Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 57

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 57


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Mr. Marott is a man of forceful individnal- ity, as may well be understood. and his course has ever been dominated by the highest prin- ciples of integrity and honor-confined with- in the narrow boundaries of self advance- ment, but he has been a liberal and public- spirited citizen and has done all in his power to further the industrial and civic progress of his home city, where his circle of friends


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Vr Carl 4, Winter


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is coincident with that of his acquaintances. He is identified with representative civic or- ganizations and fraternal bodies in Indian- apolis, is a stanch Democrat in his political proclivitics, though he has never cared to en- ter the domain of "practical politics", and in his religious views, he is broad and tolerant, with a deep appreciation of and reverence for the spiritual verities, he is opposed to denomination religion and loves the religion of Masonry, which is for God without creed. Mr. Marott is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner, and Masonry is his church.


On the 27th of November, 1879, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Marott to Miss Ella Meek, daughter of Jesse and Nancy Meek, of Richmond, Indiana, where her fa- ther was long a prominent and honored citi- zen and business man.


CARL G. WINTER, M. D. In one of the most exacting and responsible vocations to which man may devote his attention it has been the privilege of Dr. Carl G. Winter to withhold himself from the stifling atmosphere of mediocrity and to attain to signal success and prestige. He is one of the representative physicians and surgeons of the fair capital city of Indiana, where he enjoys marked pro- fessional and personal popularity.


Dr. Winter was born in Shelby County. Indiana, on the 28th of September, 1873, and is a son of Rev. Gustave G. and Rosa (Theo- bald) Winter. His father has long held the position of minister of the two German Evangelical Zion's congregations in Shelby County and he and his wife now maintain their home in Shelbyville, where they are revered and held in affectionate regard by all who have come within the sphere of their gracious influence. Rev. Gustave Winter is a man of most scholarly attainments, being a graduate of the University of Halle, Germany, and having a facile command of the German, English, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, and having one of the largest and most select private libraries in his section of the state. He was a teacher of German, Latin and Greek in the public schools of Shelby- ville for twenty-four years. He was born in Leimbach, Germany, and is sixty-eight years of age at the time of this writing. He is one of the most prominent and influential clergy- men of his denomination in Indiana and has long been influential in the councils of his church. His father served with distinction in the German army, in which he took part in the war against Napoleon-1813-15. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and his son, Rev. Gustave G. Winter, has possession of the ancient Masonic medal won by the fa-


ther nearly one hundred years ago, so that the family name has been identified with the history of the time-honored fraternity for ful- ly a century.


The mother of Dr. Winter was born in Shel- by County, Indiana, in 1856, and is a daugh- ter of Michael and Catherine (Haehl) Theo- bald, who were numbered among the early settlers of that county, where they took up their abode prior to the construction of rail- roads and at a time when the old Michigan road constituted the only outlet for the prod- ucts of the pioneer farms of that section, the same being largely transferred by this high- way to the market in Aurora, Indiana.


Dr. Winter gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of Shelbyville, where he duly completed the curriculum of the high school, after which he passed one year as a student in Wabash College, at Crawfordsville. Thereafter he was matricu- lated in the Eclectic Medical Institute, in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he com- pleted the prescribed technical course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1893, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1895 he completed an effective course in the Post-Graduate School and Hospital, in New York City, and in this celebrated institu- tion he again took a post-graduate course in 1908. During his youth Dr. Winter passed much of his time on the farm owned by his father, but he always attended the schools in Shelbyville during the winters. He early manifested a distinctive predilection for the medical profession, and he formulated def- inite plans for his future career, by directing his entire reading and education with a view to preparing himself for the profession in which it has been his to attain to so much of success. He was signally favored in the in- fluences of a home of distinctive culture and refinement and in having the admonition and counsel of a father of the highest intellectual- ity. He feels a perpetual debt of gratitude to his honored sire for his care in directing such preliminary study and investigation, as well as his general solicitude at the forma- tive period of his character.


After his graduation in the medical college Dr. Winter located at Pyrmont, Carroll Coun- ty, Indiana. After completing his post- graduate course in New York City, as already noted, he there received a call to become a member of the faculty of the Indiana Eclec- tic Medical College, in Indianapolis, and in favorable response to this overture he came to this city in 1895. to assume the chair of diseases of the eye and ear in the college men- tioned. To this special type of diseases he


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also devoted his attention more particularly in his practice for some time, and he then engaged in general practice, besides which he became professor of general medicine in the institution with which he has identified him- self upon coming to the city. He retained this professorship, as a valued member of the fac- ulty of the college, until 1902, when he re- signed the position, owing to the exactions of his private practice. In 1906 he was honored with a special lectureship by his alma mater, the Eclectic Medical Institute, of Cincinnati, and he delivered a series of lectures before the student body of that institution, choosing as his subjects orificial surgery and the dis- eases of the rectum. From 1905 to 1907, in- clusive, Dr. Winter held the office of great medical director for the Indiana organization of the Knights of the Maccabees, and in this order he has been examining physician for Tent No. 88, in Indianapolis, since 1897. Since 1902 he has held the position of offi- cial physician of Indianapolis Aerie, No. 211, Fraternal Order of Eagles, being one of the prominent and influential members of both of these fraternal organizations. He is a mem- ber of the directorate of the German Prot- estant Home for the Aged, and he is deputy coroner of Marion County, of which position he has been incumbent since 1909. In na- tional affairs he has ever given his allegiance to the Democratic party, but in local matters he maintains an attitude independent of par- tisan lines. He is a valued member of the National Eclectic Medical Association, of which he is third vice-president, is active in the work of the Indiana Eclectic Medical As- sociation, of which he served as president in 1903, and is also a former president of the Marion County Eclectic Medical Association. His interest in political matters is signified by his membership in the Indiana Democratic Club.


The various fraternal affiliations of Dr. Winter are here designated: Sigma Chi col- lege fraternity ; Capital City Lodge, No. 312, Free and Accepted Masons; Indianapolis Chapter, No. 5, Royal Arch Masons; Indian- apolis Council, No. 2, Royal and Select Mas- ters; Raper Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templar; Indiana Consistory, Ancient Ac- cepted Scottish Rite Masons, of the Valley of Indianapolis; Murat Temple, Ancient Arabie Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Capital City Tent. No. 88, Knights of the Maccabees; Indianapolis Aerie, No. 211, Fraternal Order of Eagles; Indianapolis Lodge, No. 17, Loyal Order of Moose; and Indianapolis Council, No. 328, Royal Arca- num.


On the 10th of May, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Winter to Miss Wilhel- mina Backemeyer, who was born and reared in Indianapolis, in whose public schools she secured her educational training. She is a daughter of Frederick G. and Christina (Roebke) Backemeyer, both of whom were born in Germany, whence they came to Amer- ica when young, their marriage having been solemnized in this country. They have been residents of Indianapolis for more than forty years and are here held in high esteem by all who know them. Dr. and Mrs. Winter have one child, Margaret, who was born on the 3rd of May, 1897.


M. J. SPENCER, M. D. At this juncture is entered a brief review of another of the pop- ular and essentially representative physi- cians and surgeons of "Greater Indianap- olis", Dr. M. J. Spencer, who is a native son of the Hoosier state and who has been active- ly and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession in Indianapolis for nearly a decade and a half. He was born on a farm in Shelby Township, near the City of Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, on the 29th of July, 1871, and is a son of David I. and Nan- cy (Means) Spencer, both of whom were born in the state of Indiana. Dr. Spencer's father was a man of fine mentality and good education and for a number of years he con- tinued to teach school at intervals while still actively concerned in the work and manage- ment of his well improved farm. He was identified with the pedagogical profession for fully twenty years and was one of the successful and popular teachers in the pub- lie schools of Indiana. Through his well di- rected endeavors he accumulated a compe- tency and he and his wife are now residing at Canaan, Indiana. The paternal grand- mother of Dr. Spencer was born in Scotland, in 1816, and was a child at the time of the family emigration to America. She has lived to attain the venerable age of ninety- four years and retains her mental and physi- cal faculties to a wonderful degree. She was an appreciative reader of the writings of Robert Burns and had even in her advanced years marked facility in quoting from his immortal poems and songs. The maternal grandfather of Dr. Spencer was born in Ken- tucky and his parents were natives of Ire- land. Though born in America, the doctor's maternal grandfather, Harrison Means, was a typical Irishman-a man of alert mentality, quick and appreciative humor and a volatile and buoyant nature. Through his operations as a farmer and dealer in real estate, he ac- cumulated substantial property and he was a


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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.


resident of Indiana for many years prior to his death, which occurred on the 20th of March, 1897, at which time he .was eighty-two years of age. His wife was a native of Ire- land and was a child at the time of the family removal to America, where her father became a successful farmer.


Dr. Spencer was reared to the age of six- teen on the homestead farm and his earliest associations with the practical duties of life were those connected with the work of the farm. In the meanwhile he had duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools, which he attended during the winter months, and in the summer seasons he as- sisted his father in the work and manage- ment of the old homestead. When fourteen years of age he completed the curriculum of the district schools and later he was for two years a student in the Southern Indiana Nor- mal School, at Mitchell, Indiana. That he made good use of the opportunities afforded him is evident when recognition is had of the fact that at the age of seventeen years he began teaching in the district schools and he continued to be thus engaged for some time, during the winter terms. On the 30th of May, 1890, when nineteen years of age, Dr. Spencer initiated the study of medicine under the effective preceptorship of Dr. James Christie, of Canaan, Indiana, and on the 9th of February, 1892, he was matricu- lated in the Kentucky School of Medicine in the City of Louisville, in which institution he continued his technical studies for two terms. In 1895 he came to Indianapolis and entered the Central College of Physicians and Sur- geons, in which he was graduated on the 23rd of March, 1896, and from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine.


From the time of his graduation to the present, Dr. Spencer has been engaged in the general practice of his profession in Indian- apolis, where his novitiate was of brief dura- tion, as his ability, energy and devotion soon gained him a substantial clientage. He had been engaged in practice less than two years when, on the 1st of November, 1897, he re- ceived an appointment to the position of su- perintendent of the Indianapolis city dis- pensary, of which position he was incumbent for three years, and in September, 1898, he was made instructor in physiology in his alma mater, the Central College of Physicians, and Surgeons. He continued as able and popu- lar instructor in this institution until 1901 and since that time he has found the demands of his private practice so exacting as to re- qnire his undivided time and attention. Dr. Spencer is a member of the Marion County


Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion. For four years he held the office of su- perintendent of the Indianapolis Hospital. In June, 1907, he was appointed a member of the city board of health and is still the incumbent of_that office.


In politics Dr. Spencer gives his allegiance to the Democratic party and in the Masonic fraternity he is identified with Capital Lodge, No. 312, Free and Accepted Masons, and In- diana Sovereign Consistory of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; besides which he holds membership in the adjunet organ- ization, Murat Temple, Ancient Arabic Or- der of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of Red Men.


On the 9th of November, 1898, was solemn- ized the marriage of Dr. Spencer to Miss Bertha M. Kealing, who was born and reared in Indianapolis, and who is a daughter of Peter and Phœbe (Bloomer) Kealing. The father was born in Germany and came to America when young. He located in Indian- olis many years ago and was here engaged for a long period in the work of the black- smith trade. He died at the age of seventy- one years and was a man who ever com- manded the unqualified respect of the com- munity. His venerable widow, who was born in Ohio, still resides in Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Kealing became the parents of eleven children, of whom Mrs. Spencer was the eleventh in order of birth. Dr. and Mrs. Spencer are members of the English Luther- an Church. They have one daughter, Mar- jorie Mae.


CHARLES F. MOFFITT. In the matter of industrial development Indianapolis has made wonderful progress within the first decade of the twentieth century. Among the city's larger industries in the specialty line that of the Bee Hive Paper Box Company is one of the most important. The subject of this brief sketch figures as the founder of this enter- prise and has been president and treasurer of the company from the time of its incep- tion. George H. Stubbs is vice-president and superintendent and S. Morrison is secretary. The company manufacture all kinds of fold -. ing and set-up paper boxes and the well equipped factory is located at 615-617 South Delaware street. The output of the concern includes clothing, millinery, cake and florist boxes, special folding boxes in colors, bucket fillers, grease-proof packages, advertising novelties, waterproof signs. embossed boxes, shells, and desk-file, shelf and sample boxes.


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It will thus be seen that the concern admi- rably covers its field of production, and it now controls a large and widely disseminated trade. The company was organized in 1890 and was incorporated under its present title on the 21st of February, 1896. Operations are based an a capital stock of $75,000, and in the establishment employment is given to an average of one hundred persons.


Charles F. Moffitt is a native son of the fine old Hoosier commonwealth and is a member of one of its honored pioneer families. He was born in the city of Richmond, Wayne Coun- ty, Indiana, on the 22nd of January, 1857, and is a son of Abijah and Lydia (Town- send) Moffitt, the former of whom was like- wise a native of Richmond, this state, where he was born in 1823, and the latter of whom was born in the vicinity of that city, which was then a mere village, in the year 1827. The honored father was summoned to the life eternal in 1891, at the age of sixty-eight years and the mother passed away on the 1st of Jannary, 1894, at the age of sixty-seven years, so that "in death they were not long divided". Of their three children Charles F. is the elder of the two surviving, and Anna is unmarried. Abijah Moffitt was the owner of a large landed estate in Wayne County and also had valuable property in the City of Richmond. He was one of the prominent and influential citizens of his na- tive county and both he and his wife were birthright members of the Society of Friends, in which they were faithful and zealous work- ers. Their respective parents were num- bered among the founders of the historic old Quaker colony in Wayne County, which con- tinnes to the present time a stronghold of the noble faith of the Society of Friends. The father devoted the major portion of his active business career to farming and in real estate, was a man of signal integrity and honor and ever commanded the unqualified esteem of the community in which practically his entire life was passed.


Charles F. Moffitt gained his early educa- tion in the public schools of his native city, where he also completed the curriculum of Earlham College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1879. He finally engaged in farming, in Boone County, this state, where he continued operations in this line until April, 1890, when he assumed con- trol of a flouring mill at Noblesville, Indiana, later being identified with the same line of enterprise at Kalispell, Montana, where he remained about two years. He then returned to his native state and took np his residence in Indianapolis, where, in February, 1896,


he established the enterprise of which he has since been the executive head, having then ef- fected the organization of the Bee Hive Paper Box Company, whose business had grown from one of modest order to one of wide scope and importance. Mr. Moffitt is known as an alert and progressive business man and loyal citizen, is a Republican in his political allegiance, is identified with Pentalpha Lodge No. 564, Free and Accepted Masons, and the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Pres- byterian Church.


On the 20th of September, 1883, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Moffitt to Miss Caroline Davis, who was born at Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana, and who is a daughter of Dr. William H. and Mary (Powner) Davis, both of whom were born and reared in Indiana, where they passed their entire lives and where the father was long en- gaged in the practice of his profession, hav- ing been one of the able and honored physi- cians and surgeons of his native state, and also having been a zealous member of the Masonic fraternity. Of the two children of the first marriage Mrs. Moffitt alone sur- vives. After the death of his first wife Dr. Davis married Miss Marcia Larsh, who sur- vives him, as do also their two children. Dr. Davis was a deacon in the Presbyterian Church and he was summoned to eternal rest in July, 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Moffitt have one daughter, Vera M., who was a student in Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio.


DR. FREDERIC CARROLL HEATH is widely recognized as one of the prominent members of the medical profession of Indianapolis and as a specialist in the diseases of the eye and ear. He descends from sterling ancestors, and is a grandson of a physician of wide rep- utation in the state of Maine. His father, the able editor and publisher of the Gardiner (Maine) Home Journal, was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg during. his service in the Civil War. The Grand Army Post of Gardiner was named in his honor.


Dr. Frederic Carroll Heath, born at Gard- iner, Maine, January 19, 1857, prepared for, college in the schools of his home city, and graduated at Amherst College in 1878, while a few years later he received from his alma mater the degree of A. M. At the close of his junior year in college he won the Hutchins prize for the best examination in Greek of the sophomore and junior years, and was appointed to the Phi Beta Kappa society for high general rank. After serving a few years as principal of the Granby High School, the Gardiner Grammar School and the Washing-


DANIEL A .RICHARDSON


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tou Academy, Dr. Heath entered the medical department of Bowdoin College and gradu- ated at the head of its class of 1884, and on that occasion delivered a valedictory address that was published in whole or in part in some of the leading papers of the state. Dur- ing the two years following his graduation he served as steward and acting assistant sur- geon in the United States Marine Hospital at Portland, Maine, and in 1886 was appointed an assistant surgeon ranking first among a large class of applicants before the examining board at Washington, D. C .. and as such served at Chicago, Mobile. Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit, but in 1890 he resigned that po- sition to enter upon the practice of his spe- cialty, the diseases of the eye and ear, for he had previously given considerable atten- tion to these subjects and had taken long courses of clinical work and study in the post- graduate schools and eye and ear hospitals in New York. Locating for practice at La- Fayette, Indiana. he was soon made oculist and aurist in St. Elizabeth's Hospital, and moving to Indianapolis in October of 1891, he has since been rapidly acquiring a large practice, and in his specialties has few su- periors. Dr. Heath is eye and ear surgeon to the Indianapolis Polyclinic, and is a well known contributor to medical journals. Among his contributions to the literature of his profession may be mentioned the follow- ing: A Case of Aneurism of the Pulmo- nary Artery ; Two Interesting Cases of Enteric Fever; Heart Tonics: The Physician's First Indication : Nasal Reflexes : Gonorrhæal Oph- thalmia : Steel in the Iris for Twenty-Seven Years: Benefits and Evils of Glasses: The Eye in Relation to General Disease ; Medical Harmony: Practical Suggestions to the Gen- eral Practitioner in Ear Troubles: and the Pathogeny of Sympathetic Ophthalmia. Hon- ored alike by his profession and the general public. Dr. Heath is a man well worthy to be represented among the prominent men of his city. He is a member of and was presi- dent of Indianapolis Medical Society. 1905: secretary of the Indianapolis State Medical Association for fourteen years, and still hold- ing that office in 1810: member of the Ameri- can Medical Association, member of the In- dianapolis Literary Club and the Indiana Democratic Club.


DANIEL A. RICHARDSON was long numbered among the representative business men of In- dianapolis and he contributed materially to its commercial and civic progress, while his personal integrity and honor were such as to retain to him the inviolable confidence and esteem of the community in which he thus


elected to establish his home and centralize his well directed endeavors. He was a type of the ideal American citizen-of strong men- tality, of fine moral fiber, of unquestioned ability in business and of engaging social qualities. His career, too, was typical of American enterprise and ambition, and he sustained in his well rounded life the tradi- tions of a line of ancestors who have figured in the history of America from its early col- onial epoch. The Richardson family lineage is traced back to three brothers of the name who came from Kent, England, about the middle of the seventeenth century and who were members of the committee of seven men commissioned by the church of Charlestown, Massachusetts. to erect a new town and church at what is now Woburn, that state, where they settled, and whence representa- tives of the name later removed to New Hampshire.


Daniel Austin Richardson was born on a farm near Lebanon, Grafton County, New Hampshire, about 1828. and was a son of Daniel and Nancy Richardson. who continued to reside in Grafton County until their death, the father having there been a successful farmer of the sturdy New England type and having been a man who ever commanded un- qualified confidence and esteem. The sub- ject of this memoir was reared to the invig- orating though arduons discipline of the home farm and his early educational advantages were those afforded by the common schools of the locality and period. As a youth he went to White River Junction. Vermont, where he became identified with railroad in- terests and where he eventually became agent for one of the railroads entering the place. He retained this incumbency for eighteen years, and impaired health then led him to seek a location in the west. He came to In- dianapolis and here he maintained his home for more than two-score years. within which he became intimately and prominently iden- tified with local business and civic interests. Soon after coming to the Indiana capital he here became associated with the late Mr. Geisendorf in the milling business and even- tnally he became the virtual owner of the ex- tensive and profitable business conducted un- der the title of the Acme Milling Company, with which he continued to be actively iden- tified until his death, which occurred in 1892. It was largely due to his indefatigable efforts and marked administrative ability that this important enterprise was raised to the plane of so great success and made one of the wor- thy contributions to the industrial prestige of the city.




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