rendering him conservatively progressive and, together with his closely analytical mind, making him a valuable counsellor on any board. His son, Edward L. McKee, president of the Merchants' Light & Heat Company, was carefully trained by the father and, in- heriting many of the latter's qualities, is a man of quick grasp and fertile resources. Hc has a pleasing personality that has won for him hosts of friends."


Edward L. McKee shows in his gracious personality and his unmistakable popularity that he is "to the manor born", having been reared in a thoroughly patrician home and having touched the best of social life from his youth to the present.


On the 21st of February, 1900, Mr. McKee was united in marriage to Miss Grace Wasson, daughter of Hiram P. Wasson, one of the representative business men of Indianapolis and of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. McKee have two children, Edward L., Jr., and Hiram Wasson.


HENRY C. SCHROEDER, the present incum- bent of the responsihle office of township trustee of Center Township, Marion County, in which the capital city is located, came to


America from Germany as a youth without financial resources or influential friends, and his career since that time has been marked by earnest application, through which he has gained a position of independence, the while he has so ordered his course as to retain at all times the confidence and regard of his fellow men. He has maintained his home in Indianapolis during the major portion of the time since coming to the United States, and here has been identified with various business interests, including long and faithful service in connection with railroad affairs.


Mr. Schroeder was born in Hanover, Ger- many, on the 3rd of August, 1862, and is a son of Kaspey and Anne (Bruenger) Schroe- der, both of whom passed their entire lives in Germany, where the father followed the voca- tion of farmer. But nine years of age at the time of his mother's death, Henry C. Schroe- der thereafter became largely dependent upon his own resources, though he received the ad- vantages of the excellent schools of his father- land, under the compulsory education laws. After leaving school he served a thorough apprenticeship at the shoemaker's trade, de- voting four years to such preliminary disci- pline, through which he became a skilled artisan in the line. Thereafter he worked as a journeyman at his trade in his native land until he was nineteen years of age, when he severed the ties which bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunc in America. He landed in New York with a cash capital of but one dollar but with the fortification of courage, ambition and self- reliance, so that he has not failed in his serv- ices as one of the world's noble army of workers. Later Mr. Schroeder took up his residence in Indianapolis, where he secured work at his trade, but within a short interval he began work in a furniture factory. Later he was employed in the old Eagle machine works, and upon leaving this position he initiated his career in connection with rail- road interests, by securing a position as car repairer in the shops of the Pittsburg, Cincin- nati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, from which position he was advanced to that of brakeman on the Panhandle Railroad. After his marriage he was employed as car inspector of passenger cars at the union station in In- dianapolis, retaining this incumbency for a period of ten years, at the expiration of which he- resigned. While thus employed he was associated with John Groff in the organiza- tion of the Order of Railway Car Men.


After his retirement from railroad work Mr. Schroeder engaged in the retail shoc business, in which he continued about three


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years, and after disposing of this business he was a member of the city police force for eight years, during the last three of which he held the office of sergeant. Upon his resig- nation from the police department he engaged in the retail coal business, in which he con- tinned for four and one-half years, disposing of this business when he was elected trustee of Center Township, in November, 1908. To the duties of this office he has since given the major portion of his time and attention and he has proved an efficient public official and one whose course has been marked by fidelity and by careful consideration of the best in - terests of the county and its people. In poli- tics he is a stanch advocate of the cause of the Democratic party, in whose ranks he has been an effective worker. Mr. Schroeder is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he holds membership in Logan Lodge No. 575, Free and Accepted Masons, and In- dianapolis Chapter No. 5, Royal Arch Masons. He also holds membership in the Ancient Or- der of Druids and the Improved Order of Red Men.


In 1883 Mr. Schroeder was united in mar- riage to Miss Mary Tebbe, daughter of Henry Tebbe, of Indianapolis, and they have two children, namely : Harry and Myrtle Schroe- der.


ALBERT E. STERNE, M. D. Occupying a distinguished position among those who are ably upholding the high prestige of the medic- al profession in the State of Indiana and its capital city, Dr. Sterne is giving special at- tention to the treatment of mental and nerv- ous diseases, in which he is a recognized au- thority and in which his reputation far tran- scends local limitations. He has been an ex- tensive and valued contributor to the best periodicals and standard literature of his profession, has prosecuted a large amount of original research and investigation, has ren- dered effective service as a member of the faculty of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and his success in active practice has been on a parity with his admirable professional ability. He owns and conducts the "Norways" Sanatorium, one of the fine institutions of the capital city, and the same is devoted to the treatment of nerv- ous and mental diseases, both medical and surgical.


Dr. Albert Eugene Sterne was born in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 28th of April, 1866, and is a son of Charles F. and Eugenia (Fries) Sterne, the former of whom was a native of Wurtemberg, Germany. and the Jatter of Furth, Bavaria. His father was a scion of sterling German ancestry, and Dr.


Sterne's maternal grandfather was a man of high intellectual attainments, having been a professor of physiology in German universi- ties and having also attained the high dis- tinction of membership in the Legion of Honor. Both he and his son were knighted by the King of Spain for certain discoveries in chemistry. Charles F. Sterne came to In- diana about the year of 1842, and became one of the prominent and influential business men of the Hoosier state. He established his home in the City of Peru and contributed in generous measure to its industrial and civic advancement. He was the founder and owner of the mills in that city, known as the Peru Woolen Mills, and was associated with various other lines of business enterprise, all of which proved of benefit to the town. He there established the gas plant, installing an excellent system, and his public spirit found manifestation in many other lines of normal enterprise. He was at one time an Indian trader. In his woolen mills there were manu- factured at one time all the blankets used by the Pullman Car Company. He also had capitalistic interests in other parts of the state and was known as a man of great ad- ministrative and initiative ability and as a citizen of the highest character. He passed the closing years of his life in Peru, Indiana, where he died in 1880, on the 28th of August, when fifty-two years of age and when his son Albert was a lad of thirteen. His devoted wife, a woman of most gracious personality, was summoned to the life eternal in 1881, six months after the death of her husband.


Dr. Sterne gained his rudimentary educa- tion in the public schools of Peru, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and at the age of eleven years he became a student in Professor Kin- ney's celebrated Cornell School at Ithaca, New York, where he remained for one year, after which he continued his educational work for four years in Mount Pleasant Mili- tary Academy at Sing Sing, New York. In the autumn of 1883, at the age of seventeen years the doctor was matriculated in the literary department of Harvard University, in which historic old institution he completed the classical course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1887, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, cum laude.


In the meanwhile Dr. Sterne had outlined definite plans for his future career and had determined to prepare himself for the med- ical profession. In the prosecution of his purpose he was afforded the best of advan- tages. He was graduated in Harvard in June, 1887, and in the following fall he went to Europe for the purpose of taking up the


albert Steres


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study of medieine in the fine continental uni- versities. He remained abroad for a period of six years. within which he devoted his at- tention to the study of medicine in leading institutions at Strassburg, Heidelberg, Berlin, Vienna and Paris, as well as in Dublin, Edin- burgh and London. In 1891 he was gradu- ated from the medical department of the Uni- versity of Berlin, from which he secured his degree of Doctor of Medicine, magna cum laude. While abroad he had the best of elin- ical experience in hospitals of the highest reputation, having been an assistant in a number of such institutions in various cities -notably the Charity Hospital in Berlin, the Salpetrière in Paris, the Rotunda in Dublin and the Queen's Square in London. He had the distinction of being the promoter and founder of the Society of American Physi- cians in the City of Berlin, Germany, an or- ganization that has continued to be one of essentially representative order.


Thus admirably fortified for the work of his chosen profession, Dr. Sterne returned to America in 1893 and soon afterward estab- lished himself in practice in Indianapolis, where he has since held distinctive prece- dence and where his success has been of the most unequivocal type, based alike upon his fine professional ability and skill akd his per- sonal popularity. He gave his attention to the general practice of medicine and surgery for a number of years, in connection with effective service in the leading local hospitals, and in later years he has concentrated his energies largely in the treatment of nervous and mental diseases, and brain surgery. Realizing the demand for a private institu- tion for the treatment of this serions elass of disorders Dr. Sterne consulted ways and means and finally was able to establish his present fine sanatorium. known as "Nor- ways". He purchased the old Fletcher homestead, opposite Woodruff Park, and after extensive remodeling and the building of requisite additions this now constitutes one of the finest private sanatoriums in the United States. Its equipment is of the high- est modern standard throughout, its sanitary provisions of the most approved order and its surroundings make it an especially ideal place for the treatment of nervous and mental dis- orders, to which specifie purpose it is essen- tially devoted. "Norways" Sanatorium has gained a wide and noteworthy reputation and its patronage has come. from the most diverse sections of the Union. while in a mere local sense its superior advantages have gained for it an essentially representative support.




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