Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 74

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 74

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John H. Talge, whose name initiates this review, was nine years of age at the time of the family removal from Kentucky to Indian- apolis, and in old No. 10 school of this city he gained his early education. As a youth he learned the upholstering trade, in which he became a skilled workman, and in 1889, when twenty-two years of age, he journeyed to the west, finally locating in the City of St. Joseph, Missouri, where he engaged independently in the work of his trade, in which connection.he developed a large and successful enterprise, which is still operating in his name. In 1904, Mr. Talge retired from the active management of this business. Previously to this, through his knowledge of the trade, he believed that there was an unquestioned tendency toward the use of imported woods, particularly mahogany.

Samuel aJohnston.

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and that the central northern states were con- suming 80 per cent of all the hardwoods, and recognizing the advantages of Indianapolis as a manufacturing and distributing center, owing to its location and its unrivaled transportation facilities, and the very center of the hardwood consuming district, he established his plant in this city in. 1901, having now a large plant, which is equipped with the most approved ma- chinery for handling this kind of manufactur- ing and the facilities of which are not excelled by any similar concern in the Union. He has visited various tropical countries to understand the sources of supply for his special line of manufacture and.entered into direct 'contracts for the continuous supplying of such timber. He thus imports the red mahogany from Africa and the coast of Mexico by the steamship load ; rosewood from Brazil and Honduras; satin- wood from both the East and West Indies ; ebony from India and Madagasgar, and, in fact, the finest grades of such special timber from all parts of the world. The products of the factory are sold to furniture and piano manufacturers throughout the United States and Canada, and the superiority of the output causes the demand to be cumulative, so that the business is constantly expanding in scope and importance and is a valuable contribution to the manufacturing industries of the capital city.

As a citizen Mr. Talge is broad-minded and liberal in his attitude, and he shows a lively in- terest in all that tends to promote the advance- ment of his home city. In politics, while never seeking office or figuring in practical manœu- vering of forces, he gives a stalwart allegiance to the Democratic party, and he is identified with various civic and industrial organizations. He and his wife hold membership in the Me- morial Church.

In the year 1890, Mr. Talge was united in marriage to Miss Miriam Johnson, who was born and reared in Indianapolis, and they have two sons and one daughter.

SAMUEL A. JOHNSTON, who died at his home in Indianapolis on the 16th of March, 1907, matured his splendid individual powers to the point of large and worthy accomplishment, and he was long a prominent figure in connection with business activities in the capital city. He was a member of one of the honored pioneer families of the State of Indiana and he main- tained his home in Indianapolis for nearly three-quarters of a century,-from his child- hood days until he was summoned to the life eternal, in the fulness of years and well earned honors. Upon a lofty plane of integrity was his course directed, and he left the priceless heritage of an unblemished reputation, the

while his personality was such as to gain and retain to him the high regard and implicit con- fidence of all who came within the sphere of his kindly and noble influence. From his high standing as one of the representative business men and honored citizens of Indianapolis .is he especially worthy of a memoir in this pub- lication.

Samuel A. Johnston was born at Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, on the 22nd of June, 1830, and thus he was nearly seventv-seven years of age at the time his death. He was a son of Samuel and Susanna (Wallace) John- ston, who were, numbered among the worthy pioneers of Johnson County, whence thev came to Indianapolis when the subject of this memoir was a child of four years. The father followed agricultural pursuits during the major portion of his active career and both he and his wife continued their residence in Indianapolis until their death. Both were devout members of the Presbyterian Church and exemplified their faith in their daily lives. Samuel A. Johnston gained his early education in the schools of Indianapolis, where he was reared to maturity and where he found ample opportunity for productive and successful effort in connection with business affairs of important order. After due preliminary experience of a practical order he initiated his independent business career, and for more than thirty years he was a mem- ber of the well known firm of Johnston Brothers, dealers in stoves and tinware, at 62 East Washington street. In this business he was associated with his brother W. J. John- ston. It should be noted that of, the family of ten children all are deceased. With the en- terprise noted Mr. Johnston and his brother brought themselves into prominence as reliable and progressive merchants and they built up a large and prosperous business. The firm passed out of existence a number of years ago, and the subject of this memoir lived virtually re- tired for several years prior to his demise, after having accumulated a competency through his earnest and well directed endeavors. As a citizen he was essentially loyal and public- spirited, and while he never manifested aught of desire for political office of any descrip- tion he gave a stanch allegiance to the Re- publican party. At the time of his death he was the oldest in point of membership of all members of the First Presbyterian Church, and during the course of many years his zeal and devotion has been manifest in all departments of church work. For a quarter of a century he was a member of the choir of the church with which he was thus identified and in the same he was a deacon for a number of years prior to the close of his life. He was one of the

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foremost factors in connection with the activ- ities of his church until the infirmities of age rendered it imperative for him to assign much of the burden of active service to younger shoulders. In the time-honored Masonic fra- ternity he was long an appreciative member, and in the same he attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which for thirty years he was grand chan- cellor of the Indiana Sovereign Consistory. He was also active in the affairs of the York Rite bodies in his home city, and in this his maxi- mum affiliation was with Raper Commandery, Knights Templar. He also held membership in the adjunct organization, Murat Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the' Mystic Shrine. His genial nature, his tolerance and his abiding human sympathy gained to him warm friends among all classes, and in a quiet and unostentatious way he extended freely of his largess and of his sympathy to those in affliction and distress.

On the 14th of February, 1866, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Johnston to Miss Estelle Pullis, who survives him and who resides in the beautiful home at 2111 North Delaware street,-a place endeared to her by the gracious and hallowed memories of the past. Mrs. John- ston is a daughter of John and Eliza A. Winant of St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Johnston is also survived by two sons,-William P., who is en- gaged in the real estate business at Indianapolis, and Dr. Samuel A., who is one of the repre- sentative physicians and surgeons of Indian- apolis.

BERNAYS KENNEDY, M. D. A prominent and successful representative of the medical profession in the capital city of his native state, Dr. Bernays Kennedy is known as a specialist in gynecological medicine and surgery, in which branch of practice he has attained much distinc- tion, and he is a valued member of the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Dr. Kennedy is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Indiana and, in both the paternal and maternal lines, of families founded in America in the colonial epoch of our na- tional history. He was born in the homestead residence erected by his father at the southeast corner of Meridian and Michigan streets, in the City of Indianapolis, on the 18th of Au- gust, 1872, and is a son of Robert F. and Han- nah Louise (Hawkins) Kennedy, the former of whom was born at Kirklin, Clinton County, Indiana, in 1831, and the latter of whom was horn at the old Hawkins homestead, "Shade- land Farm", on the Wea plains, near the . City of Lafayette. Tippecanoe County, this state. in 1836. Robert Frank Kennedy became a prominent and influential business man of his

native state, having resided for a number of years in Kokomo and later having established himself in the wholesale drygoods business in Indianapolis, where he continued to reside until 1883, when he removed with his family to Springfield, Missouri, where he was engaged in the real estate business during the remainder of his active career. He died in that city in 1898, and there his wife passed to the life eternal in 1884. Of their children, one son is now living. The father was a Republican in his political proclivities and both he and his wife were zealous members of the Presbyterian Church.

The Kennedy family lineage is traced back to stanch Scotch-Irish origin, and the family was one of prominence in Kirkcudbrightshire and the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, and later in Ulster, Ireland. In America, the name became identified with the annals of the states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Ken- tucky, from which last mentioned common- wealth came the original representatives in the State of Indiana, settlement having been made by them in Madison County, this state, in the early pioneer days. Dr. Kennedy is of the fifth generation in line of direct descent, on the paternal side, from George King, who was a patriot soldier in the War of the Revolution, as a member of the Virginia troops. In the maternal line he is in the fifth generation of descent from William Hillis, who served under General Braddock in the French and Indian War. The paternal ancestors were principally farmers and merchants, and were Presbyterians in religious faith, having been nonconformists in Scotland and Ireland. William Ryker, a paternal ancestor of Dr. Kennedy, left North Carolina about 1775, with his wife, Mary, a second cousin of the historic character, Daniel Boone, and followed the course of the Kentucky River to a block-house erected by Boone on the east bank of the river, where they settled and established their pioneer home.

The mother of Dr. Kennedy was of English Quaker stock and was a direct descendant of Benjamin Hawkins, who came from England to America with William Penn, on the latter's second voyage. He settled near Wilmington, Delaware, and his descendanta successively moved, with other members of the Society of Friends, to Virginia, North and South Caro- lina, Elkton, Hamilton County, Ohio, and the Wea plains, in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Owing to the tenets of their religious faith the, maternal ancestors were non-combatants in the War of the Revolution and also during the Civil War, though all were stanch abolitionists. Rec- ords indicate that the majority of the maternal ancestors of Dr. Kennedy were artisans and

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farmers and that a number of them erected and operated mills for the grinding of the various cereals. William. Jones, a representa- tive in the maternal line, was not a member of the Society of Friends, and he rendered valiant service as a patriot soldier in. the Revolution, having been a resident of North Carolina.

Dr. Kennedy secured his earlier educational discipline in the public schools of Indianap- olis, after which he continued his studies in Drury College, at Springfield, Missouri. In 1895, he returned to Indianapolis and was ma- triculated in the Indiana Medical College, in which he' was graduated as a member of the class of. 1898 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thereafter he completed effective post-graduate courses in Cornell Medical College and the Roosevelt Hos- pital, in New York City. He was resident physician in the Roosevelt Hospital for two years and six months, at the expiration of which, in 1902, he returned to Indianapolis, where he has since been engaged in the success- ful practice of his profession and where he has devoted his attention more specifically to the surgery and medical treatment of diseases pe- culiar to women. He is associate professor of gynecology in the Indiana University School of Medicine, is attending gynecologist to the City Hospital and the Bobbs Free Dispen- sarv.

Dr. Kennedy is identified with the American Medical Association, the Indiana State Med- ical Society, the Indianapolis Medical Society, the Phi Rho Sigma medical fraternity, and the alumni association of Roosevelt Hospital. In his native city he holds membership in such representative civic organizations as the Uni- versity Club, Woodruff Club, Country Club and Dramatic Club. He is a member of Mystic Tie Lodge, No. 3, A. F. & A. M. of Indianap- olis and of Indiana consistory of the Scottish Rite and also of Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He was baptized in the Second Pres- byterian Church of this city, and he is an attendant upon it's services, though not a mem- ber. The doctor is a bachelor.

LAWSON M. HARVEY. The bench and bar of the capital city of Indianapolis have been dignified and honored by the able services of Judge Harvey, who served two terms on the bench of the Superior Court of Marion County and who has for more than a quarter of a century held prestige as one of the representa- tive members of the Indianapolis bar. He is still engaged in the active practice of his profession, devoting his attention more espe- cially to the civil branch and particularly to corporation law. Judge Harvey was born at Plainfield, Hendricks County, Indiana, on the

5th of December, 1856, and is a scion, in both the agnatic and maternal lines, of old and honored families of this favored commonwealth. He is a son of Dr. Thomas B. and Delitha (Butler) Harvey, the former of whom 'was born in Clinton County, Ohio, and the latter in Union County, Indiana. Both grandfath- ers and grandmothers of Judge Harvey . were prominent in church and educational work, both were birthright members of the Society of Friends, with which the respective families have been identified for many generations, and both were members of the first board of trus- tees of. Earlham College, at Richmond, In- diana, a stanch institution maintained under the auspices of the Society of Friends.

Dr. Thomas B. Harvey long held precedence as one of the distinguished physicians and surgeons and able technical educators of In- diana, and he followed the work of his profes- sion in Indianapolis from 1864 until the time of his death, which occurred on the 5th of December, 1889. He was a graduate of the Med- ical College of Ohio and was engaged in the practice of his profession at Plainfield, Hen- dricks County, this state, until 1864, when he removed to Indianapolis, where he found there- after ample scope for his efforts as a physician and surgeon of the highest ability. For nearly twenty years he was a member of the faculty of the Indiana Medical College, and he was dean of the faculty at the time of his death. He served on the consulting staff of all the leading hospitals of the capital city, and in this connection did a large amount of clinical work. He made his life count for good in all its rela- tions and his name is held in gracious memory by all who came within the sphere of his in- fluence. Both he and his wife were devoted and zealous members of the Society of Friends and were prominent in church and charitable work. Mrs. Harvey was for a number of years president of the board of managers of the Col- ored Orphans' Home and was actively identified with a number of other important charitable institutions and organizations in the capital city. Secure in the reverent affection of all who knew her, she passed to the life eternal on the 21st of November, 1898, being survived by two sons and one daughter, the wife of State Senator Linton A. Cox.

Judge Lawson M. Harvey was eight years of age at the time of the family removal from his native town to Indianapolis, where he was reared to maturity and where he gained his early educational training in the public schools and the Indianapolis Classical School. 'Thereafter he was for a time a student in Butler College, at Irvington, and still later he carried . forward his higher academic studies

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in Haverford College, near Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania. In preparation for the work of his chosen vocation he was matriculated in the Central Law School, in Indianapolis, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1882 and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws. He forthwith engaged in the general practice of his profes- sion, in both the Federal and State Courts, entering into partnership with Edgar A. Brown in 1884, upon the dissolution of the firm of Ayres & Brown, owing to the elevation of Judge Alexander C. Ayres to the bench of the nineteenth judicial circuit. Three years later Judge Ayres resigned his position on the bench

and resumed the active practice of his profes- sion, in which he became associated with his former confrere and Judge Harvey, under the firm name of Ayres, Brown & Harvey. In 1890, Mr. Brown was elected to the bench of the same circuit, and thereafter Judge Harvey con- ducted an individual practice until 1894, when he was elected to the bench of the Superior Court of Marion County. He served the regu- lar term of four years and then declined re- nomination, that he might resume the active work of his profession. Upon retiring from the- bench, in 1898, he entered into a profes- sional alliance with William A. Pickens, Linton A. Cox and Sylvan W. Kahn, with whom he was associated in practice until 1907. under the firm title of Harvey. Pickens, Cox & Kahn. In 1907, Judge Harvey was appointed one of the judges of the Superior Court of Marion County, and he again gave most able and effect- ive service on this bench, on which he con- tinued to preside until November. 1909, since which time he has conducted an individual professional business. His practice has been confined almost exclusively to the civil depart- ment, in connection with which he has gained marked precedence and high reputation as an authority. He is now counsel for a number of large industrial and commercial corporations in Indianapolis and his clientage is of the most substantial and representative character. Judge Harvey has been for a number of years a stock- holder and director of the Sinker-Davis Com- pany, one of the prominent manufacturing con- cerns of Indianapolis. He is a member of the board of directors of the Bertha Esther Ballard Home Association, a boarding home for working girls, a noble Indianapolis institution main- tained under the general supervision of the Western Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends in Indiana.

In politics Judge Harvey is found arraved as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party. in whose behalf he has given effective service in various campaigns. He is

a valued member of the Indianapolis Bar As- sociation, of which he was elected secretary in 1888, retaining this position four years, and being elected as its president in 1907. For sev- eral years he lectured before the classes of the Medical College of Indiana on the subject of medical jurisprudence. He is a member of the Marion, the Commercial and the Columbia clubs, and one of the trustees holding the voting power of stockholders in the Consumers Gas Trust Co., and is a member of other rep- resentative civic organizations of his home city, where he is held in high esteem in professional, business and social circles.

In October, 1882, Judge Harvey was united in marriage to Miss Kate P. Parrott, daughter of Horace Parrott, a prominent retired mer- chant and influential citizen of Indianapolis, where Mrs. Harvey was born and reared. Judge and Mrs. Harvey have three children-Thomas P., Horace F. and Jeanette.

JOHN H. HOLLIDAY. It can not be doubted that snecess in any line of occupation, in any avenue of business, is not a matter of spon- tancity, for experience gives indubitable evi- dence that it is rather, the result of the applica- tion of definite subjective forces and the con- trolling of objective agencies in such a way as to achieve desired ends. John H. Holliday of this article has realized large and substantial success and gained much of distinction both in the field of practical finance and also in the domain of journalism. To him is the credit of having been the founder of The Indianapolis News. one of the great daily papers of the middle west and one through whose agency he himself gained national reputation as an editor of broad mental ken, mature judgment and great versatility. His career has well ex- emplified the truth of the statements made in the opening sentence of this sketch, and he today occupies a large place in the civic and financial circles of Indianapolis, the city in which he was born and to whose progress along all legitimate lines he has contributed in gener- ous and productive measure. There has been no sterility of ambition, no indirection of pur- pose in his career as one of the world's work- ers, and he stands as a splendid type of loyal and progressive citizenship.

John Hampden Holliday, president of the Union Trust Company of Indianapolis and founder of The Indianapolis News. was born in the beautiful capital city of the Hoosier commonwealth and is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of this state. The date of his nativity was Mav 31, 1846, and he is a son of Rev. William A. and Lucia (Shaw) Holliday, the former of whom was born in Har- rison County. Kentucky. in 1803, and the lat-

H. Holloway why

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ter was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, where she was born in the year 1805. The paternal grandfather, Samuel Holliday, was one of the sterling pioneers of Indiana, where he took up his abode in 1812, a number of years prior to the admission of the territory to the federal Union. He was one of those sturdy and valiant souls who were well fortified for grappling with the wilderness, that there might be laid, broad and deep, the foundations of a great and prosperous commonwealth, and it is a matter of record that he lived up to the full tension of the pioneer epoch and that he wield- ed marked influence in his community, as a man of broad mentality and distinctive in- dividuality. Both he and his wife continued to maintain their home in Indiana until they were summoned from the scenes of life's mortal endeavors, and their names merit an enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of this state.

Rev. William A. Holliday was a man of fine intellectual attainments and gained precedence as one of the able and devoted pioneer clergy- man of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana. He was graduated in Miami University, at Ox- ford, Ohio, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and thereafter completed a course in the theological seminary of Princeton, New Jersey. He was duly ordained to the ministry and in 1833 he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, where he labored with all consecrated zeal and devotion, during his tenure of this charge and others and was also engaged in teaching, many of the men of the second generation of Indianapolis having been his pupils. He left a deep and beneficent in- fluence upon the community and his life was one significant of all that is best and most ennobling in the scheme of human existence. He passed many years here, where he died in 1866, at the age of sixty-three years. His cherished and devoted wife was summoned to the life eternal in 1881, at the age of seventy- five years. Of their children four are now living: 'Rev. William A. Holliday, D. D., of Plainfield, New Jersey ; Miss Grettie Y. Holli- day, of Tabriz, Persia, where she has labored as a missionary for many years ; Francis T. Hol- liday, of Indianapolis, now secretary of the A. A. Scottish Rite; and John H.

John H. Holliday, the immediate subject of this review, gained his early educational dis- cipline in the common schools of Indianapolis, and in pursuance of higher academic studies he then entered the Northwestern Christian Uni- versity, now known as Butler University, at Irvington, near Indianapolis, in which he con- tinued a student for four vears. Later he was matriculated in Hanover College, at Hanover,

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 74

Author: Dunn, Jacob Piatt, 1855-1924. cn Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 972

Author: Dunn, Jacob Piatt, 1855-1924. cn
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 972