USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes > Part 64
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135
Eliza Gordon Browning was born at Fort- ville, Hancock County, Indiana, on the 23rd of September, 1856, and is a daughter of Woodville and Mary Ann (Brown) Brown- ing, who removed to Indianapolis when she was but a few months old; the capital city has ever since represented her home and the center of her interests. Her father, who was a merchant, died in 1861, and her mother was summoned to the life eternal in 1875. Her paternal grandfather, Edmund Brown- ing, was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Lewright) Browning, and was born in Cul- peper, Virginia, in 1795. As a lad he served as a soldier in the War of 1812. He was for many years proprietor of a hotel that stood on the site of the present New York Store, on Washington street, Indianapolis, and from 1860 until the office was abolished, about six years later, he was register of public lands in Indiana. His death oceurred in 1877. His wife, whose maiden name was Eliza Gordon, was a daughter of George and Sarah Wynn (Moss) Gordon and a granddaughter of Ma- jor Hugh and Jane (Ford) Moss.
The maternal grandfather of Miss Brown- ing was Hon. William John Brown, who was a son of George and Hannah (John) Brown and a grandson of Thomas and Mary (Ball) Brown and John and Barbara (Evans) John. William J. Brown was a distinguished lawyer and journalist of Indiana; he was editor of
954
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
the Indianapolis Sentinel from 1850 to 1855, and was prominent in public affairs of both the state and nation. He was a member of the Indiana legislature from 1829. to 1832; was prosecuting attorney for the Indiana district from 1832 to 1836; was secretary of state from 1836 to 1840; was a member of the general assembly again in 1841-2; and was a member of Congress in 1843-4 and in 1849-50. Between his terms in Congress he served as assistant postmaster-general of the United States, from 1845 to 1849. Concern- ing him the following statements of apprecia- tion have previously been published: "Mr. Brown's high sense of personal responsibility in the discharge of the duties entrusted to him, his thorough comprehension of the peo- ple he represented, and his desire to fulfill to the utmost their expectations regarding his services, made him an admirable public servant, and he maintained a position of power and prominence for many years.".
Hon. William J. Brown married Miss Su- san Tompkins, daughter of Nathan and Mary (Wyatt) Tompkins, and her paternal grand- father was a near relative of Vice-President Daniel D. Tompkins. Admiral George Brown, of the United States navy, in which he has attained world-wide reputation, was a son of Hon. William J. and Susan (Tompkins) Brown, and his brother, Hon. Austin H. Brown has also reached high distinction in public affairs in Indiana and the nation. The Browning, Lewright, Moss, Brown, John and Wyatt families were all early founded in Virginia, representing pioneer stock of the historie Old Dominion, and the Gordons are of Philadelphia, and the Tompkins of Staten Island, New York. Four of Miss Browning's great-great-grandfathers, Thomas Brown, Hugh Moss, John Wyatt and John John, and also her great-grandfather, George Brown, were all numbered as patriot soldiers in the Continental line in the War of the Revolu- tion. George Brown also served in the In- dian wars subsequent to 1783 and also in the War of 1812. In 1825 his wife, Hannah (John) Brown, was left a widow with a num- ber of little children, and her home as then in the pioneer wilds of Rush County, Indi- ana, here she bravely reared her family. It is a matter of definite record that, by reason of the inaccessibility of physicians, she sent to Cincinnati for the necessary books, studied medicine and became an adept in therapeu- tics and materia medica according to the standard of the locality and period. She ministered unselfishly and ably to those in af- fliction and distress in her neighborhood, and undoubtedly she was the first woman physi-
cian in the state of Indiana. Her second son, Dr. Ryland T. Brown, gained his funda- mental knowledge of medicine under the in- struction of his mother and later was a stu- dent in the Ohio Medical College. He gained distinction in professional and public life and attained a national reputation in scien- tific lines. He served as state geologist of Indiana; was later chemist in chief in the Department of Agriculture, in Washington; and still later was appointed by the govern- ment to make a survey of Indiana to reveal the variety and extent of the natural re- sources of the state. During the final years of his long and useful life he occupied the chair of natural science in the Northwestern Christian University (now Butler Univer- sity), and the chair of chemistry and physi- ology in the Indiana Medical College, both of which are Indianapolis institutions.
Miss Eliza Gordon Browning, the immedi- ate subject of this review, is indebted to pub- lic and private schools of Indianapolis for her early educational discipline, and this has been most effectively supplemented by wide and well directed study and reading in later years, so that few there are who have a broader or more exact fund of information or a more secure literary education. In 1880, when twenty-four years of age, Miss Brown- ing entered the Indianapolis Public Library in the capacity of substitute, and she gave her services the first year without compensa- tion. Apropos of her labors we cannot, per- haps, do better than to quote from an ap- preciative résumé of her career published in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Indianapolis and Vicinity, published in 1908: "Her peculiar adaptability to the work-the result of a combination of energy and ex- ecutive ability with a thorough knowledge of and love for books-soon developed, and she rose steadily until, in April, 1892, she was honored with election to the position of libra- rian. The next year she was re-elected by acclamation, and she has held the position continuously ever since. Miss Browning's administration of this trust has met with the heartiest approval among the citizens of In- dianapolis. She has proved herself to be the possessor of excellent business qualities as well as the necessary literary appreciation re- quired for the proper discharge of her du- ties. The conveniences of the library-facili- ties for speedy and accurate attention to the numerous details of the work and for serv- ing patrons with the least possible waste of time-have been greatly improved under her management. She is ever on the alert to in- vestigate promising new methods which may
Mary Angela . Apink
DR. MARY A. SPINK, SUPERINTENDENT NEURONHURST. DR. W. B. FLETCHER'S SANATORIUM, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
EEHIE EE
EE HE EE
955
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
be adopted or adapted, as the case may be, into her work with good results, and the ef- fect is that the institution under her charge is thoroughly systematized and judiciously equipped. Miss Browning has an analytical mind, is a close reader and deep thinker, and a most interesting conversationalist. She is an accomplished musician. Her Revolution- ary ancestry entitles her to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, in which she has become state historian of the Indiana society of that organization and joint editor, with Mrs. Harriet (McIntire) Foster, of the Year Book of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Indiana. She also belongs to the Fortnightly Literary Club of Indianapolis, and to the American Library Association."
It is but in justice due to state that the gracious personality of Miss Browning has won and retained to her the most inviolable of friendships, and no woman in Indianap- olis is better known or enjoys more unequivo- cal popularity. She is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which she is a member of the parish of Christ Church. Her dominating interests center in the finely equipped institution over which she is placed in charge, and she is to be designated as one of the representative librarians of the Union. In conclusion is consistently reproduced a previously published estimate contributed by Charles W. Moores, one of the leading mem- bers of the Indianapolis bar and one who is familiar with the official career of her to whom this sketch is dedicated :
"Miss Eliza G. Browning, librarian of the Indianapolis Public Library, carries greater responsibilities in the library world than any other woman and has held her position longer perhaps than any woman ever has. Her wide acquaintance as a library expert among li- brary people in this country and abroad and her large circle of friends in Indianapolis have made her a most acceptable public offi- cial and have added greatly to the reputation of the library abroad and to its popularity at home. She has grown up in the atmos- phere of books and has given many years of an active and useful life to the service of the people, so that it goes without saying that no librarian is better liked than she is or se- cures more loyal and efficient co-operation from assistants. She has been particularly active in the promotion of public movements among librarians and the reading people, and is the only woman that has ever been en- rolled in the membership of the Indiana His- torical Society."
MARY A. SPINK, M. D. In a generic sense Dr. Mary A. Spink is well entitled to classi- fication among the distinguished and able rep- resentatives of the medical profession in the State of Indiana, and specifically she holds prestige as one of the leading women physicians and surgeons of the Union. She is president of the Dr. W. B. Fletcher Sanatorium of In- dianapolis, a private institution, and has gained wide recognition as a specialist in the treatment of mental and nervous diseases. It is a matter of gratification to the publishers of this work to be able to here accord to her due consideration as one of the able exponents of medicine and surgery in the capital city of Indiana.
Mary Angela Spink was born in the village of Washington, Daviess County, Indiana, on the 18th of November, 1863, and is a daughter of Michael U. and Rose (Morgan) Spink, both of whom were born in the State of Indiana. The father was a druggist by vocation and both he and his wife resided in Washington for some years and removed to Indianapolis in 1903 and he died in 1907 at that place.
Dr. Spink was afforded the advantages of the public schools of her native town, where she also attended St. Simon's Academy, a well ordered institution in which she continued her studies until she was fourteen years of age. She early manifested that self-reliance and independence of thought and action that have so signally conserved her success in the work of her chosen profession, and when a girl of but fifteen years she administered a severe shock to the staid and conservative people of her native town by announcing her intention of preparing herself for the· medical profes- sion. The independent young woman was looked upon in the community as an iconoclast and she endured with patience and amusement the storm of criticism which her course of ac- tion precipitated. Her ambition was one of definite action, and it was through her own efforts that Dr. Spink defrayed the expenses of her professional education. The initial and well-taken step was that of securing a position as nurse in a hospital, and in this connection she gained valuable experience in a preliminary way. In 1882 she went to Cincinnati and started her studies in the Pulte Medical Col- lege and also had practical experience in the city hospital. In 1884 she came to Indian- apolis and entered the Central Hospital for the Insane as special night nurse and here had splendid advantages in studying this class of diseases and also in laboratory and post- mortem work. In 1885 Dr. Spink entered the Medical College of Indiana, in which institu- tion she completed the prescribed course and
956
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
was graduated, as a member of the class of 1887. She was granted her well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine on the 2d of March of that year and received high honors at the time of her graduation. In this connection it may be mentioned that she took the prize for dis- secting. On the day following the receipt of her diploma she opened an office for general practice and was in practice one year, being very successful and having a large acquaint- ance with the best families in Indianapolis, which she had gained by giving massage treat- ment and doing special nursing, and afterwards was employed by these same people as their physician. In July, 1888, .she assisted Dr. W. B. Fletcher in opening the present sanatorium and took the position as his assistant. Three years later she became a partner in the insti- tution. She eventually became superintendent of the woman's department of this finely equipped hospital, as well as part owner of the institution, and since the death of Dr. Fletcher in 1907 she has been the manager and gen- eral superintendent of the hospital, which has long commanded a large and representative patronage and whose effective service has gained to it a very high reputation.
Dr. Spink has naturally given special study and investigation to the class of disorders to which the hospital is devoted, and as a neurologist and specialist in the treatment of mental diseases she has gained a position of prominence and authority. She has done much original research in her special field of practice and her system of preserving the inter-cranial circulation. has gained to her the highest en- dorsement on the part of the medical profes- sion, as this original method devised by her has added materially to the practical and theo- retical work of psychiatry. Dr. Spink has been unflagging in her enthusiasm for and devotion to her noble profession, and her faithful labors have counted for much in the alleviation of human suffering and distress. Imbued with the deepest sympathy and exemplifying the most generous and kindly attributes of gracious womanhood, she has uplifted her sympathy from the plane of mere sentiment to the more lofty level of actuating motives for helpful- ness. She has been a valued member of the Indiana State Board of Charities and has served on the medical staff of each the In- dianapolis City Hospital and city dispensary. She holds membership in the American Medical Association, the American Microscopical So- ciety, the Indiana State Medical Society, and the Indianapolis (Marion County) Medical So- ciety, and before each of these she has pre- sented excellent and pertinent papers, especial- ly touching the work in her chosen . field of
special practice. She has also been a valued contributor to the American . Journal of Microscopy, the Woman's Medical Journal, of which she was for several years an associate editor, and to. other leading periodicals of her profession. In 1888 Dr. Spink completed an effective post-graduate course in the Post- Graduate Medical School of New York City, and she has remained a close and- self-exacting student of both branches of her profession, so that she has kept in close touch with the ad- vances made in both medicine and surgery. Though never seeking priority in the domain of operative surgery, Dr. Spink has performed a number of very delicate and expert opera- tions, among the most successful of which have been those for lacerations of the cervix uteri and perineum as well as those for the radical cure of hernia and operations for laparotomies. As the head of the Fletcher Sanitarium Dr. Spink has ably upheld its high prestige since the death of its honored founder, and she has the unqualified confidence and esteem of her professional confreres in the city which has so long represented her home and' been the scene of her earnest and effective endeavors in the work of her profession.
DR. DAVID Ross has gained precedence as one of the representative physicians and sur- ' geons of his native City of Indianapolis, and now devotes his attention exclusively to the surgical branch of his profession and to the general treatment of abdominal diseases. He controls a large practice and is recognized as a surgeon of marked skill and of fine technical training.
A scion of stanch Scottish ancestry of his- toric and distinguished order, Dr. Ross was born in Indianapolis, on the 20th of Novem- ,ber, 1865, and he is a son of Charles B. and Catherine (King) Ross, the former of whom was born in Rosshire and the latter in Perth- shire, Scotland. They were reared and edu- cated in the brave old land of hills and heather and there their marriage was sol- emnized. Charles B. Ross was born in the year 1827, and his death occurred in 1902, at Brazil,' Indiana, where his venerable wid- ow still maintains her home. They came to America in 1861 and soon after their arrival they took up their residence a few miles south of the City of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they remained until 1863, when they removed to Indianapolis, where Mr. Ross fol- lowed his profession of land scape gardening until 1870, when he removed to the vicinity of Coatesville, Hendricks County, this state, where he turned his attention to agricultural · pursuits, with which he continued to be iden- tified during the remainder of his active busi-
957
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
ness carcer. In 1877 he removed to Brazil, Clay County, and located near the city of Brazil, where he became the owner of a farm, to whose cultivation he gave his personal su- pervision until a short time before his death. He was a man of sterling character and ever commanded the respect and confidence of his fellow men. He was a Republican in his po- litical proclivities and was a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, as is also his wife. Of their nine children all are now liv- ing, and the subject of this review was the fourth in order of birth.
Dr. David Ross was reared to maturity on the home farm, and after completing the cur- riculum of the district school he continued his studies in the public schools of the City of Brazil. That he made good use of his op- portunities is evident when recognition is taken of the fact that he soon proved him- self eligible for pedagogic honors. For a pe- riod of five years he was numbered among the successful and popular teachers in the public schools of Clay County, and during a portion of this time. he taught in the city schools of Brazil. He continued to teach and attend school at intervals, and through his labors as a teacher he earned the money with which to defray the expenses of both his academic and technical education. In 1891 Dr. Ross was graduated in the Central Nor- mal College at Danville, Indiana, from which institution he received the degree of Bache- lor of Science. In the following year he was matriculated in the Medical College of In- diana, in the city of Indianapolis, and he here completed the prescribed technical course in 1895, on March 31 of which year he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Med- icine. He immediately became an interne in the Indianapolis City Hospital, in which he remained for one year, gaining valuable clini- cal experience. In 1896 he engaged in the general practice of his profession in Indian- apolis, and his novitiate was of short dura- tion, as he soon gained to himself a definite reputation for ability in his chosen vocation, so that his success followed as a natural re- sult. He has retained a distinctly repre- sentative clientage during all the years of his professional work in the Indiana capital, and his personal popularity has remained on a parity with his professional skill and ad- vancement. In the spring of 1900 Dr. Ross took a post-graduate course in the Post-Grad- uate Medical School of New York, in the City of New York, and through close study of the best standard and periodical literature of his profession, as well as through personal in- vestigations and scientific work, he has kept
at all times abreast of the advances made in the sciences of medicine and surgery. He now finds ample demands upon his time and attention in devoting himself exclusively to the surgical branch of practice-especially to abdominal surgery. Dr. Ross holds member- ship in the Indianapolis Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the Ameri- can Medical Association. He is consulting surgeon to the Indianapolis City Hospital and also to St. Vincent's Hospital, and is as- sociate professor of surgery in the Indiana School of Medicine, representing the medi- cal department of Indiana University. In politics the doctor is aligned as a supporter of the cause of the Republican party and he and his wife hold membership in the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis.
On the 24th of September, 1901, Dr. Ross was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Gertrude Goodhart, who was born and reared in Indianapolis, and who is a daughter of Benjamin F. and Julia H. (Wright) Good- hart, of this city. Dr. and Mrs. Ross have one son, Andrew Franklin, who was born on the 16th of July, 1906.
FRANK D. STALNAKER. Well exemplifying that spirit of enterprise and progressiveness that has conserved the splendid advancement of "Greater Indianapolis", Frank. D. Stal- maker is numbered among the representative business men of the city in which he has achieved noteworthy success through his own well directed endeavors, having here main- tained his home since 1879, 80 that his ad- vancement in connection with business affairs has been coincident with the growth of the capital city, to whose interests no citizen is more loyal than he whose name initiates this paragraph.
Frank D. Stalnaker, president of the Capi- tal National Bank of Indianapolis and junior member of the wholesale and retail hardware firm of Lilly & Stalnaker, was born at Bloom- field, Davis County, Iowa, on the. 31st of December, 1859, and is a son of Lemuel E. and Martha J. (Jamieson) Stalnaker. His father was born at Parkersburg, West Vir- ginia, and was a scion of one of the old and patrician families of the historic Old Do- minion commonwealth. He passed the clos- ing years of his life at McMinnville, Tennes- see, where he died at the age of sixty-eight years. He was reared and educated in West Virginia, which was then an integral part of the State of Virginia, and as a young man he removed to the west, becoming one of the pioneers of the State of Iowa. In Sioux City, that state, his marriage was solemnized, and there he was engaged in business as a
958
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
contractor and builder for some time. He then removed with his family to Cambridge City, Indiana, where he became superinten- dent of the car works and where he remained until 1879, when he removed to Indianapolis and assumed the position of superintendent of the old car works located on the site now occupied by the Atlas Engine Works. Final- ly the manufacturing of cars was abandoned in these shops and he then removed to Ten- nessee, where he passed the residue of his life. After his death his wife, who was. a native of the State of Indiana, returned to Indianapolis, where she continued to maintain her home until she too was summoned to the life eternal, when sixty-five years of age. Of the three children Frank D. is the eldest; William E. is a resident of the City of Chi- cago; and Olive is the wife of Charles Faulk- ner, of Sardis, Mississippi.
Frank D. Stalnaker gained his early edu- cational discipline in the public schools of Sioux City, Iowa, and Cambridge City, In- diana, and after completing the curriculum of the high school he took an effective course in a business college at Indianapolis. He was twenty years of age at the time of the fam- ily removal to Indianapolis, and here he has since directed his energies along normal lines of enterprise, through the agency of which he has attained to splendid success, while in- cidentally gaining an impregnable hold upon popular confidence and esteem-a fact that indicates that his course has been marked by integrity and honor in all the relations of life .. After being graduated in business col- lege Mr. Stalnaker secured a clerical posi- tion in a local banking institution, and he continued to be actively associated with bank- ing affairs in various executive capacities un- til the death of William Wallace, when he was appointed to succeed the latter in the re- sponsible office of receiver of the Fletcher & Sharpe Bank. He handled the affairs thus entrusted to his charge with marked ability and discrimination, and he continued incum- bent of the position of receiver until the bus- iness of the institution was finally settled, in 1893.
In 1885, when twenty-six years of age, Mr. Stalnaker associated himself with James W. Lilly under the firm name of Lilly & Stalnaker, and engaged in the hardware bus- iness. They initiated operations on a some- what modest scale, and through careful and able administration and progressive methods the business expanded rapidly in scope and importance, with the eventual result that the concern became one of the leading wholesale and retail hardware houses of Indianapolis-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.