Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 34

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 34

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Vol. II-11

Dr. Sterne is an appreciative and valued member of the American Medical Association, the Medico-Legal Society of New York, the Mississippi Valley Medical Society, the In- diana State Medieal Society and the Indian- apolis Medical Society, and he is a member and now the president of the Ohio Valley Medieal Society. His contributions to the literature of his profession cover a wide realne and have been largely devoted to the discus- sion of original propositions and practical in- formation relating to nervous and mental diseases, than which the physician finds none more difficult and perplexing in diagnosis and treatment. In 1894 Dr. Sterne was appointed to the chair of nervous and mental diseases in the Central College of Physicians and Sur- geons, and he has since continued the incum- bent of this important professorship, in which his services have been of the most admirable and effective order, in the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is consulting neurolo- gist to the City Hospital and Dispensary, now a part of the Indiana University Medical School, to the Deaconess Hospital, the Flower Mission and other local institutions, and not- withstanding the exactions of his private pro- fessional affairs he gives loyal and faithful at- tention to the duties of each of these posi- tions. He was formerly an associate editor of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis- eases, published in New York City, and has also withdrawn from the editorship of the Medical Monitor. Governor Durbin appoint- ed Dr. Sterne Assistant Surgeon General of Indiana, with rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Liberal and progressive as a citizen, Dr. Sterne manifests a deep interest in all that tends to material and eivic welfare of his home city, and here his friends are of a rep- resentative character-in professional, busi- ness and social circles. Though he has had no desire to enter the arena of practical poli- tics he gives an unqualified allegiance to the Republican party and lends his aid and in- fluence unreservedly in the promotion of its cause. He is identified with the Columbia, Commercial, University and Harvard Clubs and the German House. He is a man of abiding human sympathy and tolerance, and in his profession he has made this sympathy more than mere sentiment-for it has repre- sented an actuating motive for helpfulness. He is well known in his home city and state, and holds a commanding position in his pro- fession.

On the 4th of March, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Sterne and Laura Mercy Laughlin, a danghter of James A. and Mary (Carey) Laughlin, of Walnut Hills, Cincin-

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mati, Ohio. She was called from this life on the 25th of May, 1909, and is interred at Crown Hill. Her death was lamentable and her many friends still mourn her loss. Mrs. Sterne was an accomplished musician and a most beautiful woman, and was but thirty- five years of age at the time of her death.

ALMUS G. RUDDELL. Among the represen- tative business men of the younger generation ir his native city is numbered Mr. Ruddell, who is president of the Central Rubber & Supply Company, one of the successful in- dustrial concerns of the capital city.

Mr. Ruddell is not only a native son of Indiana, but is also a scion of one of its honored pioneer families. He was born in Indianapolis on the 29th of July, 1873, and is a son of James H. and Mary Hannah (Vin- ton ) Ruddell. James Henry Ruddell was born at Allisonville, Marion County, this state, and was a son of Dr. Ambrose G. Rud- dell, who was a native of Kentucky and who became one of the prominent pioneer physi- cians of Indiana, where he continued in the practice of his profession until his death. James H. Ruddell was reared and educated in Indiana and attained no little distinction as a member of its bar, having been engaged in the successful practice of law in Indianapo- lis at the time of his death, which occurred when he was forty-four years of age, in 1884. He served as a member of the lower house of the Indiana legislature in 1869 and proved an able conservator of the public interests as well as of the cause of the Republican party, in whose councils ho wielded no little influ- ence in his native state. He is survived by two sons, of whom Almus G. is the elder; Frank S., the younger son, is a salesman by vocation and is now a resident of Indian- apolis, having been graduated in Leland Stan- ford University. in California, as a member of the class of 1897. Soon after the death of her husband Mrs. Ruddell removed with her sons to California, where she maintained her home for a number of years. She is now the wife of Hon. Ambrose P. Stanton, of Indianapolis, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this publication.

Almus G. Ruddell received his early educa- tional training in the public schools of In- dianapolis and was fourteen years of age at the time of his mother's removal to Califor- nia, where in due course of time he was matri- enlated in Leland Stanford University. in which famous institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Two years later his brother was gradu- ated in the same university. as already noted.

Soon after his graduation Mr. Ruddell re- turned to Indianapolis, in June, 1895, and for the ensuing two years he held a position in the wholesale drug establishment of Ward Brothers. In 1899 he became associated with the Central Rubber & Supply Company. in which he is the principal stockholder and of which he has been president since that year. This concern conducts a wholesale business in the handling of rubber goods and mill sup- plies, and represents one of the substantial business enterprises of "Greater Indianap- olis". Mr. Ruddell is essentially alert and progressive as a business man and takes a loyal interest in all that tends to further the industrial and civic progress of his native city, where he is well known and enjoys un- equivocal popularity. He is a member of the Commercial Club, is affiliated with Mystic Tie Lodge No. 398, Free and Accepted Ma- sons, and in politics he gives his allegiance to the Republican party.

He was married, April 12, 1899, to Clemen- tine Tucker. of Newark, New Jersey, and has two sons. James Henry Ruddell, born April 19, 1903, and Warren Tucker Ruddell, born February 9, 1910.

EDWIN B. PUGH. Natural predilection. through preparation and zealous devotion have given Mr. Pugh distinctive prestige as one of the able members of the bar of In- diana and in its capital city he controls a large and representative practice. He served for two years as prosecuting attorney of Mar- ion County and in this office he made a most admirable record. materially enhancing his professional reputation.

Edwin Barton Pugh was born in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 21st of March. 1867, and he finds no small measure of satis- faction in reverting to the old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity, though essentially loyal to and appreciative of Indiana, in which commonwealth he has lived since his child- hood days. He is the third in order of birth of the seven children born to James B. and Celia M. (Lenien) Pugh, who still maintain their home in Indianapolis, secure in the es- teem of all who know them. Both were born and reared in Ohio and are members of hon- ored pioneer families of that state. James B. Pugh, who was long engaged as traveling salesman for wholesale hardware honses, and who is now living virtually retired. removed to Indianapolis when the subject of this sketch was about five years of age and has since retained his residence in this city. He is a Republican in politics and he and his wife hold membership in the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Edwin B. Pugh is indebted to the public schools of Indianapolis for his early educa- tional training, which included the curricu- lum of the high school, in which he was grad- uated as a member of the class of 1887. He then entered DePauw University, prosecut- ing his studies in the academic department and completing the prescribed course in the law department, in which he was graduated in March, 1890, with first honors of his class and was accorded his well earned degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith ad- mitted to the bar of the state and opened an office in the Indiana Trust building, in In- dianapolis, which office he has continued to occupy during the intervening years, which have been marked by most successful accom- plishment in his profession, which he has hon- ored by his able services and to which his devotion has been of the most unequivocal type.

In politics Mr. Pugh gives an unswerving allegiance to the Republican party, but he has never held public office except that in di- rect line with the work of his profession. In 1898 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Marion County, and he gave a most alert and forceful administration in conserving the ends of justice in bringing malefactors to their just deserts. He was specially active in the ferreting out and prosecution of offi- cials guilty of graft and malfeasance, and had the distinction of securing the first con- viction in the history of the county on the charge of bribery by a public official. Among others he successfully prosecuted a member of the city council on the charge of soliciting a bribe. This official was convicted and served a term in the penitentiary. Mr. Pugh has been the architect of his own fortune and his advancement has been gained by the hon- est application of his owni energies and pow- ers, so that he is fully deserving of the proud American title of self-made man. He is a liberal and loyal citizen, taking definite in- terest in all that tends to advance the welfare of the city and state, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has gained the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife hold membership in the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

On the 21st of June, 1899, Mr. Pugh was united in marriage to Miss Bonnie Bean- champ, daughter of Judge Robert B. Bean- champ, of Tipton, Indiana, a student of De- Pauw University, and the one child of this union is Caroline.

CYRUS N. HAROLD, M. D. As one of the able and honored representatives of the med- ical profession in the capital city of his na- tive state, where he has been engaged in ac- tive practice for nearly fifteen years and where he is president of the faculty of his alma mater, the Physio-Medical College, Dr. Harold is well entitled to consideration in this publication touching Indianapolis and its people.

Dr. Harold was born in the village of Car- mel, Hamilton County, Indiana, on the 20th of January, 1855, and is a son of Nathan and Elizabeth B. (Hawkins) Harold, the former of whom was born in North Carolina, in 1811, and the latter of whom was a native of Richmond, Indiana, where she was born in 1813. . Both passed the closing years of their lives in Hamilton County, this state, which long represented their home, and the father died in 1884 and the mother in 1899. Of their nine children eight are living, and of the number the subject of this review is the youngest. Nathan Harold came with his parents to Indiana in the pioneer days and he became one of the snecessful farmers and honored citizens of

Hamilton County, whither he removed from Wayne County. He improved in the former county, a valuable farm property and on this attractive old homestead, the scene of their labors for many years, they passed the gentle evening of their lives, secure in the unqualified esteem of all who knew them. Both were birthright mem- bers of the Society of Friends, and of this noble and simple faith they were consistent exemplars during the course of their entire lives, marked by earnestness and by devotion to the good, the true and the beautiful. In politics the father was originally aligned as a supporter of the cause of the Whig party, but upon the organization of the Re- publican party he transferred his allegiance to the same and thereafter he continued a loyal supporter of its cause. He was a stanch abolitionist in the climacteric period leading up to and culminating in the War of the Re- bellion.

Dr. Harold was reared under the sturdy discipline of the home farm, to whose work he early began to contribute his quota, and he duly availed himself of the advantages of the district schools, after which he continued his studies in the high school at Carmel, in which he was graduated when nineteen years of age. In preparing for the work of his chosen and exacting profession he was matriculated in the Physio-Medical College of Indiana, at Indianapolis, in which insti- tution he completed the prescribed course and

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

was graduated as a member of the class of 1879, with the well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. He served his initiate in the practical work of his profession by locating in the village of Eagletown, Hamilton Coun- ty, this state, where he was engaged in prac- tice until 1881, when he removed to Rich- mond, this state, in which city he continued in the successful work of his chosen calling until September, 1895, when he came to In- dianapolis, where he has since been engaged in general practice and where he has gained marked prestige as a physician and surgeon of distinctive ability and where his clientage is of representative order, based alike upon his acknowledged skill and his personal pop- nlarity. For some time after taking up his residence in the capital city the doctor was demonstrator of atanomy in the Physio-Med- ical College, later he became professor of physiology in the institution, and he now holds the chair of diseases of women, in ad- dition to which he is honored with the ap- preciative preferment implied in his being president of the faculty of this well ordered institution. He is a prominent and valued member of the Indianapolis Physio-Medical Society, the First District Medical Society, the Indiana State Physio-Medical Society, and the National Physio-Medical Society. He has made valuable contributions to the peri- odical literature of his profession and keeps in close touch with the advances made in all departments of its work. He and his wife are both prominent in the Society of Friends, in which they are birthright members, and they take an active part in the work of the local church of this denomination.

On the 14th of March, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Harold to Miss Ella Spencer, who was born in Cadiz, Henry Coun- ty, Indiana, a daughter of Ezra and Hannah B. (Palmer) Spencer, the former of whom was born in Belmont County, Ohio, and the latter in North Carolina. Mr. Spencer, who is now living virtually retired, in the state of Oklahoma, having attained to the venerable age of fourscore years, was engaged in mer- cantjie pursuits in Indiana for many years. Later he was for a number of years a resi- dent of Sumner County, Kansas, and he served two terms as treasurer of that county, whence he eventually removed to Oklahoma. He is a devout member of the Society of Friends, as was also his wife, who died when Mrs. Harold. the elder of her two children, was nine years of age. To Dr. and Mrs. Har- old were born two children, the elder of whom, Charles O., died in infancy; Lura B.

is now the wife of Cleo L. Hunt, and they reside in Brownsburg, Indiana.

CHARLES MAYER. This well known and honored business man of Indianapolis is a member of a family whose name has been long and prominently identified with business and civic interests in the capital city of In- diana, and he is now one of the interested principals in the firm of Charles Mayer & Company, proprietors of the "Gift Store", which is one of the leading department stores of the city, and which controls a large and substantial trade. The enterprise was founded in 1840 by the father of him whose name initiates this sketch, and the same has been continued without interruption and with ever increasing success. Charles Mayer has personally achieved a position as one of the representative business men, and leal and loyal citizens of his native city, where he has a secure place in the confidence and esteem of the community. In business he is asso- ciated with his brother, Ferdinand L., of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work, together with a brief re- view of the family history and a record con- cerning the upbuilding of the fine business enterprise with which the subject of this article has been identified from his youth to the present time. In this connection refer- ence should be made to the sketch of the career of the elder brother, Ferdinand L.

Charles Mayer was born in Indianapolis, on the 6th of June, 1862, and is a son of Charles and Matilda L. (Lempp) Mayer, of whom further mention is made in the sketch to which reference has just been made. Mr. Mayer secured his early education in In- dianapolis, under the effective direction of Mrs. Gretty Holliday and Mrs. E. J. Price. Later he attended a school at Prangis, Switzerland, on the shores of beautiful Lake Geneva, and after his return to the United States he continued his studies in Greylock Institute, at South Williamstown, Massachu- setts. After leaving school he became iden- tified with the retail mercantile business which his father had established many years previously, and the present firm of Charles Mayer & Company, perpetuating the name of the honored father, occupies the same site, on Washington street, on which the father began business in 1840, as one of the early merchants and highly honored citizens of the capital city, which was then a mere village. The east sixteen feet of land occupied by the present fine establishment of the firm was purchased by Charles Mayer, Sr., for a con- sideration of only sixteen hundred dollars, and the property, in the very heart of the

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

city, is now worth thousands of dollars. After the death of the father, in 1891, the sons Ferdinand L. and Charles assumed control and active management of the business, which has since been continued by them with ever increasing success. They have added ma- terially to the prestige of the name which they bear and observe the same integrity and fairness that have characterized the conduct of the business from the time of its inception, nearly seventy years ago. It is needless to say that the scope of the enterprise has been changed with the demands of the passing years and that to-day the establishment of the company is one of essentially metropolitan facilities and appointments. Both of the brothers were carefully trained in business and both are notable for broad and practical views and progressive ideas in connection with business affairs and also in association with the responsibilities and demands of citi- zenship.

Charles Mayer is enterprising and loyal as a citizen and has ever shown a deep interest in all that concerns the advancement of his native city, so that he has not failed to con- tribute his quota to the development and up- building of the "Greater Indianapolis", the beautiful city of culture and refinement, the alert and vital commercial and industrial center. In politics he is a stanch advocate of the cause of the Republican party, but he has never been ambitious for public office, pre- ferring to devote his time and attention to business affairs and to specific efforts along cther lines conserving the welfare of his home city and state. He is a popular figure in the social life of Indianapolis, where he is ac- tively identified with representative fraternal and civic organizations. In the Masonic fraternity his affiliations are here noted : Mystic Tie Lodge No. 398, Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Keystone Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons; Raper Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar; Indiana Sovereign Con- sistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree; and Murat Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Among the other noteworthy organizations with which Mr. Mayer is identified may be mentioned the Columbia and Commercial Clubs, the German House, the Indianapolis Maennerchor, the Highland Golf Club, the University Club and the Country Club.

On the 28th of April, 1886, Mr. Mayer was united in marriage to Miss Josephine Kiefer, who was born at Edenburg, Indiana, on the 13th of October. 1863, and who is the eldest of the three children born to Augustus and

Martha . (Shipp) Kiefer. Her father was born in Germany, in the year 1828, and in 1838, when but ten years of age, he came with his parents to America, making the long and weary voyage on a sailing vessel of the type common to that period. For some time the family home was at Miamisburg, Ohio, and after attaining years of maturity Mr. Kiefer took up his abode in Edenburg, In- diana, where he continued to reside until 1863, when he removed to Indianapolis, where he engaged in the wholesale drug business, un- der the firm name of Vinton & Kiefer. He has continued to be identified with this line of enterprise during the long intervening years and is now one of the prominent and influen- tial business men and most highly honored citizens of Indianapolis, where he is head of the wholesale drug house conducted under title of the A. Kiefer Drug Company. Indi- vidual mention is made of Mr. Kiefer on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Mayer have three children, Charles, Jr., Au- gustus Kiefer, and Edward L.

FRANK ERDELMEYER. The great Empire of Germany has contributed a most valuable element to the complex social fabric of our American Republic and from this source we have had much to gain and nothing to lose. A distinguished representative of German- American citizenship in Indianapolis is Col- onel Frank Erdelmeyer, who has here main- tained his home for more than half a cen- tury, who has been prominently identified with business interests of important order and to whom it was given to render particu- larly distinguished services as a soldier of lis adopted country in the War of the Rebellion. No citizen. maintains or is deserving of a higher measure of popular confidence and es- teem and he is still actively identified with mercantile interests as the owner of one of the leading retail drug establishments of the city, the same being located at 915 North New Jersey Street.

Colonel Erdelmeyer was born at Herrn- sheim, near the City of Worms, Germany, on the 2nd of November, 1835, and is a son of Phillip and Elizabeth (Tag) Erdelmeyer, both of whom passed their entire lives in Germany, where the father devoted the ma- jor portion of his active career to keeping a hotel. The colonel gained his early educa- tion in the excellent schools of his father- land and served a thorough apprenticeship at the trade of upholsterer. When he had at- tained to the age of seventeen years his fa- ther gave him the privilege either of emi- grating to America or remaining in his na- tive land where it would be necessary .under

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

the governmental laws for him to enter the German army for a certain period of active service, at the conclusion of which the au- thorities would not permit his removal to America. Under these conditions the ambi- tious young man determined to seek his for- tune in the new world and in 1852 he sev- ered the gracious ties which bound him to home and fatherland and set forth for Amer- ica. After his arrival in the port of New York, he soon found employment at his trade, to which he continued to devote his attention in the old Empire state about three years, at the expiration of which he started for the West, finally locating in the city of Cincin- nati, where he remained one year. He came to Indianapolis in 1858 and this city has rep- resented his home during the long interven- ing years. Soon after his arrival in the In- diana capital he secured employment in the establishment of John Ott, a well known furniture manufacturer, by whom he contin- ned to be employed at his trade until the in- ception of the Civil War, when he showed his distinctive loyalty to the cause of the Union by tendering his services in its defense. He was at the time a member of the Indianapolis Turnverein and with many other of these members he enlisted. April 21, 1861, as a pri- vate in the Eleventh Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, of which the late General Lew Wal- lace became colonel. In this regiment Col- onel Erdelmeyer was a member of Company E and upon the formal organization of the company he was made a sergeant of the same, retaining this office until the expiration of the regiment's three month's term of enlist- ment, when he received his honorable dis- charge. He then returned to Indianapolis and assisted in recruiting a German regiment, a plan which had been successfully followed prior to this in the city of Cincinnati. This organization was made up entirely of Ger- man citizens of Indianapolis and other towns of the state and was mustered into United States service as the Thirty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Colonel Erdelmeyer was made captain of Company A and while re- taining this position he participated with his regiment in the battle at Rowlett's Station, near Green River, Kentucky; the memorable battle of Shiloh; and the siege of Corinth. On the 20th of October, 1862, Captain Erdel- meyer was promoted to the rank of lieutenant- colonel and on the 8th of August of the fol- lowing year he received full commission as colonel. He had command of his regiment from October 1, 1862. until is was mustered ont at the close of its three years' term of en- listment. He gained high reputation as a

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 34

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