Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 83

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 83

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In politics Mr. Cannon is aligned as a loyal supporter of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and as a citizen he is essentially progressive and public-spirited. He is a member of the In- dianapolis Board of Trade and of the Com- mercial Club, and is a birthright member of the Society of Friends, being identified with the First Friends' Church in Indianapolis, as is also his wife.

On the 24th of April, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cannon to Miss Anna W. Adams, who was born in the City of Balti- more, Maryland, and who is a daughter of David M. and Hannah Adams, both of whom were residents of Indianapolis at the time of their death. Mr. Adams was one of the prom- inent business men and influential citizens of Indianapolis, where he was president of the Adams Packing Company. Mr. and Mrs. Can- non have three children-Fermor S., who is a member of the class of 1911 in the University of Illinois, at Champaign ; and Margaret and Isabel, who are attending the public schools of Indianapolis.

VOLNEY T. MALOTT. Banking, railroading and stanch citizenship in Greater Indianapolis and the middle west will look in vain for a stronger or higher-minded representative than Volney T. Malott. True to the mingled blood of brave French Huguenots and the sturdy Scotchman which nourishes him physically and mentally, he has evinced an unfailing initiative, independence, ability and determination which have brought him both practical leadership and the unshaken confidence of his associates. A southerner by birth, and a northerner by -edu- cation, long residence and accomplishment. Mr. Malott stands firmly in the first rank of na- tional financiers and railroad administrators, and has never failed to meet the vital crises of the institutions whose guidance has been en- trusted to him with a bravery and a wisdom which have brought them into ports of safety. Aside from his personal worth and accom- plishments, there is much of interest attaching to his genealogy, which betokens lines of ster- ling worth and prominent identification with American history for many generations.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Volney Thomas Malott, who has been presi- dent of the Indiana National Bank, of Indian- apolis, for more than a quarter of a century and who has been associated with banking in- terests of the capital city for more than fifty years, is a native of Jefferson County, Ken- tucky, where he was born on the 9th of Sep- tember, 1838, son of William H. and Leah Pat- terson (Mckeown) Malott: The American an- cestry in both the paternal and maternal lines has stood for exalted patriotism, intelligence and sturdy integrity. In the direct agnatic line he is a grandson of Hiram Malott, who was born in Maryland, of French Huguenot stock. Hiram Malott was reared to agriculture, with which he continued to be identified throughout his entire active career. Between the years 1785 and 1790 he removed to the State of Ken- tucky and was one of the pioneers of Jefferson County. There he developed and operated a large plantation, in the ownership of which he continued, until the close of his life, having passed the major portion of his mature years in that county, dying at the age of sixty-three. He was an active participant in the War of 1812, in which he held a captaincy in the Ken- tucky militia, and by reason of his services in that capacity he was thereafter dignified with the title of major, an office which he held in the militia after the close of the war. His brother, Col. Daniel Malott, was a promi- nent figure in the early political and civic his- tory of Ohio, of which state he made the gov- ernment survey. Hiram Malott married a daughter of Peter Haas and they became the parents of a large family of children.

Peter Haas was a Swiss Mennonite pioneer of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was noted for his religious fervor and his deep patriotism. He was a man of influence, having acquired wealth through his thrift and energy, and he became the owner of a large landed es- tate in Berks, Lancaster, Chester and North- ampton Counties, in which section he was one of the. first and most ardent. advocates of the cause of independence, both before and during the War of the Revolution. He was chosen a member of the committee of safety and observa- tion, from Lancaster County, and to represent that county in the election of two brigadier generals of Pennsylvania Associators. He was a zealous and fearless member of the commit- tee, active in the apprehension and arraign- ment of those who were opposed to the patriot cause, and he himself was a brave and active soldier of the continental line. Honorable men- tion of his services is made in the "Amer- ican Archives" and also the "Pennsylvania Archives". In 1775 he served as a member of the first company that passed the committee

of observation in Pennsylvania. He married Mary Boyer, who was of the Scotch-Presby- terian stock that has played so important a part in the history of Pennsylvania and "'formed the backbone of the intellectual strength of that commonwealth".

William H. Malott, father of Volney T., was a native of Kentucky, where he was born about the year 1813, and there he was reared to ma- turity, receiving such advantages as were af- forded in the primitive schools of the locality and period. There he continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1841, when he came to Indiana and became associated with his brother, Major Eli W. Malott, in what was commonly designated as the "lower-river trade", which was largely based on the sale of bread- stuffs and other provisions to the planters of Louisiana. The enterprise had been estab- lished by Major Malott several years previously and proved very profitable. William H. Malott survived his removal to Indiana by only a few years, as his death occurred in November, 1845, at the age of thirty-two years. His wife, Leah Patterson (Mckeown) Malott, was born in In- diana, and of their four children two died in infancy, Volney T. being now the only survivor of the family. In 1847 the widowed mother married John F. Ramsay, and she passed the residue of her long and gracious life in Indian- apolis, where she died in May, 1904, at the venerable age of eighty-eight years. Mr. Ram- say died in 1884, at the age of seventy-five years. Of the five children of this union three are living, namely : John W., of Indianapolis; Ella R., the wife of Dr. Frank M. Chaplain, of Brooklyn, New York; and Robert C., of In- dianapolis. Elizabeth R., deceased, was the wife of Augustus W. Ritzinger, of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mrs. Leah P. (McKeown) Malott Ramsay was a daughter of John and Catherine (Pat- terson) Mckeown, granddaughter. of Robert and Leah .(Hughes) Mckeown, and great- granddaughter of Captain John Mckeown, of Hanover Township, Lancaster County, Penn- sylvania, a section now included in Dauphin County. Captain John· Mckeown was a stal- wart and influential patriot and was a gallant and intrepid soldier in the great struggle for liberty. He became a member of the Flying Camp, having first enlisted for 'service in 1775. He was appointed adjutant of a rifle regiment by the Pennsylvania assembly, on the 25th of May, 1776 (as is indicated on page 856, vol- ume VI, four - series, "American Archives"). He was later a captain in the First Pennsyl- vania Rifle Regiment, and, presumably in the Sixth Pennsylvania, as the Pennsylvania "Rec- ords" mention a Captain John "McCowan" as

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

being a member of that regiment. They are probably the same, as Captain John "Mc- Cowan" took the oath of allegiance at Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, while Captain John "Mc- Keown" took the oath of allegiance the second time in Hanover Township, Lancaster County, on the 3d of September, 1777. Captain John McCowan was at Valley Forge in 1778. Cap- tain Mckeown is known to have served in various Pennsylvania regiments, participated in the battle of Long Island, and saw active service in the Jerseys. He had represented Hanover Township as a member of the com- mittee of safety and observation, to which posi- tion he was elected on the 8th of November, 1775, and after the war he received a pension in recognition of his services.

In a history of Kentucky, compiled by Z. F. Smith, it is recorded, on page 56, that John "Mccown" was with Captain James Harrod's party of surveyors who made the first cabin improvements at Harrodsburg, in 1774, and was later associated with Colonel Robert Patterson, at Lexington, that state. The Mckeowns were pioneers in Jefferson County, Kentucky, Rob- ert, John and Morgan Mckeown, sons of Cap- tain John McKeown, living up to the full ten- sion of the strenuous pioneer life in that sec- tion. When Captain John McKeown took up his abode in Kentucky he was assigned com- mand of the bloekhouse on the site of the pres- ent City of Louisville, and to this primitive fortification the settlers went for refuge on the occasion of Indian alarms and forays. He him- self had a fort known as Mckeown Station, near Brunerstown, Kentucky.

Robert Mckeown, son of Captain John, mar- ried Leah Hughes, and they became the parents of three sons. John. Robert and Morgan, of whom the first named was the maternal grand- father of Volney T. Malott. Said John Me- Keown was a resident of Jefferson County and in the village of Jeffersontown he followed the trade of saddler. He was a participant in the Indian war in Indiana and served under Gen- eral William Henry Harrison in the historie hattle of Tippecanoe. His marriage to Cath- erine Patterson occurred about the year 1808, and he died in 1816, as the result of ptomaine poisoning from the nse of infected milk. At the time of his death his daughter Leah P .. mother of Mr. Malott, was an infant. He had removed from Kentucky to Indiana and located at Corydon at the time when that village was made the capital of the state, and there his death occurred. He was survived by his wife and four children and after his death the fam- ily returned to Kentucky. The children born of this union were: Rachel, Delilah, Eliza, Leah P. and Robert P., and the only son was

a student at Princeton College, New Jersey, at the time of his death, which occurred just after his ordination to the ministry.

Mrs. Catherine (Patterson) Mckeown was born on the 14th of May, 1788, and was a daughter of James Patterson; the maiden name of her mother was Kinslow. She was the seventh in order of birth in a family of eight children-Peggy, Polly, John, Squire, Isaac, Delilah, Catherine and Zurah. The lineage of the MeKeown family is traced back to stanch and ancient Scottish stock.

When Volney T. Malott was a lad of eight his widowed mother removed with her family from Jefferson County, Kentucky, to Indian- apolis, where she took up her residence in Jan- uary, 1847. His early education was secured principally in the seminary conducted by John I. Morrison, at Salem, Indiana, and later he attended private schools, having for a consider- able time prosecuted his studies under the tutorship of Rev. William A. Holliday, a prom- inent pioneer clergyman of Indiana. He also attended the Marion County Seminary, located in what is now University Park, Indianapolis, and also was a student in the old Indianapolis high school.

Mr. Malott initiated his banking career in 1854, at the age of sixteen years, when he secured a position in the private banking house of John Wooley & Company, of Indianapolis, which institution later became the Bank of the Capitol, with which he continued as an employe until 1857, when he secured a posi- tien in the Indianapolis branch of the Bank of the State of Indiana, which had been organized only a short time previously and in which he became teller. He continued incumbent of this office until September, 1862, when he was ten- dered the position of cashier of the institution, an overture which he declined in order to ac- cept the office of secretary and treasurer of the Pern & Indianapolis Railroad Company, of whose directorate also he became a member. He continued to be connected with the execu- tive affairs of the bank during his tenure of office with the railroad company. During the long intervening years he has continuously been identified with banking interests in the capital city, and no man has done more to main- tain the high financial status of Indianapolis and the state than he.

In the spring of 1865 Mr. Malott became as- sociated with other representative citizens in the organization and incorporation of the Mer- chants' National Bank, and of this institution he served as cashier until 1870. in the mean. time continuing as treasurer of the railroad company previously mentioned. This corpora - tion had in the meanwhile been reorganized,

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

under the title of the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago Railroad Company, and in 1870 he re- signed his position with the bank to give his attention to the supervision of the executive affairs of the company in its construction of the extension to Michigan City. In 1871 he became assistant president of the corporation and in 1875 assumed the position of general manager, as well as that of vice-president, in which dual office he continued for several years. He then became president, and served thus un- til 1881. In that year the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago railroad was sold to the Wabash Railroad Company, of which latter Mr. Malott was vice-president until 1883, when he was elected vice-president and general manager of the Indianapolis Union Railway Company. In the latter capacity he served until August, 1889, when he resigned, in the preceding May Judge Gresham having appointed him receiver for the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad Company. Concerning his further able and responsible services the following has been written: "Dur- ing his connection as executive with the In- dianapolis Union Railway Company and the Belt Line, the company was reorganized and the Union station built. In 1890 Mr. Malott was elected president of the Chicago & West- ern Indiana Railroad Company, a terminal line of Chicago, furnishing terminal facilities for six railroads entering that city and also operating a belt line. The following year he resigned the office of president, but was made chairman of the board of directors, which had charge of its principal financial affairs. While Mr. Malott was on the board several millions of dollars were spent in vast improvements of this line, and as a consequence it has become a very valuable property. Mr. Malott gave up this position in 1895, and, taking a long vaca- tion, made an extended tour of Europe with his family. In 1896 Judge William A. Woods, of the United States Circuit Court, appointed him receiver for the Terre Haute & Indian- apolis Railroad, which, with its leased lines, is known as the Vandalia system."

„In the year 187.8 Mr. Malott was elected to the presidency of the Merchants' National Bank of Indianapolis, and held this chief executive office until 1882, when he transferred his in- terests to the Indiana National Bank, of which he was made president and with whose presi- dential administration he has since continued to be identified. It is but consistent that in this article be perpetuated a brief history of this old and substantial monetary institution, recognized as one of the strongest in the middle west, especially as Mr. Malott has been so vitally concerned in its best and largest develop- ment.

The Indiana National Bank, one of the lead- ing banking corporations of Indianapolis and Indiana, is the successor of the State Bank of Indiana, one of the carliest and most widely known banks of the west, organized under state laws. The original bank was chartered by spe- cial act of the state legislature in 1834. Its managers were men of sterling integrity and great business ability, quite as necessary then as now, when currency was scarce and a strong institution was nevertheless needed to meet the wants of the new settlements and scattered farmers of Indiana. Upon the expiration of its charter, in 1856, the State Bank of Indiana was succeeded by the Bank of the State of In- diana, with branches at various points within the commonwealth. In an address before the American Bankers' Association, at Detroit, a few years ago, William C. Cornwell, a financial writer of eminence, in speaking of this bank said: "It was one of the best banks the world has ever known. A monumental bank, great and beneficent, it lived through two terrible panics, never suspending specie payments. From the day it opened, in 1834, until it was shut out by the operation of the tax on state banks, it was the most highly profitable to shareholders and most advantageous to the public of any .institution we have ever had." It is a matter of history that the Chemical Bank of New York, the State Bank of Ken- tucky, at Frankfort, and the Bank of the State of Indiana were actually the only banks in the United States that did not suspend pay- ment during the panic of 1857.

When the War of the Rebellion had reached its height and the government proposed the organization of national banks, as one of the most important of its war measures, the di- rectors of the Indianapolis branch of the Bank of the State of Indiana organized the Indiana National Bank, of which George Tousey was made president and David E. Snyder, cashier. From the beginning it has greatly prospered, its growth being one of the marvels of modern financiering. It has emphasized and exerted a powerful influence in the financial stability an conservatism of the City of Indianapolis and the State of Indiana, having at all times enlisted the capitalistic and executive support of citizens of the highest standing. In the fall of 1895 the bank received a baptism of fire. Nothing, perhaps, could more plainly show the enterprise of the institution than what then occurred. The fire started at six o'clock in the morning, and while the fierce flames were leaping a hundred feet high over the fire- proof vaults containing the books, securities and million-dollar gold reserve of the bank, the officers were busily engaged in looking for

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

actively identified with the Civic League, the Indianapolis Art School, The Taxpayers' League, the May Music Festival Association and other organizations which have been in- fluential in their respective functions. Through the influence of Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch, who was then pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, Mr. Flanner became much interested in the work of the associated charities, and he attended some of the national and state meet- ings of such organizations, in an informal· capacity. He assisted in securing the enact- ment of the original law permitting in Indiana the establishment of boards of guardians for the various benevolent, charitable and penal in- stitutions of the state, and he was a member of the state board, as a representative of Marion County, until temporary illness caused his re- tirement. In later years Mr. Flanner has shown deep concern in the work of the asso- ciated charities among the negroes of Indian- apolis, and he has put forth an earnest effort to encourage educational work among the large colored population of this city. He is a mem- ber of the "vacant-lot cultivation committee," which has as its aim the utilization of vacant lots by the poor in the cultivation of vegetables. Mr. Flanner is identified with a number of fraternal organizations, but has never been active in their work. As a young man he joined the old Third Presbyterian Church, later he transferred his membership to the Mayflow- er Congregational Church, under the pastorship of Rev. Nathaniel A. Hyde, D. D., and still later the personality of Rev. Oscar C. McCul- loch won both him and his wife to membership in Plymouth Congregational Church, which, as he expresses it, stood for "life and light." This same quest later led Mr. Flanner to the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, of which he is now a member.

In the year 1886, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Flanner to Miss Mary Hockett, of Muncie, Indiana, who was born in the Quaker village of Plainfield, Indiana, and who is a birthright member of the Society of Friends. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Flanner had been a successful and popular teacher, and since her marriage she has not resigned her student work, but has devoted much time to music, dramatic reading and literature, in which connection she has taken special courses of study in Chicago, Berlin, Cincinnati, Bos- ton and New York City. She has gained no slight reputation as a writer of poetry and short dramatic compositions, and for several years she has been prominent as a platform reader. . She has the distinction of being one busy woman who does not belong to a club. and is a popular figure in the leading social

activities of her home city. Mr. and Mrs Flanner have three children-Mary Emma, Janet Tyler, and June Hildegarde.

ELIAS C. ATKINS. Among the great indus- trial enterprises that have conserved and are admirably maintaining the commercial pres- tige of the Indiana capital few, if any, can claim precedence of that conducted under the title of E. C. Atkins & Company, for the con- cern represents without doubt the largest manu- factory of saws to be found in the United States, if not, indeed, in the entire world. Everywhere in our land are found men who have worked their way from humble beginnings to leadership in the commerce, the great pro- ductive industries, the management of financial affairs and the controlling of the veins and arteries of the traffic and exchanges of the coun- try. It is one of the glories of our nation that this has been possible; it should be the strong- est incentive and encouragement to the youth of the country that it is so. The men of deeds are the men the world delights to honor. He who conceives new things and fashions them into shape is a creator. He who, out of the material that is within his reach and with the resources at his command, brings into being that which adds to the comfort, happiness or potentiality of man, is following in the foot- steps of the great Architect of all things. All the countless and useful inventions, all the wonderful structures that have ever existed or that now exist on the face of the earth, lived first in the minds of men. How to bring them out and give them form and substance was the problem to he solved. Men studied the fields and the forests and brought their products into their workshops. They brought to their aid the air, the earth, the sea, fire and water, wave and wind and subtle vapor; the timber from the forests, the rocks from the hills, the ores from their hidden caverns, and even the light- ning from the skies, and from them, or by their aid, thev fashioned or wrought into shapes and forms of utility or beauty the creations their minds had conceived. He who thus serves is royal, and among those who have stood as distinguished types of the world's workers and have brought out inventions of great utility, Elias Cornelius Atkins is most worthy of hon- orable mention. He was a typical American citizen, making the most of his opportunities and steadily working his way upward to suc- cess and to all that is desirable and ennobling in life. As an inventor and manufacturer he attained to a position of distinctive promi- nence, and he long represented a definite power in the business and civic life of Indianapolis, to whose advancement he contributed gener- ously, both in a direct and reflex way, and,

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

above all, he is remembered as a man of the highest integrity of character and as one fully appreciative of his stewardship,-appreciative of the duties and responsibilities which success involves. He marked by definite achievement the course of a signally active and useful life, and no work purporting to review the history of Greater Indianapolis can be consistent with itself if there is failure to give recognition to this sterling citizen, whose death occurred on the 18th of April, 1901.

A previously written estimate of the life and services of Mr. Atkins contained these perti- nent statements:

"His name in Indianapolis stands for every- thing included in a career of most honorable achievement. His influence and work still continue in the business of E. C. Atkins & Company, the largest manufacturers of saws in this country. if not in the world. Mr. Atkins was the founder of this concern, and in it his chief interest as a business man was centered, but incidental to its management along pro- gressive lines he found himself drawn into many other matters of vital importance. Hav- ing come to Indianapolis in the days of its in- significance, he was naturally interested in the growth of the city, and many enterprises whose adoption assisted materially in her advance- ment were furthered by his support and patron- age. He was a man of broad nature, and his far-sighted judgment enabled him to grasp the advantages of a new invention or project far ahead of the times, and that so quickly that afterward his opinion seemed like a prophecy. He had many of the elements of greatness in his make-up, and the simple pursuit of his natural inclinations found his level among the master minds of the day. Mr. Atkins began life poor in purse, but he had back of him the traditions of a long line of worthy American ancestors. to whom he owed his stability of character and strong mental traits."

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 83

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