USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes > Part 58
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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
In local business circles Mr. Richardson ever maintained high standing, and no shad- ow rests upon any portion of his career as a business man or as a citizen. Though never a seeker of public office he was signally true to all the duties and responsibilities of citi- zenship and ever ready to give his co-opera- tion and influence in support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the gen- eral welfare of the community. His political allegiance was accorded to the Republican party and he was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church, as is also his widow. He was a stockholder in the Meridian Na- tional Bank and was a member of its director- ate at the time of his demise, besides which he had other capitalistic interests and was the owner of valuable realty, including the beau- tiful residence, on North Meridian street, which his widow sold a short time ago. Mr. Richardson was a valued member of various clubs and other civic organizations of repre- sentative order and was affiliated with both the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
In the spring of 1851, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Richardson to Miss Sarah A. Currier, who was born at Raymond, Rock- ingham County, New Hampshire, and who is a daughter of the late Asa and Lydia (Rich- ardson) Currier, who likewise were born and reared in the old Granite state, where the fa- ther was a prosperous farmer and represen- tative citizen of Rockingham County at the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson had no children. Mrs. Richardson, a woman of most gracious personality, exemplifies the sterling characteristics that have made the women of New England such important fac- tors in the social life of the various com- munities where they have been found, from the pioneer days to the present, and she has a wide circle of friends in the capital city of Indiana, where she is prominent in church and benevolent work and extends in her home an unostentatious, kindly and refined hospi- tality.
DANIEL STEWART. No citizen who has hon- ored Indianapolis through productive activi- ties and civic loyalty is more worthy of rec- ognition in this publication than the late Daniel Stewart, whose death here occurred on the 25th of February, 1892, as the sequel of a stroke of apoplexy. His was a strong and noble character and he exerted an em- phatic and beneficent influence in connection with commercial and civic affairs in the capi- tal city of his native state during the course of a long and significantly successful career. The major part of his life was passed in In-
dianapolis and he achieved success through his individual ability and application, the while he stood exemplar of that integrity of purpose that ever figures as the plumb of character and makes for objective valuation in connection with the varied relations of life. His strength was as the number of his days and he was summoned to the life eternal in the fullness of years and well earned hon- ors-one of the pioneer business men of the Indiana metropolis and one who contributed in generous measure to its social and mate- rial development and upbuilding.
Daniel Stewart was born in Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana, on February 3, 1824, and was a son of Silas and Mary (Hendricks) Stewart, both representatives of old and distinguished pioneer families that were founded in America in the colonial epoch and that found representation in In- diana in the early pioneer days. In the Stew- art line the genealogy is traced back to stanch Scottish origin, and the Stewart clan has played an important part in the annals of Scotland, as the pages of history and ro- mance well indicate. The ancestors of the subject of this memoir were followers of King Charles and were compelled to flee their native country, whence they made their way to Holland, where the original American rep- resentatives of the name set sail on the prim- itive sailing vessel "Caledonia", by means of which they voyaged to the new world. They made settlement on the Raritan River, in New Jersey, and representatives of the family later became pioneers of Pennsylvania. The name has been one of prominence in America both in peace and war, and not a few have attained to marked distinction in public life. This is also significantly true in regard to the Hendricks family, with which Mr. Stewart was allied in the maternal line. Two of the name have filled the office of gov- ernor and one, the late Hon. Thomas A. Hen- dricks, of Indiana, a cousin of the subject of this memoir, was vice-president of the United States. The tract of land occupied by the thriving little city of Greensburg. Indi- ana, was once the property of Col. Thomas Hendricks, maternal grandfather of Mr. Stewart, and this worthy pioneer was the founder of the city, which he named in honor of his native town of Greensburg, Westmore- land County, Pennsylvania.
Daniel Stewart secured his early education- al training in the pioneer schools of his na- tive town, and this training was most adequately amplified in the course of a long and earnest life, devoted not alone to suc- cessful endeavor as a business man, but also
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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
to reading and study and to appreciation of the ideals which touch the real aims and val- ues of human existence. His was a well rounded character, sane, distinct and exalted, and he made his life count for good in its every relation. It is worthy of special rec- ord that his protracted business career was one of consecutive identification with the drug business, from which he was deflected for only three years, during which he was engaged in the daguerreotype business. At the age of sixteen years he secured a position in a drug store in Greensburg, whence he re- moved to Indianapolis in 1863. In Greens- burg he was associated with his brother, John H. Stewart, in the retail drug business for several years, and he then formed a partner- ship with Stephen Morgan and Thomas G. Barry, with whom he established a wholesale and retail drug store in 1863, at 40 East Washington street, Indianapolis. After a number of years Mr. Morgan retired from the firm, and the title was thereupon changed to Stewart & Barry. Under this name the enterprise, expanded to large wholesale functions, was continued until 1885, after which it was conducted under the title of Daniel Stewart, and in 1896 it was incorpo- rated under the name of Daniel Stewart Com- pany, which name is still retained. In 1883, two years after the business was removed to the new block at the corner of Meridian and Maryland streets, Mr. Barry retired from the firm. A man of prodigious energy and of great constructive and administrative ability, Daniel Stewart was the force employed in building up a wholesale business that has long held rank among the most substantial and extensive of its kind in the west-in- volving the handling of drugs, paints, plate glass, etc. The enterprise under the personal direction of Mr. Stewart eventually con- trolled a trade amounting to nearly a million dollars annually, and the business was dis- seminated throughout a territory far exceed- ing the normal tributary of Indianapolis, by reason of the high reputation and effective service. In 1890 Mr. Stewart was chosen president of the National Druggists' Associa- tion, and none was better known in his par -- ticular branch of commercial enterprise than was he. Concerning him the following state- ments were made in an Indianapolis paper at the time of his death, and the same are worthy of perpetuation in this volume: "Mr. Stewart was recognized as a generous, con- siderate employer-one who recognized the value of service done for him and who re- turned its equivalent. He was charitable, and his long business career, extending over
half a century, was marked by honorable dealing. His devotion to his business no doubt impaired his health and superinduced the attack that resulted in his death."
Dominated by the highest principles of in- tegrity and honor was the course of this hon- ored and veteran citizen of Indianapolis, and he placed true values upon men and affairs, so that he was essentially democratic and un- assuming and showed the intrinsic strength and loyalty of his character. His benevo- lences and charities were large and were ever unostentatious and admirably placed. He knew the spring of human motive and action, so that he was kindly and tolerant in his judgment and ever ready to lend a helping hand to those in affliction or distress. He was a most zealous member of the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of whose offi- cial board he was for many years a valued member and whose Sunday school he was long the loved superintendent. His benefactions, however, were not confined within denomina- tional lines, but whenever time and influence and means could help social problems he was every ready to aid. His long residence in In- dianapolis, his upright life and mature judg- ment, and the many services he rendered have made his nåme a synonym for character and worth. Though never a seeker of public of- fice Mr. Stewart was imbued with the deep- est and most helpful public spirit and his political allegiance was given to the Repub- lican party. He was well fortified in his opin- ions as to matters of public polity and gave of his best to the furthering of good gov- ernment, as he was neglectful of no civic duty. He attained to the thirty-second de- gree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, was identified witlı the representative civic associations of Indian- apolis, and his popularity in all circles was of the most unequivocal order.
It is scarcely necessary to say that in the inviolable precincts of an ideal home the true nobility of Daniel Stewart found perfect apotheosis. Thus there is no desire in this connection to lift the gracious veil of the home life, but merely to enter brief record concerning the marriage and children of him to whom this memorial tribute is dedicated.
On the 18th of May, 1858, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stewart to Miss Martha Tarkington, who was born at Corydon, In- diana, and who is a daughter of the late Rev. Joseph Tarkington, of Greensburg, who was one of the honored and pioneer clergymen of the Methodist Episcopal Church in In- diana, whither he came in the year 1816, es- tablishing his home in Bloomington and later
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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
being called to other pastoral charges in the state. Mrs. Stewart survives her honored husband and still resides in the attractive homestead, on North Delaware street-a home endeared to her by the hallowed mem- ories and associations of the past. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart became the parents of two chil- dren, both of whom are living-Mary is the wife of John N. Carey, of Indianapolis, and Martha is the wife of William Scott, also of Indianapolis.
GEORGE A. GAY. Never before has Indian- apolis been so big or so conspicuous in the eyes of the world, never have elements of strength been better organized and worked more effectively than in the first decade of the twentieth century, marked with opulent achievement along all lines of business activ- ity and civic advancement. Indiana's capital has reason to be proud of its representative retail establishments, which compare favor- ably with those in the leading metropolitan centers of the country, and among those that are ably conserving the high prestige of the city in this important line is what is known as the New York Store, a large and finely ap- pointed establishment, thoroughly systema- tized into various departments, and conducted by the strong and reliable business men whose associate alliance is maintained under the corporate title of the Pettis Dry Goods Com- pany. The house is now a general depart- ment store and its trade is drawn from all classes of citizens, appreciative of the abso- lute reliability of the concern. Of this com- pany George A. Gay is now the president, and his rise to such prominence as one of the representative business men of Indian- apolis has been gained through his own abili- ties and well directed efforts, and that within the compass of comparatively few years. He is an able exponent of that alert progressive policy which has brought Indianapolis to the forefront as one of the leading commercial centers of the Union, and such is his stand- ing as a citizen and business man that he is eminently entitled to representation in this historic publication touching Greater Indian- apolis and its people.
In both the paternal and maternal lines Mr. Gay is a scion of families founded in New England in the colonial epoch of our na- tional history. He himself is a native of the fine old Bay state, having been born in Ded- ham, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on the 18th of June, 1859, and being the eldest of three children of Ebenezer and Seviah (Fisher) Gay, the former of whom was born in the state of Maine and the latter in Ver- mont. The parents now reside in Portland,
Maine, and are well preserved in both men- tal and physical powers. Both are devout members of the Congregational Church, and in politics the father is a stalwart adherent of the Republican party. He has long been engaged in business as a cabinet manufac- turer and is a man of sterling character, com- manding the unqualified esteem of all who know him and being a citizen of influence in his community. He has for many years been identified with the Masonic fraternity, and has taken an active interest in its work.
George A. Gay was about six years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Mas- sachusetts to the City of Portland, Maine, where.he was reared to maturity and where he was afforded the advantages of the excel- lent public schools. He initiated his busi- ness career by securing a position as clerk in the dry-goods establishment of Eastman Brothers, of Portland, where he was advanced to a position of responsibility as an executive and where he gained careful and compre- hensive business training. He remained with this house, an honored and valued employe, for a period of ten years, at the expiration of which he went to the City of Boston, where he was identified with the large dry goods house of R. H. White for the ensuing eight years.
Having become impressed with the superior attractions of the middle west in offering ad- vantages for business enterprise of a produc- tive order, Mr. Gay came to Indianapolis in 1892 and here assumed the position of gen- eral manager of the business of the Pettis Dry Goods Company. He has wielded large and beneficent influence in the expanding of the scope of the company's business and in building up its large and substantial trade, be- ing recognized as an executive of much fore- sight, courage and progressiveness, and hav- ing so thorough a knowledge of the details of the business that he is able to keep all matters well in hand. He was made vice- president of the company in 1899, and in- 1902 became its president, of which office he has since remained the able and popular in- cumbent. Mr. Gay has demonstrated in no uncertain way his constructive and initiative powers, and his advancement in the world of business stands as the diametrical result of his own ability and admirably directed ener- gies. Though loyal to the historic section of our country in which he was born and reared, Mr. Gay is thoroughly imbued with the pro- gressive spirit of the west, and Indianapolis has no citizen more deeply appreciative or more thoroughly interested in all that tends to conserve her material and social progress.
barryi'm Pherson
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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
He has gained a secure place in popular es- teem in the capital city and has the confi- dence and good will of the business com- munity.
Though never active in the domain of po- litical manœuvering Mr. Gay is aligned as a loyal supporter of the cause of the Repub- lican party. He is a member of the Indian- apolis Board of Trade, is identified with the German House and the Maennerchor, and holds membership in the Commercial, Univer- sity, Columbia, and Country clubs. In the Masonic fraternity his affiliations are as here noted : Pentalpha Lodge No. 564, Free and Accepted Masons; Keystone Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons; Raper Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar; Indiana Sovereign Con- sistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; and Murat Temple, Ancient Arabie Or- der of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
On the 3rd of July, 1881, Mr. Gay was united in marriage to Miss Annie Kimball, who was born at Monmouth, Maine, in which state she was reared and educated, and who is the younger of the two children of George and --- (Hodgdon) Kimball. Mr. and Mrs. Gay have two children-Howard N. and Clifford W.
CAREY McPHERSON. Among the substantial and beneficent institutions whose interests are centered in Indianapolis is the Indiana Trav- elers' Accident Association, of which Carey McPherson is the efficient and popular sec- retary and treasurer, and his interest in the functions of this company is emphasized from the fact that for more than a quarter of a century he was himself a traveling commer- cial salesman.
Carey McPherson is of Scotch Quaker an- cestry and was born on a farm in Brown Township, Morgan County, Indiana, on the 28th of December, 1843, thus becoming a slightly belated Christmas guest in the home of his parents, Oliver H. and Polly (Mat- thews) McPherson. His father was born in North Carolina and was but six years of age at the time of his parents' removal to the State of Indiana, where he was reared to manhood under the conditions and influences of the pioneer epoch. His entire active ca- reer was devoted to agricultural pursuits and he was one of the substantial farmers of Morgan County at the time of his death. His widow, now eighty-six years of age (1910), still resides on the old homestead upon which she was born and reared, in Mor- gan County, the same having been secured from the government by her father, Hiram
Matthews, who was an early settler and sterling and influential citizen of that county, where he was called upon to serve in vari- ous offices of public trust, including that of county judge. Oliver H. and Polly (Mat- thews) McPherson became the parents of a large family of children and of these six are surviving and the eldest is the subject of this review. Two of the sons served as valiant soldiers in the Civil War and another son, Smith MePherson, is now judge of the United States district court of southern Iowa.
Carey McPherson was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and duly availed him- self of the advantages of the common schools of his native county. At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion he was attending the high school at Mooresville, and on the 7th of August, 1862, he, in company with twenty- three other students of that school, enlisted in Company E, Twelfth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, the company being known in the ranks as the "student company". Its first engagement was at Richmond, Kentucky, and here Mr. McPherson received a severe gun- shot wound, the bullet entering his head near the right corner of the left eye and issuing at the hinge of the right upper jaw bone. He was abandoned on the field as dead and was captured by the enemy. He was held a pris- oner for about nine weeks and then his ex- change was effected. The wound received had destroyed the sight of his right eye, and by reason of this physical disability, he re- ceived his honorable discharge on the 28th of November, 1862, at the recommendation of Governor Oliver P. Morton.
The youthful soldier, who had thus early suffered irreparable injury while fighting for a righteous cause, returned to his home in Morgan County and soon afterward became a clerk in a general store at Mooresville, a po- sition which he retained until the first of January, 1869, when he became a traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery house in Indianapolis. He made an excellent record and thereafter continued to be thus identified with the wholesale grocery trade, with dif- ferent houses, until 1897-a period of nearly twenty-eight years. He resigned his position as a commercial salesman January 1, 1897, and accepted his present office of secretary and treasurer of the Indiana Travelers' Ac- cident Association, in the organization of which he had been prominently concerned, in 1892, and of which he was president from the start until he assumed his present dual executive office. He has shown marked ad- ministrative ability and capacity for detail work, and under his able management the
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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
association has shown a consecutive and sub- stantial growth in the volume of its business and in the extending of its ramifications among the representative traveling salesmen of this and other states.
Mr. McPherson is familiarly known as "Mack" and it is probable that no traveling salesman has been better known or enjoyed a higher degree of popularity throughout cen- tral and southern Indiana than has he, for this territory was "covered" by him for more than a quarter of a century. He has maintained his home in Indianapolis since he began his service as a commercial traveler, in 1869, and in the capital city his circle of friends finds its limitations only when that of his acquaintanceship finds its boundaries.
In politics Mr. McPherson gives an un- faltering allegiance to the Republican party. He is an honored member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 17, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is past commander, and he'is also a member of the Union Vet- eran Legion. In the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with Ancient Landmarks Lodge, No. 319, Free and Accepted Masons.
In 1891 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McPherson to Miss Ausewell Day, of Terre Haute, Indiana. She was born in Ohio and was a daughter of John Day, who re- moved from that state to Indiana when she was a child. Mr. and Mrs. McPherson had no children, and after thirteen years of gra- cious companionship the marital ties were severed by her death, in 1904. at the age of fifty-one years.
JOHN F. WALLICK. A noteworthy record in connection with the development and oper- ation of the telegraph business in the United States is that which stands to the credit of John F. Wallick, an honored and well known citizen of Indianapolis. Mr. Wallick, who has held for more than forty-five years the office of superintendent of the business of the Western Union Telegraph Company in In- dianapolis, has been identified with the telegraphic industry for nearly sixty, years without interruption, and he has witnessed the development of the business from the status of primitive and ineffective service to its present condition as a vehicle of communi- cation throughout the entire world. It is evi- dent in a prima facia way that there are few men whose service in this important field can equal in duration that of the honored su- perintendent of the Western Union affairs in the Indiana capital, and it is gratifying to the publishers of this historical compilation to be able to offer within its pages at least a brief résumé of his career.
Mr. Wallick claims the old Keystone state of the Union as the place of his nativity, hav- ing been born in Tuscarora Valley, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, on the 2nd of March, 1830, and being a son of Samuel. and Mary (Glenn) Wallick. His father was likewise a native of Pennsylvania and was a prosper- ous farmer and merchant of Tuscarora Val- ley, where he died in 1841, at the age of fifty years. He was a man of prominence and in- fluence in his community, where he ever com- manded unqualified confidence and esteem- the result of the rectitude and honor that characterized him in all the relations of life- and he was called upon to serve in various of- fices of public trust, including that of justice of the peace. His devoted wife was likewise born and reared in the old Keystone state, and she survived him by half a century, passing the closing years of her life in Seville, Medi- na County, Ohio, where she died in 1891, at the venerable age of eighty-four years. Both were devout and zealous members of the Presbyterian Church. Of their seven chil- dren six are living, and concerning them the following brief data are consistently per- petuated in this article: Margaret is the widow of Stewart McCulloch and resides at Harrisburg. Pennsylvania ; John F. is the im- mediate subject of this review: Mary is the widow of James Stokes and resides in Seville, Ohio; Samuel is a representative citizen of McKavitt, Texas; Miss Amanda resides in Seville, Ohio; and Alfred R. is a resident of McKavitt, Texas.
Samuel Wallick was a son of John W. Wal- lick, who was a native of Germany, whence he emigrated to Ameriea in his youth, tak- ing up his residence in Juniata County, Penn- sylvania, where he developed a farm and where he continued to be identified with agri- cultural pursuits during his entire active ca- reer. He was more than three-score and ten years of age at the time of his death. In his family there were five children. William Glenn, the maternal grandfather of him whose name initiates this article, was a mem- ber of one of the early pioneer families of Pennsylvania, where he passed his entire life, being called to his reward at an advanced age. He was a farmer by vocation and it is a matter of record that he and his devoted wife became the parents of twelve children.
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