Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 4

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 4

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Charles Edward Wright was born on a farm that is now within the city limits of Indian- apolis, on the 1st of November, 1843, and it is

worthy of note that the old homestead was lo- cated on East Washington street, where his parents settled in the pioneer days when the capital city was but a village. The doctor was a son of Willis Wright, who was born in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and who was a scion of stanch English stock. The par- ents continued to reside in Indiana until their death. Dr. Wright passed his boyhood days on the home farm, and early began to lend his aid in its work, and in the meanwhile his edu- cațional advantages were most limited. When fourteen years of age he left the parental roof and went to Nashville, Tennessee, where he found employment through which he was able to defray the expenses of further school work. His ambition for a liberal education was one of definite action, and finally he found it possi- ble to enter the old Asbury University, now De- l'auw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he completed his academic studies. In preparation for the work of his chosen profes- sion he was finally matriculated in the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, in which he com- pleted the prescribed course and was graduated in March, 1868, duly receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine, and thus finding himself at last admirably fortified for the du- ties and responsibilities of life, whose prior bat- tles he had found stern and formidable.

Immediately after his graduation Dr. Wright took up his residence in Indianapolis, his na- tive city, and here he ever afterward continued in the successful work of his profession, which he honored and dignified by his distinguished ability and splendid services. For many years he devoted special attention to the diseases of the eye, ear and nose, and he became a recog- nized authority in this field of practice, in which his success was of the most unequivocal order. He was a profound student of his pro- fession and indefatigable in his individual re- search and experimentation, so that it was but natural, with his great intellectual power, that he should achieve a secure place as one of the essentially representative members of his pro- fession in the United States. He was a valued member of the Indiana Academy of Science, of which he served as secretary in 1868. He was also one of the active and valued members of the Indiana State Medical Society, the Marion County Medical Society and other localized pro- fessional and scientific bodies, besides which he was identified with the American Medical As- sociation and various scientific organzations of national and international scope. He was one of the founders of the Indiana Medical Col- lege, in which he eventually became professor of materia medica and therapeutics, as well as special lecturer on the diseases of the eye and

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ear. For some time he was secretary of the college and later he was its president for sev- eral years. He did much to further the up- building of the excellent institution, which was eventually merged with others in the Med- ical Department of the University of Indiana. Innumerable demands were made upon the time and attention of Dr. Wright in a purely professional capacity and aside from his ex- tensive and representative private practice. He was a member of the medical staff of the Indian- apolis City Hospital, was physician to St. Vin- cent's Hospital and for four years was attend- ing physician to the state institution for the blind in Indianapolis. In 1875-6 he was pres- ident of the Indiana State Board of Health, and in 1877-8 he was president of the Indiana Medico-Legal Fraternity.

During the progress of the Civil War, Dr. Wright was called into service as quartermas- ter's sergeant in the camp of instruction in Indianapolis, and later he became superintend- ent of the commissary stores at Nashville, Ten- nessee, and afterward served as chief commis- sary clerk of the subsistence department of the Union Army, in the Department of Kentucky. In July, 1878, in the military service of the state, Dr. Wright was appointed surgeon gen- eral on the staff of Governor Williams, with the rank of colonel. For a long period he was chief of the medical staff of St. Vincent's Hospital, and he was also superintendent of the state in- sane asylum in Indianapolis. The doctor made many and valuable contributions to the stand- ard and periodical literature of his profession, and these contributions continued to mark the entire period of his active professional career. His thesis on "Spontaneous Evolution" was published in the Western Journal of Medicine in March, 1868; his reports of the diseases of the eye and ear appeared in the published rec- ords of the Indiana State Medical Society. 1870-77. He was for some time editor-in-chief of the Indiana Medical Journal, to which his contributions were many and of great general interest to the members of his profession. The doctor was a man of fine literary taste, and in the midst of the many exactions of his profes- sional work he found time to carry his reading over a remarkably wide range and to take an active part in the affairs of local literary cir- cles. He was president of the Scottish Rite Dramatic Association of Indianapolis from the time of its organization until his death, and was otherwise a vital factor in the promotion of literary and dramatic study and work in his home city. He was passionately fond of the drama, and gained a reputation as an amateur actor. He was also a great lover of books and a collector of old volunnes, and was well in-

formed on the many works which adorned his walls. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he achieved the supreme honor, in receiving the thirty-third degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and he was one of the most ap- preciative affiliates of both the York and Scot- tish Rite bodies in Indianapolis. He was iden- tified also with the Knights of Pythias, in which he was medical examiner. He was fond of fishing, and extremely fond of horses, owning at various times thoroughbred stock.

It was but natural that a man of such broad mental ken and such intense individuality should be well fortified in his views as to mat- ters of public polity and should take a deep interest in all that touched the welfare of the community. In politics the doctor accorded an unswerving allegiance to the Democratic party, and in religious matters he was non- sectarian, being liberal and tolerant in his at- titude toward all denominations and having a true reverence for the spiritual verities as well as for the faith that makes faithful in connec- tion with the every-day life of men. He was generous, genial, democratic and kindly, sure of himself and loyal to what he believed the right, so that he never compromised with wrong or injustice, no matter how attractively or subtly presented. He never lacked the cour- age of his convictions, and he had no toler- ance for equivocation or double dealing, deceit or dishonesty. He was himself sincere and out- spoken, and petty trickery and malice brought forth his unreserved expressions of contempt. He made life count for good in its every rela- tion, and those who knew the man as he was will long cherish his memory. He was equipped with the elements of greatness, and he showed this in his professional achievement, his strong and noble manhood and his gracious and kind- ly deeds.

On the 1st of November, 1870, Dr. Wright was united in marriage to Miss Anna Haugh, who was born and reared in Indianapolis and who is a representative of one of the old and honored families of the state. She still re- sides in Indianapolis, and in her attractive home continues to extend a gracious and re- fined hospitality to her wide circle of friends. Dr. and Mrs. Wright became the parents of two children,-Charlotte, who is now the wife of Edmund F. Gall, of Indianapolis, and ('harles Edward. who was graduated in the In- cliana Medical College, but who withdrew from the practice of medicine to enter the dramatic profession, in which he has achieved definite success.

JOHN BARRETT COCKRUM, specially known as the able general attorney for the Lake Erie and Western Railway, with related lines, is gener-

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ally recognized as one of the leading corpora- tion lawyers of Indianapolis and the state, as well as a general practitioner, with a notable private and public record, and a Republican of activity and wide influence. Both his grand- father and his father were marked men in southern Indiana-the former as a pioneer legislator and one of the founders of the Re- publican party, and the latter, especially as a gallant and popular officer of the Civil War. John B., who was born on a farm near Oak- land City, Indiana, September 12, 1857, is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His grandfather, James W. Cockrum, was a native of North Carolina, but at an early day entered government land in what is now Gibson County, Indiana, and became one of the leading citizens in that por- tion of the state. He laid out the town of Oakland (afterward a city and the birthplace of John B.), and in 1851 was elected to the thirty-sixth session of the state assembly as a representative from Gibson County. In this capacity he served as a Whig, and a few years later became one of the most ardent organizers of the Republican party in southern Indiana, giving it his hearty support as long as he lived. William M. Cockrum, the father, absorbed these political tendencies and was himself an enthusiastic Republican, as well as a success- ful farmer and a leading citizen; a strong man, intellectually and morally. The latter traits made him the brave and efficient soldier that he was. In the Civil War he served as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty-second In- diana Infantry, and received so severe a wound on the battlefield of Chickamauga that he was obliged to remain in a temporary hospital on the scene of action for seventeen days. He was then removed to Libby prison, where he was confined for seven months, and at his ex- change again entered the service, serving un- til the close of the war. It was a public ac- knowledgment of his bravery and fidelity as a soldier when Governor Matthews appointed him to the Indiana commission which superin- tended the erection of the monuments to the state regiments at Chickamauga Park. He is kindly and gratefully remembered both for his virtues and as the author of an interesting and reliable work comprising early reminiscences of Indiana.

John B. Cockrum was educated in the Oak- land City schools, graduating from its high school at the age of seventeen and commencing to teach in the country institutions of Gib- son County. The latter avocation was pursued only during the winter months. the summer months being devoted to the study of law in the office of Hon. J. E. Mccullough, then of Princeton, Indiana, now of Indianapolis. Sub-

sequently Mr. Cockrum entered the Cincinnati Law School, from which he graduated in April, 1879.

Immediately after his graduation in law and his admission to the bar, Mr. Cockrum commenced practice at Booneville, Warrick County, Indiana, where he formed a partner- ship with Charles W. Armstrong, under the name of Armstrong and Cockrum. The firm continued unchanged until 1882, when John B. Handy retired from the Circuit bench and became senior member of Handy. Armstrong and Cockrum. Of this active and strong co- partnership Mr. Cockrum remained a member until his appointment to the position of as- sistant United States Attorney for Indiana, in March, 1889. His four years of able service in that office were followed in March, 1893, by the commencement of his identification with the Lake Erie and Western Railroad in the capacity of assistant general attorney. In June, 1895. he was appointed to the head of its legal department. having under his profes- sional supervision also the Fort Wayne, Cin- cinnati and Louisville and the Northern Ohio Railroads, which were operated by the Lake Erie and Western management.

Ardent and unswerving as a Republican, Mr. Cockrum has always heen an active organizer and a valued speaker for his partv, but the only marked official honors which he has ac- cepted were as a delegate from the First In- diana Congressional District to the national convention of 1888 which nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency, and he was also elected and served as a delegate from the Sev- enth Congressional District of Indiana in the national convention that nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president. Mr. Cockrum has be- come widely known in the fraternities. He is a thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner; as one of the leading members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was very active in the erection of their magnificent home in Indianapolis. He was elected at Seattle in 1909 as deputy grand sire of the Sovereign Grand Lodge, I. O. O. F., this be- ing the governing body of the order in the whole world. In September, 1910, at Atlanta, Georgia, if the usual plan is followed he will he elevated to the position of grand sire, which is the highest executive office in the Sovereign Grand Lodge and which position he will hold for two years. He is also closely identified with the progress of the Knights of Pythias and has served many years as chief tribune of the Grand Tribunal of Indiana. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks, and of many of the local clubs and social organizations. He was president of

Vol. II-2

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

the Columbia Club at the time of the erection of the new club house in Indianapolis. In 1880 he married Miss Fannie C. Bittroff, of Evansville, Indiana, and their children are Mrs. Arthur C. Downing of Indianapolis and Oat- ley B. Cockrum, assistant general land and tax agent of the New York Central lines in Chicago.

JOHN E. SHIDELER. One of the well known and distinctively popular officials connected with the Indianapolis postoffice is John E. Shideler, who is incumbent of the office of as- sistant postmaster. He has held this incum- bency for more than a decade and it is not in the least inconsistent to say that no man iden- tified with the local mail service is more thor- oughly familiar with the manifold details per- taining thereto than is he. He has given most effective service in his responsible office and the most effective evidence of this fact is that afforded by his long tenure of the position. He has passed the major portion of his life in the Hoosier capital and is here held in high esteem in both business and social circles:

John E. Shideler was born on a farm in Mill township, Grant County, Indiana, on the 20th of February, 1859, and is a son of David B. and Anna (Greer) Shideler. His father likewise was born in Grant County, being a son of Aaron Shideler, who was of stanch Pennsylvania German stock and a representa- tive of a family that was founded in the old Keystone commonwealth in the colonial epoch of our national history. Aaron Shideler was born in Preble County, Ohio, where his father settled in the pioneer days, and he himself be- came one of the sterling and honored pioneers of Grant County, Indiana, where he took up his residence as early as the year 1833 and where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. He reclaimed a farm from the virgin forest and became one of the substan- tial citizens of that section of the state.

David B. Shideler was reared and educated in Grant County, and there was solemnized his marriage to Miss Anna Greer, who was born in Ireland and who was a child at the time of her parents' immigration to America. When the subject of this review was a child his par- ents removed to the village of Jonesboro, in Grant County, where his father was engaged in the general merchandise business for sev- eral years. While in Jonesboro Mrs. Shideler died, her son being three years old at the time. David Shideler married as his second wife Sarah Eviston, of Grant County, and she be- came the mother of Hon. George A. H. Shide- ler, of Marion, the only other member of the family. On the 24th of April, 1874, after a residence of a year and a half in Muncie, In-

diana, the family established their home in Indianapolis, and here the father engaged in the life insurance business, with which he was long and prominently identified, principally as general agent for the Equitable Life Assur- ance Society, of the U. S. He continued to be associated with the management of the local business of this company until his death, which occurred on the 31st of January, 1904.

John E. Shideler secured his earliest educa- tional training in the public school at Jones- boro and later continued in the schools of the City of Muncie, where the family took up their abode in 1872. There it was his privilege to gain discipline in connection with the printing and publishing business-a training that has well been called equivalent to a liberal educa- tion. He served a practical apprenticeship as a compositor in the office of the old Muncie Times, and became a skilled exponent of the "art preservative of all arts", so that upon the removal to Indianapolis, in 1874, .he readily secured employment at his trade. It may be noted that a fellow apprentice of his in the Times office in Muncie was Hon. Perry S. Heath, who later became first assistant post- master general of the United States. From 1874 until 1877 Mr. Shideler followed the work of his trade in Indianapolis, having been employed in the printing establishment of Wright, Baker & Company, then one of the leading concerns of its kind in the city. Al- bert R. Baker, a member of this firm, took a deep and kindly interest in young Shideler and became one of his stanch friends. The assistant postmaster recalls with sentiments of deep appreciation and gratitude the many fa- vors extended to him by Mr. Baker, who did much to aid him in a material way and by the offering of well timed counsel. It has always been a source of pride to Mr. Shideler that $65,000 of life insurance placed on the life of Albert R. Baker at Mr. Shideler's solicitation furnished the ready money at his death that saved his estate to his family. Mr. Shideler felt he could justly claim that as being a par- tial repayment of Mr. Baker's early kindness to him.

In 1877 Mr. Shideler became associated with his father in the insurance business, and he continued to be identified with the line of en- terprise, as representative of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, for more than a score of years, within which he made a splendid record as an underwriter and as an able executive. He was most successful in this line of enter- prise and insistently maintains that one of the most beneficent forces that has entered into and permeated modern civilization is that of well ordered life insurance. He holds that its

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functions are in the protection of those who are nearest and dearest to the individual per- son and that thus they touch the home-that conservator of all that is best and most endur- ing in the scheme of human existence. Mr., Shideler continued to be actively engaged in the life insurance business until he accepted his present office of assistant postmaster, in February, 1898, as has already been noted in this context. He has done much to bring about the admirable systematization of the work of the postoffice in Indianapolis and proved of special influence in this direction when the of- fice was removed to the present magnificent federal building, in 1905.

In politics Mr. Shideler has ever given an unqualified allegiance to the Republican party and has shown a zealous interest in the pro- motion of its cause. He and his wife hold membership in the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church and he is affiliated with Oriental Lodge No. 500, Free & Accepted Masons, besides hold- ing membership in a number of representative civic and social organizations in his home city.

On the 17th of July, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Shideler to Miss Alice Rutter, who was born and reared in the vil- lage of Wheeling, Delaware County, Indiana, where her father, the late John H. Rutter, was a physician of large general practice and a highly honored citizen. Mr. and Mrs. Shide- ler have four children, namely: Daffo B., Jackson E., Thaddeus R., and Hollie A., all of whom are identified with business interests in the City of Indianapolis.

JOHN A. MORIARTY. A representative busi- ness man of the younger generation in his native city is John A. Moriarty, who is as- sistant general manager of the Indianapolis and New Long Distance Telephone Companies, and who was called to this responsible position through the appreciative estimate placed upon his services by the directors of this important corporation, which represents one of the valued public utilities of the capital city.

Mr. Moriarty was born in Indianapolis on the 3d of October, 1873, and is a son of Will- iam C. and Emma (Reaume) Moriarty, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Will- iam C. Moriarty was eight years of age at the time of the family immigration to the United States, where he was reared and educated. He became specially skilled as an accountant, and as such was employed for many years. He passed the major portion of his life in In- dianapolis, where his death occurred and where he ever commanded unqualified confidence and esteem as a man of fine attributes of charac- ter and as a citizen of utmost loyalty. His

widow now makes her home with her son John A., whose name initiates this article.

John A. Moriarty gained his early education in the public schools of the old Third ward of Indianapolis and thereafter studied stenog- raphy and typewriting, which he followed as a vocation for a time, after which he was en- gaged in clerical work in local railway service for a few years. Upon retiring from this line of endeavor he entered the employ of the In- dianapolis Telephone Company, in the capac- ity of contract agent. After a period of about four years he withdrew from his position with this company, but he soon returned to its service, with which he has since been continu- ously identified and in connection with which he has done such excellent work as to gain the confidence and esteem of the interested principals in the corporation, as is evident in the official preferment conferred upon him in the position of which he has been incumbent since 1907-that of assistant general manager. His promotion to this responsible office was a fitting recognition of the business acumen and executive ability he had demonstrated while previously in the service of the company.

Mr. Moriarty has a wide circle of friends in the business and social circles of his native city, and effective voucher for his hold upon the esteem and good will of representative business men of Indianapolis is that signified in his elec- tion, in the spring of 1909, to the presidency of the Marion Club, the largest and most in- fluential political and social club of the In- diana capital and, indeed, of the state itself. The distinction involved is one of no insignifi- cant order, and Mr. Moriarty's election indi- cates not only his marked personal popularity but also that he has been a stalwart in the local camp of the Republican party, of whose principles and policies he is an ardent ad- vocate.

JUDGE CHARLES REMSTER is presiding with marked ability on the bench of the Marion circuit court and holds prestige as one of the representative jurists and legists of his native state. He gained distinctive success in his la- bors as one of the members of the bar of the capital city, and his elevation to his present im- portant judicial office was but a fitting recog- nition of his eligibility and his professional standing. His devotion to the law has been of insistent order, implying his appreciation of the fact that its demands are exacting and that success comes only to those who are willing to subordinate other interests and accord an un- qualified fealty and loyalty. Maker of his own opportunities and winner of his own advance- ment, Judge Remster well merits consideration among others who have lent dignity and honor

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to the bench and bar of the fair capital city to which this historic work is devoted.

Judge Remster was born on the homestead farm of the family, in Van Buren Township, Fountain County, Indiana, and the date of his nativity was July 28, 1862. He is a son of Andrew and Tamson (Smith) Remster, both of whom were born and reared in the State of New Jersey, where their marriage was solemnized January 6, 1848. Andrew Remster was a scion of sturdy Holland Dutch stock and his father, who immigrated from the City of Amsterdam, was the founder of the family in America. Mrs .. Tamson (Smith)' Remster was of English lineage and the fam- ily was established in America prior to the War of the Revolution, in which her grand- father, John Smith, served as a captain in the Continental line. Andrew Remster came with his bride to the west soon after their marriage, and after remaining in Ohio about one year they removed to Indiana and settled in Fountain County, where he secured a tract of land and instituted the development of a farm. He died in 1865, when the subject of this re- view was but three years of age, and the wid- owed mother later became the wife of Benja- min Strader, who died six months later. Of the five children of the first marriage all are now living, as is also the one child of the sec- ond marriage. The devoted mother lived to a venerable age, loved and revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and gracious influence, and she passed the closing years of her life at Covington, Indiana, where she died in 1901. She was a devout member of the Baptist Church and her life was one of unselfishı devotion to the happiness of those about her.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 4

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