Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 69

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 69


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In the time-honored Masonic fraternity, Dr. Edenharter has attained to the thirty- second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite, having, as a matter of course, com- pleted the circle of the York Rite, in which his initial affiliation is with Capital City Lodge, No. 312, Free and Accepted Masons.


On the 6th day of June, 1888, was solem- nized the marriage of Dr. Edenharter to Miss Marion E. Swadener, of Dayton, Ohio, in which state she was born and reared, being a daughter of Michael and Marie (Michel) Swadener. Dr. and Mrs. Edenharter had but one child, Ralph, born July 19, 1889. Mrs. George F. Edenharter died September 27, 1909.


LYNN B. MILLIKAN. In according recogni- tion to those who have contributed to the up- building of Greater Indianapolis there is spe- cial consistency in offering record concerning the life and labors of this well known and honored citizen, who holds a position of dis- tinctive precedence as a building contractor and who has done a large and important work in the erection of many of the finest residences and most modern business buildings in the capital city, where he has a position of leader- ship in his chosen sphere of enterprise.


Mr. Millikan is a native son of the Hoosier commonwealth, having been born at Newcastle, Henry County, Indiana, on the 20th of March, 1860, and being a son of Eli B. and Margaret C. (Martindale) Millikan, the former of whom was born in Tennessee and the latter in In- diana. The father came to Indiana when young and after his marriage he built up an extensive business as a buyer of live stock, which he sold to a meat-packing concern at Cambridge City, this state. Later he located on a farm in Lib- erty Township, Henry County, where he de- veloped a fine property, and he there continued


to be actively identified with agricultural pur- suits until his death, in 1883, at the age of. sixty-nine years. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of his community, was a stanch Democrat in politics, was identified with the lodge and chapter of the Masonic fra- ternity at New Castle, and both he and his wife held membership in the Christian Church. Mrs. Millikan survived her honored husband by .more than a decade, having been summoned to the life eternal in 1894, at the age of sev- enty years. Of the five sons of this marriage the subject of this review was the fourth in order of birth, and of the number five are now living.


Lyun B. Millikan was reared to manhood on the homestead farm, to whose work he early began to contribute his quota of assistance, and in the meanwhile availing himself of the ad- vantages of the public schools of his native county. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to his. legal majority and he then served an apprenticeship of one year at the carpenter's trade, at New Castle. In 1882 he came to Indianapolis, where he continued his apprenticeship during the ensuing two years, at the expiration of which, in 1884, he engaged in contracting and building on his own responsibility. His filial devotion was sig- nally manifested at this time, as he built for himself a modest home and brought his loved and widowed mother to the same. She con- tinued to reside with him during the remainder of her life, and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gracious and gentle influence. During the first twelve years of his independent operations Mr. Milli- kan gave his attention principally to the build- ing of houses and then selling the properties thus improved. He disposed of the first house thus crected for $1,100, and it is worthy of record that the last residence which he thus built and sold commanded a price of $35,000. In the exclusive and attractive residence dis- trict between Sixteenth and Twenty-fifth streets on Meridian street Mr. Millikan erected sixteen fine houses, and the most of these were sold to persons who have established their homes in Indianapolis since 1895.


As a general contractor and builder MIr. Millikan has brought his abilities and energies into most effective play, and he is recognized as one of the most extensive and successful contractors of the city. In 1906-7 he did more than one million dollars' worth of business, and his reputation and work in his chosen voca- tion far transcend local limitations, as he has not only held large and important contracts in the capital city, but has also erected many


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ouildings in other cities of the state and has carried out large building contracts for the New York Central Railroad Company in the cities of Buffalo and Albany, New York. His energy, ambition and initiative power have been the elements through which he has achieved so large a measure of success and prestige, and he has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes, as he came to Indianapolis with financial resources repre- sented in the sum of one hundred and sixty dollars, which he had earned by work on the farm. He is known as a progressive, reliable and honorable business man and as a loyal and public-spirited citizen, taking deep interest in all that touches the material and civic wel- fare of his home city. In addition to resi- dences of the best modern type, including a number erected at great cost, Mr. Millikan has built a large number of the most substantial and modern factory and business buildings in Indianapolis. His own residence, at 1723 North Meridian street, is one of the magnificent homes of that beautiful section of the city.


In politics, while never an aspirant for the honors or emoluments of public office, Mr. Millikan accords a stanch allegiance to the Re- publican party, and both he and his wife hold membership in the First Baptist Church. He is affiliated with Mystic Tie Lodge No. 398, Free and Accepted Masons; Keystone Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, and Raper Com- mandery No. 1, Knights Templar, and the Shrine, besides which he is identified with various civic and social organizations of repre- sentative character.


On the 9th of December, 1891, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Millikan to Miss Madora Mand Pierson, who is a daughter of John C. and Martha Jane (Fowler) Pierson, both of whom were born and reared in In- diana, being representatives of honored pioneer families of this state. They still maintain their home at 2210 N. Meridian street, in In- dianapolis, where Mr. Pierson has long been a successful contractor and builder. Mr. and Mrs. Millikan have one child,-Gaylord Bar- ton.


JAMES P. BAKER. This honored member of the bar of the Indiana capital has here been engaged in the general practice of his profession for nearly forty years, and while there has been nothing meteoric or sensational in his career he has shown distinctive ability in and devotion to his profession and has gained precedence as one of the essentially representative members of the local bar, where he has ever commanded the unequivocal re- spect and confidence of his confreres.


James P. Baker is a native son of the old Vol. II-22


Hoosier commonwealth and a member of one of its sterling pioneer families. He was born on the parental farmstead, in Sand Creek Township, near the Village of Azalia, Bar- tholomew County, Indiana, August 27, 1844, and he recalls with pleasure and appreciation the little community, the major portion of whose inhabitants were members of the So- ciety of Friends, presenting the sterling traits ever characteristic of that gentle sect. His parents, Samuel and Jincy Baker, were natives of North Carolina, where the respec- tive families were early founded. In 1831 they removed to Indiana and numbered themselves among the pioneers of Bartholo- mew County, where they passed the residue of their lives. In politics the father was a Whig, and both he and his wife were zealous and devont members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, being instant in good works and kindly deeds. They became the parents of seven children, of whom the subject of this review was the sixth in order of birth, and of the number three sons and two daugh- ters are now living. The honored father passed to the life eternal in 1849, leaving his wife to care for their family of dependent children, none of whom had attained matu- rity. The widowed mother had but slender means of support, but her courage, unfalter- ing Christian fortitude and maternal solici- tude gave her the strength to face the ordeal presented, and bravely and with great self- abnegation did she plan and labor to make proper provision for her children. She died in 1873, at the age of sixty-three years, and her memory is held in gracions reverence by all who came within the sphere of her in- fluence.


James P. Baker, whose name introduces this article, was reared to the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the farm, and in his boyhood and youth he devoted his atten- tion to work on the farm during the summer months, while in the winter seasons he availed himself of the advantages of the some- what primitive schools of the locality and period. In the spring of 1861 he became a student in a well conducted academy at Co- lumbus, the county-seat of his native county, and there he pursned his studies until the summer of 1863, thus realizing in part his insatiate ambition for a broader education. In the autumn of the year mentioned he was matriculated in the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1866 and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts. For the ensuing two years he devoted him- self to the pedagogic profession, in which he


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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.


met with success and gained much popu- larity, having first been engaged as a teacher in a private school at Marshall, Illinois, and later in the public schools of Bloomington and New Albany, Indiana. In the summer of 1868 Mr. Baker took up his residence in In- dianapolis, and in the ensuing autumn he here began the study of law, becoming a student in the excellent law school conducted by Judge Samuel E. Perkins and Hon. Lucian Barbour. He was duly admitted to the bar of his native state in 1871 and came to his profession well equipped in his knowledge of the minutiæ of the science of jurisprudence, so that his novitiate in practice was of com- paratively short duration. He proved his powers as a discriminating trial lawyer and duly conservative counsellor, and he has long retained a representative clientele in the city which has been the field of his professional endeavors from the time of his admission to the bar to the present day. He has permit- ted no extraneous influence to cause him to deviate from the direct line of his profes- sion, which he has ever found worthy of his best efforts and unqualified allegiance, and thus he has never sought or held public office of any description.


In October, 1879, Mr. Baker was united in marriage to Miss Mary R. Parvin, daughter of the late Dr. Theophilus Parvin, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Baker became the par- ents of seven children, of whom four are liv- ing. Mr. Baker and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and is a member of the Commercial Club since its organization and an active member and at one time he was president of the Indianapolis Bar Associa- tion.


RICHARD LIEBER. European by birth but American by choice, was born at St. Johann- Saarbruecken, September 5, 1869. His fath- er, Otto Lieber, was a Private Councillor of the Prussian government, stationed at that point. As the opening of the Franco-Prus- sian war was in this immediate vicinity, his mother, whose maiden name was Maria Rich- ter, retired with her infant son to her father's home in the valley of the Moselle. After the close of the war the father of Richard Lieber was transferred to Duesseldorf, and here young Richard had the advantages of the ex- cellent schools until 1890, when he went to London to complete his studies and learn Eng- lish. Here he decided to visit the United States, and especially Indianapolis, which was the home of his uncles Hermann and Peter Lieber. He arrived here on February 1,


1891, and found the place so attractive in various ways that he has since made it his home.


In 1893 Richard Lieber was married to. Miss Emma Rappaport, daughter of Philip and Babette Rappaport, both of whom were influential factors in the social development of the city. Mr. Rappaport was a well-known journalist and leader of German-American thought. Mrs. Rappaport was a notable worker in charity and social reform, and par- ticularly in behalf of children. She was one of the founders, and first president of the German Women's Relief Society, an active member of the Local Council of Women, a visitor for the Charity Organization Society, a probation officer of the Juvenile Court, and an enthusiastic member of the Day Nursery Association, the Pure Milk Commission, and the Children's Aid Association. With all this she was a model wife and mother, for it was well said of her by a prominent co-worker: "Philanthropy to Mrs. Rappaport was a pas- sion, not a pastime; a religion, not a recrea- tion". After her death, on December 12, 1908, numbers of her friends in good works assembled and paid warm tributes to her noble and unselfish life.


Since locating in Indianapolis Mr. Lieber has shown a keen interest in public affairs In national politics he is a Republican, and has long been a member of the Columbia Club. He is also a member of the Maenner- chor, the German House, the Musikverein and the Social Turnverein. Of the latter he is president (sprecher). He has three children, Otto Walter, Ralph Willard, and Marie Jeanette.


ISAIAH MANSUR. Invulnerable integrity and high purpose characterized the life of Isaiah Mansur, an honored citizen and representative business man of Indianapolis, who left an in- delible impress upon the civic and industrial annals of the city and upon whose record there rests no shadow or blemish. His strength was as the number of his days, and not only did he accomplish much in connection with the practical affairs of life, but his nature, strong and vigorous, found denotement in kindly tolerance and human sympathy, gen- erons deeds and worthy service. He was a law- ver by profession, but the greater part of his long and active career was one of close and fruitful identification with business interests, especially in the line of banking, in which he gained marked prestige. He was a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of Indiana and the name which he bore has been identified with American history from the early colonial epoch. Measured by its accomplishment, its


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beneficence and its helpful optimism, the life of Mr. Mansur had wide and emphatic sig- nificance.


Isaiah Mansur was born near the village of Salsburg, which was then the county-seat of Wayne County, Indiana, and the date of his nativity was April 16, 1824. He was a son of Jeremy and Jane (.Carr) Mansur, the former of whom was born in New Hampshire and the latter in Virginia, so that in the blood of their descendants are represented the sturdy elements of the Puritan stock and those of patrician ancestry in the Old Dominion,-the two sections of our country in which the major portion of its history was cradled. Jeremy Mansur was one of the eleven children of William Mansur, of Temple, New Hampshire, and the latter was a gallant soldier in the Con- tinental line during the War of the Revolu- tion, in which he served under General Bur- goyne in the siege of Ticonderoga. Jeremy Mansur came to Indiana in 1816 and became one of the pioneers and influential citizens of Wayne County. He first settled in the vicinity of Salsburg, the center of the sterling colony founded in that county by members of the So- ciety of Friends, and he turned his attention to the reclaiming and development of a farm, besides which he found demand for his work as an ax-maker. He had learned the trade in New England and gained wide reputation as a skilled artisan in this line. In 1825, when the subject of this memoir was about one year old, the family removed from the farm to Rich- mond, now the beautiful county-seat of Wayne Conntv, and there the father engaged in the general merchandise business, in connection with which he built up an excellent trade, as he was known as a man of inviolable integrity and commanded unqualified popular confidence and esteem. He continued in business in Rich- mond until. 1847, when he removed with his family to Indianapolis, where he became one of the first representatives of the pork-packing industrv, in which he was associated with his son William. They established their business in a building near the old Madison depot and he continued to be actively associated with this line of enterprise until his death, which occurred in 1874. He was one of the organ- izers of the Citizens' National Bank, in 1863, and was otherwise an influential factor in the business and civic affairs of the capital city. Indefatigable in his efforts, equipped with splendid business ability,. he was one of the prominent men of Indianapolis from the time he here took up his abode until he was sum- moned from the scene of his mortal endeavors. His wife died about 1881, and none of their children are now living. The parents were


members of the First Presbyterian Church and the father was aligned as a supporter of the cause of the Republican party from the time of its organization until his demise.


Isaiah Mansur early learned the habits of industry and productive energy, through the discipline given by his honored father, and the highest principles of integrity and honor were inculcated in the home under whose gracious influences he was reared. His early educa- tional training was secured in the common schools of the City of Richmond, which was then a mere village, but one of far more ad- vanced educational standard than that of the greater part of the state, as the members of the Society of Friends in that section were persons of superior intelligence and of high ideals. He finally entered Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, where he continued his higher studies until 1845. There one of his class- mates and roommate was Hon. Oliver P. Mor- ton, who later became the war governor of Indiana and finally a member of the United States Senate. It was largely due to the as- sistance of Mr. Mansur that Governor Morton was enabled to complete his college work, and their friendship continued intimate and mu- tually valued until the death of the governor.


After · leaving college Mr. Mansur became associated with the work of the pork-packing establishment of his father and elder brother, by whom he was employed for wages during one scason. In the meanwhile he had deter- mined to prepare himself for the legal pro- fession, and with this end in view he entered the office of Hon. John S. Newman, under whose able preceptorship he initiated his study of the science of jurisprudence. Here also he had as a fellow-student his friend Oliver P. Morton. For about eighteen months Mr. Man- sur continued his legal studies under the direc- tion of Judge Newman, and at the expiration of this period the failing health of his father rendered it expedient for him to assume charge of the latter's business interests, which had reached wide proportions. For nine years thereafter Mr. Mansur gave his attention to the pork-packing industry established by his father, and he thus had much to do with the upbuilding of a branch of enterprise that has become one of the most important in connec- tion with the industrial precedence of "Greater Indianapolis". In 1862 Mr. Mansur was the promoter of the organization of the Citizens' National Bank, of which he became one of the incorporators and in which he was associated with his father, his brother William, Daniel Yandes and other representative men of the city. He was chosen president of the new in- stitution and continued incumbent of this on


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fice until 1868, when he severed his connection with the institution and immediately there- after established a private banking house, of which he was the sole owner. His high reputation as a careful, conservative and up- right business man made the business of the bank rapidly expand in scope and importance, and it became one of the leading financial in- stitutions of the city. He continued in con- trol of this bank until his death and none of the many distinguished figures that have been identified with financial interests in the cap- ital city has held higher standing or more un- qualified esteem than Isaiah Mansur. Though a strict business man and one who was exact- ing with himself and others in meeting the exigencies of business affairs, Mr. Mansur did not permit his mental horizon to become nar- rowed, but placed true values upon men and affairs, and was liberal, tolerant and kindly in his judgment. In addition to his banking busi- ness he acquired large real estate holdings in the city and elsewhere in the state, and he found ample demands upon his time and at- tention in the supervision of his large and im- portant interests. His industry and close ap- plication were proverbial, and his word was as good as any bond that was ever executed and vouched for. His influence touched with beneficence the civie and business life of the community, and his name merits a place of honor on the roster of those who have contrib- uted in generous measure to the development and progress of the city that was so long the scene of his earnest and effective endeavors. He had much to do with shaping the material destiny of Indianapolis and he is to be remem- bered as a man of distinctive ability and noble attributes of character. He had the power of gaining and retaining close and inviolable friendships. and this fact sufficiently indicates the true worth of the man.


Though never a secker of public office, MT. Mansur ever accorded an unswerving allegiance to the Republican party, to whose cause he gave an earnest support. His fidelity to the Union during the climacteric period of the Civil War was of the most insistent order, and it was his to render to his valued and honored friend, Governor· Morton, much assistance. He was appointed commissary general of the state at the inception of the war, and as such he provided from his personal resources for the care of the soldiers in the recruiting camp in Indianapolis at a time when there was not a dollar in the state treasury available for giv- ing sustenance to the soldiers. He was ready at all times to give his influence and co-opera- tion in the support of worthy charities and benevolences of both generic and specific order.


He died at his home, 10 East Vermont street, on the 3rd of December, 1880, and the city lost one of its most honored and valued citizens, while those with whom his relations had been more intimate, in business and social lines, felt a deep sense. of personal bereavement when he was thus called to his reward. A sane, clean, direct and sincere life was that of Isaiah Man- sur, and the same offers both lesson and in- centive to those appreciative of all that is true and ennobling.


JOHN STOUGH BOBBS, of Indianapolis, In- diana, was born at Green Village, Pennsyl- vania, December 28, 1809, and died at his place of residence May 1, 1870. One of his most intimate friends and biographers (the late Dr. G. W. Mears, of Indiana, ) writes that the boyhood of the subject of this sketch was spent, his parents being poor, in the acquisition of such knowledge as could be ob- tained at the then very common schools of a country village. "At the age of eighteen he wended his way on foot to Harrisburg, then, as now, the seat of government of Pennsyl- vania, in quest of employment. Being a lad of much more than ordinary intelligence, he attracted the attention of Dr. Martin Luther, then a practitioner of some eminence in that city. Upon a more thorough acquaintance, the doctor's interest increased, and feeling" that the delicate and slender physique of his young friend unfitted him for the more rugged encounter with the world, proposed, upon the most liberal terms, his entrance to his office as a student of medicine. Unhap- pily, this noble patron did not long survive to see with what fidelity to his own interest, and with what devotion to study his protege had rewarded his generosity. Such indeed was the diligence with which he applied him- self to books, that, notwithstanding the ob- stacles of a deficient preliminary education, he fitted himself, with the aid of a single course of lectures, for the successful practice of his profession in less than three years. His first essay in this direction was made at Mid- dletown, Pennsylvania, where he remained four years. Having early determined to make surgery a specialty, he found the local- ity he had chosen unsuited for the work, and soon decided upon selecting some point in the great West as 'the field of his future labors. In 1835, he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, with a view of making that city his permanent residence. True to his great pur- pose of securing for himself distinction in his chosen profession, he now gave himself up to the most laborious and unremitting study of books, both classical and profes- sional. Soon sufficiently familiar with the




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