Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 39

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 39

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In 1891 Mr. Mansfield was united in mar- riage to Miss Ada F. Freeland, of Spencer, Indiana, and they have one child, Freeland.

CHARLES M. CROSS. Among those success- fully engaged in the real estate business in Indianapolis is Charles M. Cross, who has here followed this important line of enter- prise" since 1895 and whose operations have included the handling and improving of many properties of important order, thus contribut- ing in a material way to the progress and de- velopment of "Greater Indianapolis". Mr. Cross has maintained his home in Indianapo- lis for more than a quarter of a century and is here known as a loyal citizen and as a re- liable and progressive business man who has achieved success through his own well di- rected endeavors.

Charles M. Cross reverts to the fine old Keystone state of the Union as the place of his nativity, since he was born at Alexandria, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of March, 1857. He is one of the five living children of Benjamin and Mary (Sai- nor) Cross, both of whom were born and reared in Pennsylvania, where they passed their entire lives and where the father was a carpenter and building contractor by voca- tion. He was of French and German lineage and his wife was a representative of one of the old and honored German families of Pennsylvania. The parents were folk of ster- ling character and ever commanded the high regard of all who knew them. Both con- tinued to reside in Alexandria until they were summoned from the scene of life's en- deavors and both were consistent members of the German Reformed Church.

Charles M. Cross is indebted to the public schools of his native village for his early edu- cational, training, and his ambition and ap- preciation were such that he defrayed the ex- penses of his higher academie education largely through his own efforts. He secured employment as a traveling salesman and through the alternating of his services in this way with attendance in college, he was able to continue his studies for two years in Mer- cersburg College, at Mercersburg, Pennsyl- vania, and for an equal period in Heidelberg College, at Tiffin, Ohio. After leaving college Mr. Cross continued to be employed as a traveling commercial salesman for fifteen years, during a considerable portion of which time he represented a leading wholesale con- cern of Indianapolis. He was married in the year 1883 and forthwith took up his residence in Indianapolis, where he has maintained his home during the long intervening years. He continued "on the road" until 1895, when he engaged in the real estate business in this city, initiating operations on a somewhat modest scale and gradually expanding the same until he has now control of a large and substantial enterprise in this line. His books show at all times most desirable investments and his scrupulous care and honor in all transactions have given to him a reputation that constitutes the best possible advertise- ment of his business. He has bought and sold realty in various parts of the city, has erected numerous buildings and placed the improved properties on the market, and has been con- cerned in the development of several of the newer residence sections of the capital city. Mr. Cross has shown marked executive ability and has handled his independent business with much of prescience and skill, so that his operations have yielded to him due returns and have proved of value to those whom he has served in his professional capacity as a general real estate dealer. His success is the more gratifying to contemplate on the score that it represents the direct results of his own labors and ability. He has been dependent upon his own resources from early youth and has made his business career worthy in all re- spects.

In politics Mr. Cross is not a turbulent partisan, but he gives allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party. In the time-hon- ored Masonic fraternity he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and his sojourn across the burn- ing sands has placed him in good repute as a member of Murat Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His maximum York Rite affiliation is with Raper

Hough Dougherty

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templar, and he is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.

In the year 1883 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Cross to Miss Laura Lott, of Tiffin, Ohio, a graduate of Heidelberg College, of that place, and the children of this union are Harry E., Jessie M., Charles M., Jr., Helen Ida, and Donald Frederick.

HUGH DOUGHERTY. That "man lives not to himself alone" is an assurance that is am- ply verified in all the affairs of life, but its pertinence is the more patent in those in- stances where persons have so employed their inherent talents, so improved their oppor- tunities and so marshaled their forces as to gain prestige which find its angle of influ- ence ever broadening in practical beneficence and human helpfulness. He whose productive activities are directed along legitimate and normal lines is by very virtue of this fact exerting a force that conserves human prog- ress and prosperity, and the man of capacity for business affairs of broad scope and im- portance finds himself an involuntary steward upon whom devolve large responsibilities. To the extent that he appreciates these duties and responsibilities and proved faithful in his stewardship does he also contribute to the well being of the world in which he moves. Hugh Dougherty has been essentially a man who "has done things", and this accomplish- ment has been altogether worthy in all the lines along which he has directed his energies. As a man of ability, sturdy integrity and usefulness, and as a citizen representative of the utmost loyalty he merits consideration in this publication, which touches the "Greater Indianapolis" and those who have con- tributed to and sustained the city's civic and material prosperity and precedence. He is now president of the Marion Trust Company. one of the most important financial and fiduciary institutions of the state, having held the position since 1904, in which year he took up his residence in Indianapolis. Prior to that time he had been a resident of the thriv- ing little city of Bluffton, Indiana, for a period of nearly forty years. He has been prominently identified with various business operations of importance for many years, es- pecially in the promotion of the affairs of independent telephone companies; he is known as an able financier and a man of marked initiative and constructive talent; he has been influential in political affairs; and his loyalty as a true son of the republic was shown in a distinctive way through his serv- ice as a soldier in the Civil war. Lives of such activity and usefulness are ever worthy

of study and bear objective lesson and in- centive.

Mr. Dougherty was born on a farm in Neave Township, Darke County, Ohio, and the date of his nativity was July 28, 1844. He bears the full patronymic of his honored grandfather, Hugh Dougherty, who was born in County Donegal, Ireland, where he was reared and educated and whence he immi- grated to America when a young man. This worthy ancestor first settled in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1818, and he eventually removed thence and became one of the pioneer settlers of Darke County, Ohio, where he secured a tract of wild land and instituted its reclamation. William Dougherty, father of the subject of this re- view, was born in Washington County, Penn- sylvania, and his active career was princi- pally one of intimate identification with the great basic industry of agriculture, in connec- tion with which he so directed his energies as to gain a due measure of success and pros- perity. He continued to reside in Darke County until his death, which occurred when he was about fifty-nine years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Studabaker, was. a daughter of Abraham Studabaker, one of the pioneers and influen- tial citizens of Drake County, Ohio, and a distant relative 'of the Indiana family of the name who have become widely known as man- nfacturers of carriages and wagons. Mrs. Dougherty was about thirty-nine years of age at the time of her demise, and of the seven children one son and two daughters are now living. The parents were zealous members of the Christian Church and were persons of sterling character and of more than ordinary intellectuality.

Hugh Dougherty, whose name initiates this sketch, was reared to the sturdy and invig- orating discipline of the home farm and his early educational advantages were those af- forded in the common schools of the locality and period. That he made good use of his limited scholastic opportunities is evident when. cognizance is taken of the fact that at the age of seventeen years he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors, having secured a teacher's license after passing the required examination. He taught one term in a dis- trict school of his native county and then, like many another loyal youth of the north, he subordinated all other considerations to respond to the call of higher duty and go forth in defense of the Union, whose integ- rity was jeopardized by armed rebellion. July 26, 1862. he enlisted as a private in Company F, Ninety-fourth Ohio Volunteer

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Infantry, which procceded to the front, hav- ing been assigned to the Army of the Poto- With his command he participated in the battles of Richmond, Perryville and Stone's River, in which last mentioned en- gagement he was captured by the enemy, late in 1862: was paroled at onee and sent to Camp Chase, where he became very ill and was sent home, and the following May was discharged on account of disability. Ilis eon- tinued interest in his old comrades in arms is indieated by his membership in the Grand Army of the Republie.

After the termination of his service as a loyal soldier of the Union, Mr. Dougherty re- turned to the parental home, taught one terni of school, and was deputy county recorder of Darke County until 1865, when he went to Bluffton, Indiana, where he entered the en- ploy of his maternal unele, John Studabaker, one of the honored pioneers and influential citizens of Wells County, who was engaged in the grain commission trade at Bluffton and is still living being ninety-three years of age. Mr. Studabaker was also owner of the Ex- change Bank of Bluffton, and Mr. Dough- erty soon assumed a elerieal position in this institution, in which he eventually became a partner of his unele and of which he eon- tinned an exeentive officer for many years. In 1888 he became president of the institu- tion, and the Studabaker Bank, as it is now known, has long been one of the solid and most popular financial institutions of that seetion of the state. Mr. Dougherty eontin- ued to serve as president of the bank for a period of sixteen years, at the expiration of which, in 1904, he resigned the office to enter a wider field of financial enterprise. In that year he as med the presideney of the Mar- jon Trust Company, of Indianapolis, and in this important office he has thoroughly dem- onstrated his perspieaeity, versatility and fine administrative ability, through the applica- tion of which the distinctive success of the en- terprise has been conserved.

Mr. Dougherty has shown his versatility and power of leadership in other spheres of business enterprise-notably the development of the telephone industry. When the United Telephone Company was organized in 1896, he became its president. and this incumbeney he has sinee retained. This company was one of the first of the so-called independent com- panies, and was incorporated with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars. Inei- dentally Mr. Dougherty became one of the leaders in the national association of inde- pendent telephone companies, and to his ef- forts may be attributed much of the snecess

of this national organization, through whose influence the various independent companies have been able to meet the strenuous eompe- tition brought to bear. Comtemporaneons with the organization of the United Tele- phone Company, there came into existence a number of similar corporations, not only in Ohio and Indiana but also in many other and inost diverse sections of the Union. The Bell Telephone Company maintained that the in- dependent companies were infringing upon its patents, and finally it brought suit against a small company in the city of Boston. Real- izing that the weaker coneern was liable to (lefeat, on account of the laek of financial means to fight so formidable a foe, and that upon the verdiet depended their own future, the independent companies organized to sup- port the defense of the suit, and the na- tional association thus formed is still main- tained. The president, Judge James M. Thomas, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and Mr. Dough- erty were placed on the committee in charge of the suit, which, after five years of most expensive litigation, was decided in favor of the independent .companies. They were lit- erally fighting for their lives, and ineidental- ly against the domination of a monopoly maintained in contrariety to publie interests, and the legal contest was one in which was enlisted the best talent, with ample capital- istie reinforcement. Judge Thomas and Mr. Dougherty devoted themselves to the work without abatement of enthusiasm or energy until victory was assured. When Judge Thomas died, Mr. Dougherty was chosen to sueeeed him as president of the national as- sociation, an office of which he continued in tenure until 1904. His efforts have been productive of much good aside from the im- munity from law suits of the companies orig- inally interested. Many investors who had been intimidated by the conditions obtaining prior to the litigation mentioned, entered the field as soon as the eourts defined the limit of responsibility, and the patronage of the in- dependent companies with which he was con- nected financially was extended through the provisions of an agreement which Mr. Dougherty succeeded in effecting with the Bell Company. by which the lines he repre- sented could be connected with a number of large cities in which they were not yet es- tablished in an independent way. Thus he has been instrumental in promoting the ef- ficiency of a public utility of the greatest importance and value, and his efforts in this direction gained him a wide reputation among men of affairs throughout the Union.

In polities Mr. Dougherty has long been a

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

recognized factor of influence in connection with the affairs of the Democratic party in Indiana, and during his long period of resi- dence in Wells County he took a prominent part in the manœuvering of party forces in that section of the state. He was a member of the Democratic state executive committee from 1890 to 1896, and was a delegate to the national conventions of his party in 1884, 1892, 1896, and 1900. As an astute man of affairs and an able financier he is naturally found enlisted as a member of the conserva- tive wing of the Democratic party, of whose generic principles he has ever been a stal- wart advocate. He represented his district in the state senate from 1871 to 1873, but he has never shown himself ambitious for pub- lic office.

Mr. Dougherty and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he has not withheld his hand from lib- eral support of religious, charitable and be- nevolent work of a general order, the while his private benevolences have been extended with discrimination and invariably without ostentation. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, is president of the board of trustees of DePauw University, and in In- dianapolis he is an appreciative and valued member of the Commercial, University and Country Clubs. Concerning the status of Mr. Dougherty, the president of the Indiana National Bank, Volney T. Malott, himself one of the leading financiers of the country, has written the following estimate: "Mr. Hugh Dougherty, a distinguished financier, president of the Marion Trust Company, ranks among the ablest financiers of the state ; he has had a long and successful career as a banker, and is a man of the highest standing and the strictest integrity."

On the 25th of October, 1877. was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Dougherty to Miss Emma Gilliland, daughter of Theodore F. Gilliland, of Indianapolis, and they have one daughter, Elizabeth, who was graduated in DePauw University in 1907 and was gradu- ated in the class of 1909 in Wellesley College. The following consistent statement is worthy of reproduction in this connection : "Mrs. Dougherty is not only a leader in social cir- cles, but is also a woman whose time and means are devoted quietly but unreservedly to charitable and philanthropie enterprises, sharing to the full her husband's sympathy in such works."

WILLIAM C. VAN ARSDEL. Both in the an- cestra! history and the personal career of William C. Van Arsdel is to be found an

abundance of interesting data worthy of per- petuation in a volume of this character. Hc is a scion of one of the sturdy Holland Dutch families whose names early became linked with the history of New Amsterdam, the quaint little town which figures in history as the nuclens of New York City, the metrop- olis of our great republic. Representatives of the name have been enrolled as gallant sol- diers in the various wars in which the nation has been involved and utmost civic loyalty and devoted patriotism have characterized the family as one generation has followed an- other on to the stage of life's activities. Mr. Van Arsdel himself has long held prestige as one of the honored and substantial business men and public-spirited citizens of the State of Indiana, which has been his home from the time of his nativity and he is now engaged in the real estate business in the City of Indian- apolis, though he ·maintains his residence in Greencastle, whither he removed in 1905, in order to afford his children the advantages of DePauw University. He is well known throughout the state and his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.

William C. Van Arsdel was born on a farm in Franklin township, near the village of Dar- lington, Montgomery County, Indiana, on the 19th of December, 1849, and is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Buek) Van Arsdel. The orig- inal progenitors of the Van Arsdel line in America were four brothers of the name who came from Holland in 1635 and took up their abode among their countrymen in New Am- sterdam, which name was retained until the English usurped control and gave to the community the title of New York. - - Van Arsdel, the paternal great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of New Jersey and was a valiant soldier in the Con- tinental line in the War of the Revolution, in which he sacrificed his life on the altar of independence, having been killed in the his- toric battle of Trenton. Jacob Van Arsdel, father of William C., was born in Westmore- Jand County, Pennsylvania, on the 3rd of January, 1795, and he died at Thorntown, Boone County, Indiana, in 1877. His wife, who was a native of the State of Ohio, died in 1889. They reared a very large family of children and of the number two sons and two daughters are living. Jacob Van Arsdel early became a devout member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church and for more than half a century he was a local preacher in the same, having been a man of strong individuality and fine mental powers and having guided and governed his life according to the faith which he so earnestly and effectively exempli-

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

fied in seeking to aid and uplift his fellow men. He was one of the pioneers of Mont- gomery County, Indiana, where he secured a tract of wild land and reclaimed a farm, and he devoted the major portion of his long and useful career to agricultural pursuits. He continued to reside in Montgomery County until 1856, when he removed to Thorntown, in order to offer his children needed educa- tional advantages. In the climacteric period leading up to the Civil War he was an uncom- promising Abolitionist, and he did most effec- tive work in the cause. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, having been a member of Captain Zenor's company and having assisted in guarding blockhouses in southern Indiana during the campaign of General William Henry Harrison in this state. He was thus on duty at the time of the historic battle of Tippecanoe.

William C. Van Arsdel passed his child- hood days on the old homestead farm and at Thorntown, Indiana, where his parents re- moved when he was six years old and where he had the privilege of study in a well or- dered academy at Thorntown, this state, to which place his parents removed in 1856, as has already been noted. In 1870 he entered Asbury University, now De Pauw University, at Lafayette, Indiana, where he was a student for a few months. In the spring of 1871 he took up his residence in Indianapolis, where he began reading law in the offices and under the preceptorship of the firm of Ritter, Wal- ker & Ritter, with whom he remained three years. in the meanwhile being admitted to the har of his native state. The dry technicalities of the law and the inactive life involved did not greatly appeal to the ambitious and vital youth, and he soon directed his energies in other channels. For a period of fourteen years he did most effective services as travel- ing salesman for a wholesale clothing house in the City of Cincinnati, and in this connec- tion he covered the State of Indiana as well as other territory. At the expiration of the period noted Mr. Van Arsdel became a special agent for the New York Life Insurance Com- pany, and in 1897 this company promoted him to the position of director of agencies for the State of Indiana, with headquarters in Indianapolis. He was most successful in fur- thering the interests of the company. in his jurisdiction and he continued in the position mentioned until 1905, when he resigned the same in order to devote his attention to his rapidly increasing real estate business, which he had established in 1904 and which he still continues, having a large and representative clientage and conducting important opera-

tions in the handling of both city and farm property: It is scarcely necessary to state that his business career has been marked by the most scrupulous integrity of purpose andl that the highest ethical standard has been upheld in all the relations thereof. Thus he has ever retained a secure hold upon the con- fidence and regard of his fellow men, and his gracious personality has promoted warm and inviolable friendships.

From the time of attaining to his legal ma- jority Mr. Van Arsdel has accorded a stanch allegiance to the Republican party, in whose cause he has rendered yeoman service and by which he has been honored with official pre- ferment of not small distinction. In Indiana he attended every state convention of his party for more than a quarter of a century, and in 1894 he was elected to represent Marion County in the state legislature. He proved a valuable working member upon the floor of the house and also in the committee room, and his record was admirable in every respect, being marked by conservatism and mature judgment. As chairman of the fee and salary committee he gave especially con- spicuous service, having been the author of the fee and salary bill, whose cause he ably championed and through whose provision, as enacted, thousands of dollars have been saved to the state yearly. In 1890 Mr. Van Arsdel, as a veteran of the commercial fraternity, had the honor of being chosen president of the National Commercial Travelers' Republican Club, and he retained this office several years, indicating the estimate placed upon him by the members of the organization. For many years he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he has taken an active interest in the various departments of its work.

Mr. Van Arsdel has been twice married. In 1874 he wedded Miss Francilia E. Hawk, who was born and reared in Morrisville, In- diana, and who was a daughter of the late Dr. William V. Hawk, a representative - citi- zen of Morgan and Marion Counties for many years. Mrs. Van Arsdel was summoned to the eternal life in 1893, leaving no children. In 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Van Arsdel to Miss Emma P. Parr, of Frank- lin, this state. She was born in Johnson County, and is a daughter of Rev. Peterson K. Parr, who was a resident of Johnson County at the time of his death and who was a minister by vocation. The children of the second marriage are: Mary E., William C., Jr., and Paul Parr. In 1905 Mr. Van Arsdel built a fine residence property in the beautiful little city of Greencastle, and since

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 39

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