USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes > Part 84
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
Elias Cornelius Atkins was born in Bristol, Connecticut, on the 28th of June, 1833, and was a son of Rollin and Harriet (Bishop) At- kins. The original American progenitor was Thomas Atkins, who was born and reared in England, a scion of one of the ancient and sterling families of the "right little, tight little isle," and who took up his abode in Connecti- cut about the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury. Of his direct descendants, Samuel At- kins, grandfather of the subject of this memoir, passed his entire life in Connecticut, a citizen of sturdy character and one who ever com- manded the high regard of the community in which he lived. Of his twelve children Rollin was born in Connecticut, where he was reared to manhood and received a common school edu-
cation and where he learned the trade of clock- maker. He had marked mechanical ability and eventually turned his attention to the manu- facturing of saws. He was a man of influence in his section of his native state, was captain of the Fourth Company, Fourth Regiment of Connecticut militia, and he died when in the prime of his useful manhood. His wife like- wise was a native of Connecticut and of Eng- lish ancestry, and they became the parents of five children. She was a daughter of Austin Bishop, who was born in Connecticut in 1764 and who married Anna Stalker, who was born in 1766. They became the parents of ten chil- dren and their entire lives were closely identi- fied with the great basic industry of agriculture. Austin Bishop died on the 23rd of September, 1833, and his wife was summoned to the life eternal on the 22nd of October, 1840. Family traditions indicate that Mr. Bishop was a per- fect representative of the old-fashioned, pious and devoted New England deacon.
Elias C. Atkins passed his childhood and early youth in his native town, where he se- cured his rudimentary education, but the death of his father compelled him to assume practical responsibilities while he was a mere boy. When only eleven years of age he secured employ- ment at farm work, and in the following year he entered upon an apprenticeship at the trade of saw-making, under the direction of his pa- ternal: uncle. By the time he had attained the age of seventeen years he had so thoroughly familiarized himself with the details of the work and had so developed his inherent mechan- ical ability that he was made foreman of the shop. During his apprenticeship of five years he clearly manifested his loyalty and devotion, as well as his ambition, as he would work over- time at every. opportunity, in order that he might provide his mother with certain luxuries and also pay his pew rent in church.
Having become an expert artisan in his trade, as then practically represented, Mr. At- kins determined to seek a new field of endeavor in the west, where he believed were to be had superior opportunities of attaining success and independence through personal effort, as his capitalistic resources were very limited. In 1855 he took up his residence in Cleveland, Ohio, and he had the distinction of establishing the first saw factory in that citv. In the following vear he came to Indianapolis, where he engaged in the same line of enterprise, beginning opera- tions on a cash capital of only five hundred dollars. A revelation of his power, close ap- plication and tenacity of purpose is offered in the great industrial enterprise that has been built up around this insignificant nucleus. Mr. Atkins' original place of business was in a lit-
1056
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
tle corner of the old Hill planing mill, and a year or two later he found more ample quarters and better facilities in the old city foundry. In the initial stages of his manufacturing of saws in the Indiana capital he did all of his own work, but presently he felt justified in giv- ing employment to a German, Louis Suher, whom he had known in his native town of Bris- tol, Connecticut, and who had made the entire journey from that place to Indianapolis on foot for the purpose of assuming the new position tendered him. This worthy artisan continued in the employ of Mr. Atkins until his death.
It is not within the province or compass of this publication to enter into details as to the gradual upbuilding of the great industry now controlled by E. C. Atkins & Company, but the following brief statements are worthy of re- production : "The business prospered from the start, and though he was twice burned out Mr. Atkins each time opened on a larger scale and continued with increasing success. The little shop in Illinois street, where he located after the destruction of the old city foundry, has grown into an immense institution, where more than one thousand men are employed, and the weekly pay roll amounts to more than thirteen thousand dollars. The firm of E. C. Atkins & Company was incorporated with a capital stock of six hundred thousand dollars, and branch houses are maintained in Memphis, Minneap- olis, New York, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans, be- sides which there are important agencies all over the country. The Atkins saws, whose name is a recognized evidence of superiority, are sold in all parts of the civilized world, and through them the fame and industrial prestige of In- dianapolis have been carried far and wide." It may further be said that few if any of the many great manufacturing institutions of In- dianapolis have done as much to further her precedence in this respect, and that the splen- did enterprise has been of great intrinsic value in the affording employment to a large corps of skilled workmen and thus in the maintaining of many worthy families,-elements which have great significance in connection with the growth and development of every industrial and commercial center.
It was but natural that a man of so great administrative and initiative talent should find divers channels along which to direct his splen- did energies, and while he gave to the manufac- turing of saws his chief attention his services in connection with other lines of industry were essentially productive and noteworthy. Thus he was one of the important factors in connec- tion with the development of the extensive silver. copper and load mines of the Haecla
Consolidated Mining Company. In this con- nection he passed two years in the mountains of the west, where supplies had to be transported overland for a distance of three hundred and fifty miles from Ogden, Utah, and while he thus lived the strenuous and rough life inci- dental to the work of the mining camps and had taken the course primarily for the benefit of his health, which had become much impaired, the results attained through his active and di- rect interposition were of most important or- der, as is evident when it is stated that under his direction the original investment of the mining company was increased from sixty thousand to one million five hundred thousand dollars. At the time of his death he was presi- dent of the Manufacturers Natural Gas Com- pany, of Indianapolis, and he was also identified with various other business enterprises of the capital city, lending to them both capitalistic support and the influence of his great adminis- trative ability.
On the entire career of Elias C. Atkins there rests no shadow of wrong or injustice, and the significance of this is shown in the following statement, representing an excerpt from a pre- riously published review of his life history : "Mr. Atkins was himself a man of ideas, and he recognized and appreciated the progressive tendency in others to such an extent that he was constantly on the lookout for new discov- eries, especially those applicable to his own par- ticular line of industry. And he could see more readily than most men the practical value of an invention, his superior analytical mind grasping the essentials with unerring judgment. He became interested in condensed air, the power of which he investigated thoroughly, at the expense of considerable time and means, engaging experts to test its value. In company with some distinguished English gentlemen he formed a company which, with the weight of his influence, might have done an immense business, selling stock and manufacturing lift- ing machines. But he was brought to a realiza- tion that the new power was little, if any, bet- ter than steam, and when he became convinced of this he demanded the dissolution of the Eng- lish company, much against the wishes, how- over, of the other members thereof. He had no ambition to champion or float an unworthy en- terprise. He was willing to take risk in a legitimate business way but he had neither pa- tience nor sympathy with schemes."
In matters of publie polity Mr. Atkins kept himself well informed, and not only was he admirably fortified in his convictions but he was also firm and courageous in maintaining them. He never sacrificed his convictions on the altar of expediency. In politics he gave a
1057
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
stauch allegiance to the Republican party and, knowing well conditions and results, he was a strong advocate of the protective tariff and while he manifested a loyal interest in public affairs he had no predilection for the turbu- lence of practical politics. He had naught of ostentation in manner or thought and was ever in close sympathy with the working men, mind- ful that he himself had been a practical artisan and thus retaining a deep appreciation of the dignity of honest toil and endeavor. Under these conditions it is needless to say that he had the inviolable confidence and esteem of his employes, whom he ever endeavored to aid and uplift in every possible way and who accorded to him the utmost loyalty. His benevolence and charities were given quietly and in the sim- ple way indicative of the intrinsic nobility of his nature. His was a strong character and its illumining power was greatest in the sacred precincts of his home, to which he was most devoted, and in the company of the friends whom he had grappled to himself with "hooks of steel". He had the deepest reverence for the spiritual verities and his religious convictions never vacillated, so that he represented a posi- tive power for righteousness in the community. His liberality and generosity · were unstinted and were exercised to the full limit of his legi- timate powers, with proper discrimination. He was specially interested in the cause of educa- tion and was a liberal contributor to the Bap- tist. Female Seminary, which for many years stood on the site of the present Shortridge high school. Himself a devout and zealous member of the Baptist Church, of which he became a member in 1856, immediately upon his arrival in Indianapolis, he did much for the further- ance of the various departments of its work, both local and general, and he made an earnest effort to secure the establishment of a Baptist university in Indianapolis. Of his service in this respect the following record is adequate: "He offered, under certain wisely defined con- ditions, to give forty acres of land lying be- tween Meridian street and Central avenue,' north of Thirty-second street. When the project of reviving the University of Chicago was launched, and John D. Rockefeller offered his first gift of one hundred thousand dollars to the theological seminary, providing a like amount should be given by others, Mr. Atkins offered to give the forty acres already noted as a donation of twenty thousand dollars. This bequest secured the interest of Mr. Rockefeller and the present great university took shape and beginning. Mr. Atkins afterward bought back this tract of land, paying twenty thousand dollars cash for the same, and it is now known as University Place. He was one of the trus-
tees of Morgan Park Seminary, at Chicago, until it was merged into the University of Chi- cago, and up to the hour of his death was on the official board of the latter institution."
Mr. Atkins was thrice married. His first union was with Miss Sarah J. Wells, and their only child, Harriet, is now the wife of John L. McMahon, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mr. Atkins' second marriage was to Miss Mary Dol- beare, and their only child is now deceased. On the 17th of August, 1865, was solemnized the marriage to Mr. Atkins to Miss Sarah F. Parker, who was born at Methuen, Massa- chusetts, July 26, 1837, and who is a daughter of Rev. Addison Parker and Eunice (Brigham) Parker, and of the five children of this union the following brief data are consistently in- corporated in this review. Mary D. is the wife of Nelson A. Gladding, secretary of the E. C. Atkins Saw Company, and they have two daughters, Frances M. and Mary E. Henry C. succeeded his father as president and manager of the E. C. Atkins Saw Company and is known as one of the representative business men of the Indiana capital; he married Miss Sue Winter and they have three children,-Elias C., Keyes Winter, and Henry Clarence. Sarah Frances, the third in order of birth of the five children, is the widow of Thomas Reed Kackley, formerly second vice-president of the Atlas Engine Works, of Indianapolis, and they have two children,-Sarah Frances and Thomas Reed, Jr. Emma L. is the wife of Edward B. Davis, present manager of the New York branch of the E. C. Atkins Saw Company, and they have one child,-Emma Louise. Carra is the wife of Major Sandford H. Wadhams, of the United States army.
Since the death of her honored husband Mrs. Atkins has continued to maintain her resi- dence in the beautiful family mansion, and she has long occupied a position of prominence in connection with the social, religious and char- itable activities of the community. She is a woman of most gracious personality and marked intellectuality, and is a representative of the fine old Puritan stock early established in New England, that cradle of so much of our national history. Her paternal grandfather, Aaron Parker, was a farmer and teacher in Vermont, and her father, an honored and dis- tinguished member of the clergy of the Baptist Church, died in Agawam, Massachusetts, in 1864. at the age of sixty-seven years. His de- voted wife, who died in 1855, at the age of fifty-seven years, was a descendant of the Brig- ham and Haines families, whose names are prominent in the annals of New England. She herself was a native of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and her paternal grandfather was a commis-
1058
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
sioned officer in the War of the Revolution, commanding his troops in the historic battle of Lexington. Other representatives of the line, both paternal and maternal, were patriot soldiers in the war for independence, and on this score Mrs. Atkins is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, in which noble organization she has been espe- cially prominent and influential. Her only brother, Rev. Addison Parker, is now a resi- dent of Richmond, Indiana, a Baptist minister.
Viewed in its clear perspective, now that he has passed away, the life of Elias Cornelius Atkins counted for much, and it is most con- sonant that this slight recognition and tribute be accorded him in a publication touching the city which he so loved and to whose material and civic advancement he contributed in gen- erous measure.
HENRY C. ATKINS. Standing at the head of an industry which may consistently be termed the most important of the great manufacturing enterprises of the capital city of Indiana, Henry C. Atkins, president of the corporation of E. C. Atkins & Company, the most extensive manufacturers of saws in America and un- doubtedly in the world, has succeeded his hon- ored father in this important executive office, and in the connection it has been well said that "The future success of the company is assured, because of his strict adherence to the founder's high ideals of integrity and wise business pol- icy." To the father, the late Elias C. Atkins, a special memoir is accorded on other pages of this work, so that further review of the family history is not demanded in the present sketch. Henry C. Atkins, both as a citizen and as a business man, is well upholding the high pres- tige of the name which he bears, and Indian- apolis, Greater Indianapolis, has none more cs- sentially loyal to her interests, none more ap- preciative of her advantages and manifold at- tractions.
Henry C. Atkins was born at Atlanta, John- son County, Idaho, on the 27th of November, 1868, and the capital city of Indiana has rep- resented his home from the time of his child- hood. As a boy and youth he found his time well employed in connection with his'father's saw factory during his school vacations, and when but sixteen years of age he was graduated in the Indianapolis classical school, showing that he had not neglected academie study for practical application in a business way. In 1885 he was matriculated in Yale University, in which historic old institution he was grad- uated as a member of the class of 1889, being twenty years of age at the time. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and then re- turned to Indianapolis and to his association
with the work and management of the saw manufactory. There is not a detail of the manufacturing of the product of the company with which he is not thoroughly familiar, and his technical skill is such that he is well forti- fied for the directing of the practical or oper- ative details of the great concern, even as he is qualified in an administrative way for the large responsibilities that rest upon him as president of the company, of which office he has been in- cumbent since the death of his father, in 1901. In a publication of the province assigned to the one at hand it is impossible to enter into the minutiæ marking the upbuilding of the great industrial enterprise of the E. C. Atkins Com- pany, for this is a function of more specific order, but none not familiar with the history of the company need lack for detailed informa- tion, since the same is provided in attractive brochures issued by the company itself and in divers works touching the industrial activities of Indiana's beautiful capital city. After his graduation at Yale Henry C. Atkins became superintendent of the concern of which he is now president, and he held this office until he assumed his present incumbency, which alone places him in the front rank of the "captains of industry" in the country. In 1892 he was chosen vice-president of the company, and this position he retained, in connection with that of superintendent, until he became president.
Mr. Atkins is a man of high civic ideals and he lends his co-operation and influence in sup- port of all worthy measures and enterprises projected for the general welfare of the com- munity. In politics he is found aligned as a stalwart in the camp of the Republican party, and he has been a member of the First Bap- tist Church of Indianapolis since 1877, his wife also being a zealous worker in this church. He is a member of the Columbia Club and is also actively identified with such other representa- tive organizations as the Commercial Club, the Country Club, and the Indianapolis Board of Trade. In the Masonic fraternity he is affil- iated with Mystic Tie Lodge, No. 398, Free and Accepted Masons.
On the 7th of January, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Atkins to Miss Sue Win- ter, who was born at Columbus, Indiana, on the 10th of February, 1872, and who is a daughter of Ferdinand and Mary (Keyes) Win- ter, who now maintain their home in Indian- apolis, where Mr. Winter is a prominent mem- ber of the bar. Mr. and Mrs. Atkins have three children,-Elias C., Keyes W. and Henry C., Jr.
PATRICK H. JAMESON, M. D. Though near- ing the patriarchal age of ninety years, this honored and distinguished representative of the
AH Jameson
1059
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
medical profession in Indianapolis is still alert in both his mental and physical faculties and finds satisfaction and solace in the gracious en- vironment and associations that are his in the golden evening of his life. For more than half a century he was engaged in active professional work in Indianapolis, and here he still main- tains an office, which he customarily visits twice each day, though for but short periods, and thus he measurably keeps in touch with the habits and interests of the years that are past. He may well be considered the Nestor of the medical profession in the capital city and he long held prestige as one of the most able and distinguished physicians and surgeons of this city, where he is held in reverent affection by all who have come within the sphere of his ministrations or kindly influence. It is a mat- ter of much gratification to the publishers of this history of Greater Indianapolis to be able to incorporate within its pages a record of the more salient points in the personal career and genealogical history of this venerable and hon- ored scion of one of the sterling pioneer fam- ilies of Indiana, with whose annals the name has been identified since the territorial epoch.
Dr. Patrick Henry Jameson was born in Jef- ferson County, Indiana, on the 18th of April, 1824, and is of stanch Scotch-Irish lineage. He is a son of Thomas and Sallie (Humphreys) Jameson, both of whom were natives of Vir- ginia and members of prominent families of that historic Old Dominion. Thomas Jameson was a son of Thomas Jameson, Sr., who was born in Pennsylvania, on the 7th of Novem- ber, 1733, and who became a successful tobacco planter in Virginia, where he gained not only temporal prosperity but also a position of prominence and influence as a citizen. He was a patriot soldier in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution, as were also two of his sons, Samuel and John. He served under Gen- eral Greene in the southern campaign of 1781, and was a member of Morgan's brigade, with which he took part in a number of important engagements, including the battle of Guilford Court House and the siege of Ninety-six. He was also in Greene's famous retreat from Ninety-six, pursued by Rawdon, in which the American army made 110 miles in three days. From Virginia Thomas Jameson, Sr., removed to Kentucky after the close of the Revolution, where he remained until about the year 1810, when, venerable in years, he came with other members of his family to Indiana Territory and located in Jefferson County, where he passed the residue of his life, having been ninety-seven years of age at the time of his demise.
Thomas Jameson, Jr., father of him whose name initiates this sketch, became one of the
successful farmers of Jefferson County, In- diana, where he took up his abode as one of the pioneers of 1810. He reclaimed and de- veloped a large and productive farm in that county, where he had a landed estate of about four hundred acres and where he was an hon- ored and influential citizen until the close of his life. He died on the old homestead farm on the 27th of June, 1843, at the age of sixty years, having survived his wife, who died in 1841. Both were devout members of the Christian, or Disciples, Church, in which he was an elder. For a brief period Thomas Jameson served as a soldier in the War of 1812, having been stationed on the Indiana frontier. He and his wife became the parents of five sons and three daughters, and the only two surviving are Dr. Patrick Henry Jameson, to whom this sketch is dedicated, and a younger brother, James Monroe Jameson.
William Humphreys, maternal grandfather of Dr. Jameson, was a native of Virginia and of English ancestry. For many years he re- sided near Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was a neighbor and personal friend of Thomas Jefferson. He died near Staunton, Virginia, when about fifty years of age, and he and others of his family were communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He reared four sons and three daughters.
Dr. Patrick Henry Jameson was reared to the age of nineteen years in Jefferson County, Indiana, and there received his early educa- tion. In 1843 he took up his abode in In- dianapolis, where he has since maintained his home and where he has ever held a secure place in popular confidence and esteem. From 1843 to 1847 he was a successful and popular teacher in the Indianapolis schools. The building he taught in was the first common school erected by taxation in the city (1844), and Dr. Jame- son put in the desks and seats at his own ex- pense, was janitor and the only teacher in the building. In the meanwhile he began reading medicine under the preceptorship of the late Dr. John H. Sanders, one of the able physicians of the city in his dav. Thereafter he took his first course of lectures in the medical depart- ment of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and in March, 1849, he was, graduated in the celebrated Jefferson Medical College, in the City of Philadelphia, from which institution he received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. He gave himself with perfervid zeal and devotion to the work of his profession and gained distinction as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of the state, the while he was long a prominent and influential figure in public affairs. He was for six years a mem- ber of the city council, and was a valued and
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.