Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 53

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 53

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With all of his busy work Mr. Johnson has found time to contribute to professional mag- azines along educational lines, to supervise the publication of The Silent Hoosier, a semi- monthly paper issued by the school, to which he has contributed quite freely both in prose and poetry, and to put forth two small vol- umes, Stray Blossoms of Posey and The Yel- lowstone Travellers.

In politics Mr. Johnson has ever given a stanch allegiance to the cause of the Demo- cratic party and he has been an active worker in its cause in earlier years. In 1880 he was the nominee of his party for member of the city council of Indianapolis and in the elec- tion following materially reduced the usual Republican majority, though failing of- elec- tion. He was secretary of the McDonald Club, organized for promoting the candidacy of Senator Joseph E. McDonald, for the presi- dency. He served four years as secretary of the Indianapolis Democratic city committee and two years as secretary of the Indiana Democratic state central committee. He was the caucus nominee for clerk of the house in the Fifty-fifth General Assembly of the leg- islature of Indiana, was one of the organizers

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and early directors of the Hendricks Club, and frequently was called upon to serve on executive committees and in official capacity at party conventions.

As a citizen Mr. Johnson is essentially lib- eral, progressive, - and public-spirited, taking a deep interest. in all that tends to conserve the industrial and civic advancement of the city that. has represented his home from his childhood days to the present, and in which he commands unqualified popular confidence and esteem. He is identified with various so- cial organizations of representative order, is affiliated with Mystic Tie Lodge, No: 398, Free and Accepted Masons, Keystone Chap- ter, No. 6, R. A. M .; Indianapolis Council, No. 2, R. & S. M .; Raper Commandery, No. 1, K. T .; Indiana Consistory, Valley of In- dianapolis, S. P. R. S .; 32nd degree, Murat Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., and holds mem- bership in the Phi Delta Theta college fra- ternity. Both he and his wife are communi- cants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, being members of the parish of St. Paul's Church.

On the 26th of September, 1889, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Clara Ethel McBride, daughter of James W. and Sarah (Mock) McBride, of Kokomo, In- diana. Both her paternal and maternal grandparents were natives of Kentucky, and her maternal grandmother was a cousin of Henry Clay. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two children-Mary Virginia, who was born on the 8th of August, 1890, and is now a atu- dent of Wellesley College, Massachusetts; and Richard 'Kenelm, who was born April 7, 1896, and who is now attending the public schools of Indianapolis.

CALVIN K. EWING, M. D. A distinguished physician and surgeon of Indianapolis and founder of the Ewing Medical Institute, which has headquarters in the State Life building, Dr. Calvin K. Ewing has gained high reputation and splendid success and prestige in his exacting profession, and as one of its leading representatives in the capi- tal city he is specially well entitled to con- aideration in this publication.

Dr. Ewing finds a due measure of pride and satisfaction in reverting to the fine old Hoosier commonwealth as the place of his nativity, and he is a scion of one of the hon- ored pioneer families of the state. He was born in the city of Bloomington, Indiana, on the 23rd of September, 1861, and is a son of W. C. and Rebecca (Shaw) Ewing, na- tives respectively of North Carolina and Ire- land. The father was identified with . the lumber business during the major portion of

his active business career and he passed the closing years of his life in Indianapolis, where he died when about fifty-eight years of age and where his wife passed away at the age of about sixty-one years. They became the parents of one child. They were con- sistent members of the Presbyterian Church, and the father was a Republican in his po- litical proclivities.

Dr. Ewing was about two years of age at the time of the family removal to Indianap- olis, where he was reared to maturity and where he duly availed himself of the advan- tages of the public schools. After complet- ing the curriculum of the high school he en- tered Butler College, in which institution he was a student for two years, and in 1881 he was matriculated in the Medical College of Indiana, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1884 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. As an undergraduate he manifested marked enthusiasm and applied himself with marked diligence, so that his record was admirable as a student, even as it has been as a prac- titioner. and educator. He served his pro- fessional novitiate by engaging in practice at Malott Park, a suburb of Indianapolis, and in 1891 he did effective post-graduate work in the Polyclinic in New York City. His am- bition and his devotion to his profession have never lagged and he has spared no pains or expense in furthering his technical knowl- edge and his facility in all departments of his chosen vocation. Thus, in 1887, he availed himself of the special advantages of the lead- ing medical college and hospitals of the cit- ies of London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna, where he devoted himself assiduously to fa- miliarizing himself with the methods and scientific systems of the most eminent physi- cians and surgeons of Europe. He gave spe- cial attention to study of the medicinal and surgical treatment of the diseases of the nose, throat and lungs, and he has been most suc- cessful in the treatment of this class of dis- orders. He has also made distinctive repu- tation in the field of electro-therapeutics, in which he has perfected a number of most valuable inventions for facilitating the appli- cation of electricity as a remedial agency. The Ewing Medical Institute, which he es- tablished in 1900, is specially well equipped with electrical appliances of the highest mod- ern type, and in this department of prac- tice the doctor has met with unqualified suc- cess, as has he also in general work of medi- cine and surgery. He has served as · attend- ing physician in charge of the nose, throat and lung department of the Indiana Medi-

Vol. II-17

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cal Hospital, and he was incumbent of the chair of clinical medicine in the American Medical College of Indianapolis and a valued and popular member of its faculty. He is medical examiner for a large number of lead- ing life-insurance companies and fraternal organizations, has served as treasurer of the American Association of Physicians and Sur- geons, of which he is a valued member, and the Indianapolis Academy of Medicine. He has been established in the practice of his pro- fession in Indianapolis since 1890, and his close observance of the unwritten ethical- code of the profession has retained to him the high regard of his confreres in the capital city.

Dr. Ewing is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Independent Order of Foresters, and the Or- der of Toilers of the World. He has served as high physician of the Indiana organiza- tion of the Independent Order of Foresters and as supreme medical director of the Toil- ers of the World. He is also affiliated with Masonry, belonging to Monument Lodge, F. & A. M .; Indianapolis Chapter, R. A. M., and Raper Commandery, K. T.

In 1892 Dr. Ewing was married to Olive E. Smith, a daughter of William Smith, of Arcadia, Indiana.

AARON B. HOWE. Identified with the busi- ness and civic interests of Indianapolis for a period of fourteen years prior to his death, which occurred at his home in this city on the 1st of October, 1905, as the result of a stroke of apoplexy, Aaron B. Howe left a definite impress upon the community by rea- son of his high standing as a business man and loyal and progressive citizen, and it is most consonant that in this volume be entered and perpetuated a brief tribute to his mem- ory and a record concerning the more salient points in his career. He was at the time of his demise one of the interested principals in the McCoy-Howe Company, manufacturing chemists, and it was largely due to his earnest and able efforts that the business of this com- pany was advanced to wide scope of opera- tions and consequent commercial importance.

Mr. Howe was born in Cherry Valley, New York, on the 13th of December, 1854, and was thus in the very prime of his strong and useful manhood when he was summoned from the scene of life's mortal endeavors. He was a son of Rev. Aaron R. and Melita (Rulison ) Howe, who removed from the old Empire state to Moorefield, Switzerland County, In- diana, when he was a child. His father was a elergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was for many years engaged in the active

work of the ministry in Indiana, where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death. The lineage in both the paternal and maternal lines is traced back to stanch Eng- lish origin. After the family removal to In- diana the father opened a general merchan- dise store at Moorefield, in which village Aaron B. of this memoir was reared to ma- turity. He was accorded the advantages of the public schools of the home village and his initial business experience was gained in his father's store, with whose affairs he continued to be identified until he was eighteen years of age, when he secured employment with the J. W. Harris Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, for which concern, engaged in the wholesale drug business, he was a traveling salesman for some time, after which he was engaged in a similar capacity with the Harter Medicine Company, of St. Louis, Missouri. Still later he was a traveling representative of the Will- iam S. Merrill Chemical Company, a repre- sentative concern of Cincinnati.

The entire career of Mr. Howe was charac- terized not only by impregnable integrity of purpose but also by energy, persistence and close application, and to his own well directed efforts was due the splendid success which he eventually attained and which placed him among the honored and essentially representa- tive business men of the Indiana capital. In 1891 Mr. Howe took up his residence in In- dianapolis, where he soon afterward became associated with J. B. McCoy in the organiza- tion of the McCoy-Howe Company, manufac- turing chemists. With great circumspection and ability he thereafter gave his undivided attention to the business of this company, which gained prestige as one of the substan- tial and important commercial concerns of the city, and in its active management he was an able and valued administrative officer un- til his sudden death, which came a few hours after he had been stricken with apoplexy, while sitting on the veranda of his home. Hc was not only a successful business inan but was a citizen who was well worthy of the un- qualified confidence and esteem in which he was held. He was the architect of his own fortunes and upon his entire career there rests no blemish. for he was true to the high- est ideals and principles in both social and business life and was one of the world's noble army of prodnetive workers.

A genial and gracious personality gained to Mr. Howe a wide circle of loyal friends and he never failed in deep appreciation of such friendship. He was a popular member of the Travelers' Protective Association and the United Commercial Travelers, was affiliated

A. B. Home

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with the Royal Arcanum, and in the Masonic fraternity he attained to the thirty-second de- gree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. He was a consistent and liberal member of the Central Christian Church of Indianapolis, of which Mrs. Howe also is a member, and his funeral services were conducted by the pastor of his church and by the Masonic fraternity, of whose exalted teachings he was most ap- preciative. His remains were laid to rest in Crown Hill cemetery. Though essentially a business man and never manifesting aught of ambition for public office, Mr. Howe ever took a loyal interest in public affairs, espe- cially those of a local order, and his political allegiance was given to the Republican party.

On the 28th of June, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Howe to Mary J. Shank Armstrong, who was born in the State of Kentucky and who is a daughter of the late John E. and Mary (Dunstall) Shank, who passed the closing years of their lives in Pen- dleton County, Falmouth, Kentucky, her father having devoted the major portion of his active career to agricultural pursuits. Mrs. Howe still retains her residence in Indian- apolis, as do also her two children, Frederick and Marie, who remain with her.

THOMAS F. BARRETT. A record of thirty- five years of able and faithful service as a member of the fire department of Indian- apolis stands to the credit of Thomas F. Bar- rett, an, honored and popular representative of this important branch of municipal serv- ice, and he is now incumbent of the office of first assistant chief of the department, of which he was chief under a former regime. To him has been due much of the work of systematizing and building up of the fine metropolitan fire department of the capital city, and no member of the same enjoys a more unalloyed popularity.

Mr. Barrett was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, on the 3rd of April, 1852, and is a son of Patrick D. and Catherine (Murphy) Barrett, both of whom passed the closing years of their lives in Indianapolis, where they took up their residence in 1866. Pat- rick Barrett was a successful contractor, and was for some time engaged in contract rail- road work in the south. His death occurred in 1873 and his wife survived him by sev- eral years. The subject of this review re- ceived his rudimentary education in Indian- apolis and was fourteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Indianapolis, where he studied not only in the public schools but also in the parochial school of St. Patrick's Church. Later he completed a thorough course in a local commercial col-

lege, and thus prepared himself for the prac- tical duties of life. For a time he was as- sociated with his father in railroad construc- tion work in the south, and save for this in- terval he has continuously maintained his home in Indianapolis since 1866, so that he has been a witness of the upbuilding of the fine industrial and residence city, whose at- tractions are rivaled by few of our coun- try's metropolitan centers.

On the 22nd of April, 1874, Mr. Barrett entered the fire department service of In- dianapolis. He became a member of hose company No. 7, stationed on Maryland street. His ability and fidelity to duty soon attracted the attention of those in authority and as a result of his excellent record he was promoted to the rank of captain of company No. 6, stationed on West Washington street. On the first of January, 1891, he was appointed assistant chief and transferred to the fire de- partment house on South Illinois street, where he continued incumbent of this posi- tion until 1896, on the 14th of November of which year Mayor Thomas Taggart appointed him chief of the fire department. He con- tinuously held this important office until 1901, when he became first assistant chief, under the regime of Mayor John Holtzman. He was reappointed by the present mayor, Charles A. Bookwalter, and he had the ear- nest endorsement of the present chief of the department, Charles E. Coots. At the time when he became chief of the department the force comprised only about eighty men, and at the present time the department has fully two hundred and seventy men, with twenty- eight stations. During his long service as one of the brave and intrepid fire-fighters of the capital city, Mr. Barrett has labored faithfully and effectively for the expansion and improving of the service, and as an of- ficial he has accomplished much in this direc- tion. While he was chief of the department a number of men were added to the same, as were also three new engines, three hose wagons and a hook-and-ladder truck. He is distinctively one of the most popular men ever incumbent of office in the department, and this is clearly indicated by his long tenure of official position in the same. Genial, generous and open-hearted, he has retained the inviolable confidence and esteem of the members of the department, though he is known as a strict disciplinarian when occa- sion demands. He has marked mechanical talent and is the inventor of an electric fire engine, upon which he has applied for a patent. The engine has been examined by ex- perts in its model form and it is certain to

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become a valuable acquisition to metropoli- tan fire service. In politics Mr. Barrett is a stanch advocate of the cause of the Demo- cratic party, his religious faith is that of the Catholic Church, in which he was reared. and he is a popular member of Indianapolis Lodge, No. 13, Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks.

JOSEPH H. PATTISON. As a fiscal agent and dealer in high-grade securities Mr. Pat- tison holds distinctive prestige in his native city, where he is one of the interested prin- cipals in the corporation known as the Cen- tral Bond Company. He has handled finan- cial matter of wide scope and importance and is one of the essentially representative business men of the capital city. He is pro- gressive and public-spirited and takes a deep interest in all that tends to promote the civic and material welfare of the "Greater In- dianapolis".

Joseph H. Pattison was born in Indian- apolis on the 19th of June, 1869, and is a son of Coleman B. and Sarah J. (Hamilton) Pattison. Coleman Bates Pattison, who died September 27, 1880, long held a prominent position in connection with the civic and com- mercial interests of Indianapolis, where he became identified with the wholesale dry- goods business soon after the close . of the Civil War and where he continued in this line of enterprise until his death, at which time he was a member of the well known firm of Hibben, Pattison & Company. He did much to forward the industrial growth of the city and was a man who ever com- manded unequivocal confidence and esteem in the community. He was a scion of a fam- ily founded in America in the early colonial epoch, and representatives of the same were found. enrolled as patriot soldiers in the Con- tinental line in the War of the Revolution. Descendants of these valiant soldiers in the struggle for independence became governors of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and representa- tives of the name are now to be found in the most diverse states of the Union. The maternal grandfather of the subject of this review was of stanch Scotch-Irish lineage and came to America from the north of Ireland. He became one of the pioneer merchants of Rush County, Indiana. where he continued to reside until his death. The Pattison fam- ily was early founded in Kentucky, and from that state representatives of the same came to Indiana in 1817, settling in Rush County.

Joseph H. Pattison is indebted to the pub- lic schools of Indianapolis for his early edu- cational discipline, which included a course in the high school, and he then entered the

Indianapolis Business University, where he received excellent training for the practical affairs of life. A most effectual supplement to his educational discipline was that involved in extensive travel throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe, and the broaden- ing influence of such peregrinations at a time when his mind was most receptive was ap- preciably manifest.

As a youth Mr. Pattison gained through practical experience a thorough apprecia- tion of the value and dignity of honest toil and endeavor. Each summer he passed about ten weeks on the farm, and he assisted in the work of the fields. In doing this he learned to work and was taught the lessons of thrift under the direction of men who knew noth- ing else except work. This training was very valuable to him in later years, and to the same he attributes much of the success he has gained in connection with the productive energies and interests of life. After leaving school Mr. Pattison secured employment in a wholesale house in Indianapolis, and his ini- tial stipend was one and one-half dollars a week. While employed in this wholesale es- tablishment Mr. Pattison formed the acquaint- ship of Samuel Phillips, to whom he was sell- ing goods, and after he attained his legal majority. this gentleman suggested that Mr. Pattison buy the interest owned by the for- mer's partner in a small manufacturing and jobbing business. Mr. Pattison responded favorably to this overture and he and his partner greatly enlarged the scope of the en- terprise and in a few years had a well equipped plant and were in control of a sub- stantial and extensive business in the man- ufacturing and jobbing of shirts, coats, over- alls and various other kinds of garments. While actively associated with this enterprise Mr. Pattison also did considerable business in the loaning of money on approved real es- tate security, having been entrusted with the management of several estates and thus hav- ing ample facilities for the placing of loans as noted. Finally he became associated in this business with one of the representative bankers of Indianapolis, and they have since made a regular business of the handling of trust funds and estates, under the corporate title of the Central Bond Company. In this fiduciary capacity they now control a large and representative business, in the investing of funds in mortgages and bonds. The con- cern handles not only a large individual busi- ness in the investments of its own funds, but has clients in all parts of the country. An unassailable reputation for reliability and correct business methods is enjoyed by the

W. Lilly

James

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

company, and its operations show a constant- ly cumulative tendency. Mr. Pattison aided in the organization and incorporation of one of the principal trust companies of Indian- apolis and continues as one of its stockhold- ers, besides which he is a stockholder in other representative financial institutions of his na- tive city .. He has gained definite success as one of the world's workers, and his course has been guided and governed by the high- est principles of integrity and honor, so that he has never been denied the fullest measure of popular confidence and esteem in the com- munity which has been his home from the time of his nativity to the present.

In politics Mr. Pattison usually supports the Republican national ticket, but in city and county affairs, where no definite issues are involved, he gives his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, irrespective of partisan lines. He is one of the charter members of the Com- mercial Club and has been an active factor in the affairs of this popular organization, which is an exponent of high civic ideals. For more than a score of years Mr. Pattison has been an active and valued member of the First Presbyterian Church. He was a mem- ber of its board of trustees at the time when the old church edifice, at the corner of Penn- sylvania and New York streets, which was erected on the site of the present fine gov- ernment building, was sold to the govern- ment, and he had charge of removing the corner-stone and bell of the old church, which was erected fully sixty years ago.

On the 24th of October, 1894, Mr. Patti- son was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Frances Young, of Troy, New York, a daugh- ter of Dr. Edgar J. Young, who was a promi- nent dentist of the old Empire state and a member of one of the old and honored Hol- land Dutch families of that commonwealth. Mr. and Mrs. Pattison have two children- Edgar Y., who was born on the 30th of May, 1897, and Coleman B., who was born on the 27th of January, 1900.

PRESTON C. RUBUSH stands at the head of the architectural profession in Indianapolis. He was born in Fairfield, Howard County, Indiana, March 30, 1867, a son of William G. and Marie E. (Wyrick) Rubush, who were born in Virginia and Ohio respectively on the 9th of August, 1836, and on the 30th of March, 1839. William G. Rubush was a gen- cral contractor up to the year of 1903, when he retired from business. He is a Republican in his political views, and is a member of the United Brethren Church.

From the early age of thirteen Preston C.

Rubush was a newsboy for three years, be- coming an office boy for the Atlas Engine Works and also in various other pursuits earned money to continue his education in the public and high schools of Indianapolis, with a special course at the Illinois Univer- sity. Thus equipped for the battle of life he secured employment with J. F. Alexander in his architectural office in Peoria, Illinois, and remained with that gentleman for two years. He was then in other offices until 1893, when the firm of Scharn and Rubush was organized, and after the retirement of Mr. Scharn from the association the business was continued under the name of P. C. Ru- bush & Company until 1905, the style then becoming Rubush & Hunter. This firm has had in charge the finest buildings in Indian- apolis, including the Masonic Temple, one of the finest buildings of its kind in the world and erected at a cost of six hundred thou- sand dollars. The building was completed in May of 1907, and is a magnificent struc- ture 135 by 150 feet on the ground and 107 feet high, equal to eight stories. They were also the architects for the new City Hall, erected at a cost of seven hundred thousand dollars; the Odd Fellows building, a thir- teen story structure; the Indiana State School for Deaf; the hospital for the pauper insane of Marion County; the K. of P. Castle Hall building; the K. of P. building; the Star Store building; the Bernard Realty Company building; the Colonial Hotel . and Theater; the Stewart Drug Company building; the Deaconess Hospital, which was one of the first buildings they erected; the Arthur Jordan building; and many of the finest homes in Indianapolis. Mr. Rubush is a member of Oriental Lodge No. 500, F. & A. M., Key- stone Chapter No. 6, R. A. M .; Indiana Con- sistory, Murat Temple, and is a thirty-second degree Mason. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, of the Marion, Columbia and Commercial Clubs, and of the Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. His politics are Republican. Mr. Rubush married Renah J. Wilcox on October 12, 1898. She was born in Nebraska.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 53

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