USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes > Part 85
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conscientious member of the state board of benevolent institutions, of which he was presi- dent for ten years. At one time he was presi- dent of the Indianapolis Medical Society. He was a charter member of the State Medical So- ciety, organized in 1849, of whom two remain, Dr. William Wishard and himself. Dr. Jame- son was for many years a frequent contributor to the literature of his profession and also pre- pared valuable reports concerning the affairs of the varions benevolent and charitable in- stitutions with which he was connected.
From April, 1861, until March, 1866,-rep- resenting practically the entire period of the Civil War,-Dr. Jameson was in charge of the nnorganized troops in the Indianapolis military post, and during the entire war he served not only the state under the appointment of Gov- ernor Morton, but was also in addition acting assistant surgeon in the United States army. From 1861 to 1869 he was physician for the Indiana institute for the deaf and dumb, and from 1869 to 1879, as already intimated in this context he was president of the several boards of the benevolent institutions maintained by the state to which position he was thrice elected by the legislature. As chairman of the committee on ordinances in 1865, Dr. Jameson made a complete revision of the city laws, and from 1865 to 1869 he was chairman of the finance committee of the city council. In its session of 1872-3 the general assembly of the state made him a member of the provisional board to arrange for the erection of a hospital for women in connection with the general state hospital for the insane, and under his direction as treasurer of the board was completed the Indiana Central Hospital for the Insane, in the City of Indianapolis. For about forty years he has been a member of the board of di- rectors of Butler University, at Irvington, and he was the sole agent for the sale of its ex- tensive real estate holdings in Indianapolis and for the erection of the buildings at Irving- ton. During his extended service as commis- sioner for the Hospital for the Insane and later as president of the boards, he persistently ad- vocated for eighteen years through his reports better provisions . for the care of the insane. It was largely through his untiring efforts that the legislature made appropriations for the en- largement and completion of this institution so creditable to the state. In 1876 he wrote for the press a series of articles against the ex- travagant expenditure and taxation in the city. clearly demonstrating the feasibility of a large saving which led to a natural reduction in the tax rates and to the formation of a citizens' committee, of which he was chairman, to pro- cure suitable legislation to limit the power of
city councils and school boards and prevent ex- cessive taxation and expenditure. In this mat- ter he was ably assisted by William H. English, who did the heavy work of the committee. This committee secured the passage of an act limiting the amount of debt for cities to two per cent of their taxables ad valorem, and the annual rate of taxation to nine-tenths of one per cent for the support of schools. It is still in force and has been in part incorporated in the state constitution. He and his wife are members of the Christian, or more properly the Disciples, Church, and he has the distinction of being the oldest living member of Center Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. He has touched with beneficent influence all phases of professional, civic and social life, and his work has been prolific of good in all its relations.
On the 20th of June, 1850, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Jameson to Miss Maria Butler, daughter of Ovid and Cordelia (Cole) Butler, and of this union were born four chil- dren,-Mary, who is the wife of John M. Judah, of Indianapolis; Anne Maria, who is the wife of Orville Peckham, a prominent at- tornev of Chicago; Ovid B., of whom indi- vidual mention is made on other pages of this work; and Cordelia, who became the wife of Albert S. Caldwell, of Memphis, Tennessee, where she died in 1888. Mrs. Jameson was born in Shelbyville. Indiana, on July 5, 1831, and she and her husband have been linked by the gracious marital ties of mutual love, sym- pathy and helpfulness for fully sixty years. Her father, the late Ovid Butler, was long a distinguished and honored citizen of Indian- apolis, and in his honor the title of the North- western Christian University was changed to Butler College and later to Butler University, in recognition of his magnificent bequests to the institution.
In politics Dr. Jameson has been aligned as a stalwart and effective supporter of the canse of the Republican party from the time of its organization to the present, and he has been prominent in the furthering of its interests in his home state, where he has had the acquaint- ance and intimate friendship of many of the leading men in public and business life, in- cluding the late Gen. Lew Wallace and Gov. Oliver P. Morton, with whom his relations were specially close and for whose memories he re- tains the deepest regard. As the gracious shadows of a long and well spent life lengthen from the crimson west. where the sunset gates are open wide, Dr. Jameson is surrounded with those generous conditions and influences that make for contentment and serene happiness. and in the city that has so long been his home all who know him accord to him veneration
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and affectionate regard, as do they also to his noble wife.
(VID BUTLER JAMESON holds prestige as one of the representative members of the bar of his native city and as a scion of old and hon- ored pioneer families of Indiana, within whose borders both his paternal and maternal an- cestors settled in an early day. He was born in Indianapolis on the 17th of July, 1854, and is a son of Dr. Patrick Henry Jameson and. Maria (Butler) Jameson. On other pages of this publication is entered a review of the an- cestral history and personal career of his ven- erable and distinguished father, so that repeti- tion of the data is not demanded in the pres- ent article.
Mr. Jameson received his preliminary edu- cational discipline in the public schools of In- dianapolis, after which he entered the North- western Christian University of this city, an institution now known as Butler University and named in honor of his maternal grand- father. He there continued his studies until the opening of his junior year, and in 1872 he went abroad to continue his education. He prosecuted his higher academic studies in the great German universities of Heidelberg and Berlin and remained in Europe until 1876. On his return to his native land and home city Mr. Jameson began the study of law under the preceptorship of Hon. John M. Judah, one of the distinguished members of the Indian- apolis bar, and in 1881 he was duly admitted to the bar of his native state. His thorough and amplified academic education made him specially facile in his accumulation and assimi- lation of the science of jurisprudence, and his finely trained mind and marked technical skill have gained to him much of success and prece- dence in the exacting work of his chosen pro- fession, in connection with which he is recog- nized as one of the essentially representative members of the bar of the capital city of the state with whose history the family name has been long and prominently identified.
In his political allegiance Mr. Jameson has ever given an uncompromising adherence to the Republican party, and he has taken an active and loyal interest in the promotion of its cause, as one of the leaders in its local con- tingent. In 1884 he was the nominee on the party ticket for representative of Marion Coun- tv in the state legislature, was elected by a gratifying majority and served during the gen- cral assembly of 1885, with much of distinc- tion. He is identified with representative civic and social organizations in his home city, in- eluding the Commercial, the Marion, the Co- lumbia, the University and the Country Clubs. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has
attained to the thirty-second degree of the An- cient Accepted Scottish Rite, in connection with which his affiliation is with Indiana Sov- . creign Consistory, and he is a member of the Mystic Shrine.
On the 10th of November, 1886, Mr. Jame- son was united in marriage to Miss Mary Booth Tarkington, daughter of Hon. John S. Tark- ington, of Indianapolis, and a sister of Booth Tarkington, the well known author. 'I'ht have three children, namely: John Tarking- ton, Ovid Donald and Newton Booth.
SAMUEL ASHBY. There is no specific per- sonal title which the true and loyal American holds in higher respect than that of "self-made man," and while the term is often applied in an indifferent and unjustified way it has never lost its significance to those appreciative of how essentially our nation has made its prog- ress through the efforts and services of those who have been the architects of their own for- tunes. Samuel Ashby, one of the able and successful members of the bar of Indianapolis, is one who has made his way to prominence and honorable prestige in his important profession through his own well directed energies and ef- forts. In his youth he felt the lash of neces- sity, but his own courage and self-reliance and ambition represent the elements through which he pushed forward to the goal of definite achievement and worthy success.
Mr. Ashby was born on a farm near the vil- lage of Pittsboro, Hendricks County, Indiana, on the 24th of August, 1868, and is a son of James Samuel and Jane Alexander. (Watson) Ashby, both of whom were born and reared in the vicinity of the City of Louisville, Ken- tucky, in which state their marriage was sol- emnized. They became the parents of two sons and one daughter, and the subject of this review was the third in order of birth. His brother, John H., is the oldest, and his sister, Elizabeth Sne, is the second child. Both the Ashby and Watson families are of stanch Eng- lish lineage and both were founded in Vir- ginia in the early Colonial epoch of our na- tional history. Representatives of each were prominent and influential in the Old Domin- ion, and later both families became identified with the pioneer settlement of Kentucky, with whose annals the respective names have been identified in a prominent way. The founder of the Ashby family in America was Capt. John Ashby, who immigrated from England and became one of the early settlers in the Virginia colonv.
James S. Ashby, father of the subject of this sketch. came to Indiana and hecame ,a farmer in Hendricks County, where he died while still a comparatively young man, leaving
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his widow to provide for her little family of children. The noble woman bravely faced the onerous responsibilities thus devolving upon her and she is now over seventy years old and resides with her son, John H., near Pittsboro.
Samuel Ashby, whose name initiates this re- view, passed his boyhood days on the farm and gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of the village of Pittsboro. Hia widowed mother was left with but meager re- sources and he early found it incumbent upon him to assume the practical duties and responsi- bilities of life and. provide for his own support. He began to work on the farm when but eight years of age, thus providing for his own main- tenance, and assisting in the support of his mother, and from that early age onward he turned his attention to such honest work as could be secured, having no false pride and placing a true valuation on honest toil and en- deavor, of whose dignity he has ever continued deeply appreciative. He worked on the farm, in tile factories, was employed as a railroad section hand, and while prosecuting the study of law he was for some time in the employ of a company engaged in the construction of gravel roads in Indiana and street and construction work in Kentucky. Through his own labors he worked his way through college and prepared himself for his chosen profession. He knows the value of consecutive industry, has had the discipline of "hard knocks," but in the matur- ing and broadening of his character and the widening of his mental horizon, he has no rea- son to regret the early struggles and expe- riences which marked his progress toward the goal of his ambition.
Mr. Ashby carefully conserved his financial resources and finally was enabled to enter the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, where he took a partial course in the literary depart- ment and completed the prescribed course in the law department, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1891, with the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. He practically es- tablished his home in Indianapolis when he was nineteen years of age, and in this city he began the study of law under the preceptorship of Judge Franklin McCray, who gave him en- couragement and able tutorship. After his graduation in the university Mr. Ashby was duly admitted to the bar of his native state and he then located in Indianapolis, where he was associated in practice with his valued friend and former preceptor, Judge McCray, until the latter was elected to the bench of the criminal court, in 1894. Since that time he has con- ducted an individual practice, and he has gained a place of definite prominence as an able and resourceful trial lawyer and well forti-
fied counselor. It is needless to say that one who could work his own way to the point of being admitted to the bar would have no lack of resources in proving his powers in the work of his profession, and this has been true in the case of Mr. Ashby, who now controls a clientage of representative order and who has high stand- ing among his professional confreres in the capital city. He is a member of the Indiana State Bar Association and also of the Indian- apolis Bar Association.
In politics Mr. Ashby has ever given an un- compromising allegiance . to the Republican party and while he has never sought public office he has been an indefatigable worker in behalf of the cause of the "grand old party." From the time he attained his legal majority and consequent right of franchise there has been no occasion of primary or general election in which he has not passed the entire election day . in some manner as active worker at the polls. He is a member of the Marion Club and the Commercial Club, representative civic organizations of Indianapolis, and both he and his wife are prominent and zealous members of the Central Christian Church. He is an elder of this church and a trustee and treasurer of the board of ministerial relief of the Christian Church denomination in the United States.
On the 19th of September, 1894, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Ashby to Miss Ida M. Reid, who was a fellow student in the University of Indiana, in which she was grad- uated as a member of the class of 1892. She was born near Albion, Illinois, and is a daugh- ter of Charlton S. and Sarah W. Reid, repre- sentative citizens of Edwards County, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Ashby have three children,- Mary A., Sarah E., and Samuel R.
ISAAC N. HARLAN. One of the representa- tive fire-insurance agencies of Indianapolis is that conducted by Isaac N. Harlan, who is a native son of the Hoosier state and a scion of one of its sterling pioneer families. He is a son of Austin B. and Rebecca (Pierson) Har- lan, who still reside on their old homestead farm in Marion County.
Isaac Newton Harlan was born on the home- 'stead farm, in Warren Township, Marion County, Indiana, four miles east of Indian- apolis, and the date of his nativity was October 30, 1856. He was reared to the sturdy disci- pline involved in the great basic industry of agriculture, and his early educational training was secured in the district schools of his na- tive township. Later he continued his studies in the normal school at Westfield and the State Normal School at Danville, this state, in which latter he was graduated, in the pedagogic course, as a member of the class of .1880. He
Solomon le Paypaul
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became one of the successful and popular teach- ers in the public schools of his native county, where he was engaged in pedagogic work for fourteen terms. Six terms of this number found him engaged in the schools of Center Township, and at the time of his retirement from the work of this profession he was prin- cipal of the schools of the village of Haugh- ville, which is now a part of the City of In- dianapolis. While teaching during the winter terms in the district schools he also found em- ployment, during the intervening summers, as a salesman of educational text-books, in which connection he represented a leading publishing house of the City of Boston for three years.
In 1883 Mr. Harlan located in Indianapolis, where he secured a position in the fire insur- ance business, identifying himself with the firm of C. W. Oakes & Company. In 1893 he en- gaged in the same line of enterprise on his own responsibility, opening an office in a building that stood on the site of the present Law build- ing, in East Market street, where he remained until the 25th of May, 1894, when he removed to his present eligible quarters, at No. 38, North Delaware street. As an underwriter of fire insurance he has built up a large and sub- stantial business, and his agency is one of the most important of its kind in the city, receiv- ing a representative support. Mr. Harlan is known as a business man whose course is guid- ed and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor, and thus he commands the unequivocal esteem of all who know him, be- ing one of the popular and honored citizens of his native county. In politics he gives a stanch support to the cause of the Democratic party, though he has never been a seeker of public office. The family holds membership in the First Christian Church. He is affiliated with Star Lodge, No. 7, Knights of Pythias, and Marion Camp, No. 3558, Modern Wood- men of America.
On the 12th of August, 1885, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Harlan to Miss Elizabeth Gertrude Smith, who was born in Shelby County, Indiana, on the 1st of June, 1859, and who is a daughter of George M. and Delphina (Barnard) Smith, the former a native of Ger- many and the latter of Shelby County, In- diana. Mr. and Mrs. Smith now reside in a pleasant home about one-fourth of a mile east of the city limits of Indianapolis. They became the parents of eleven children, all of whom are living except one, and Mrs. Harlan is the eldest of the number. Mr. Smith came to America when sixteen years of age, making the voyage on a sailing vessel and landing in New York City. whence he eventually came to In- diana. For several years he was engaged in
farming in Hancock County and he thẹn re- moved to Marion County, where he has con- tinued in the same line of enterprise and has met with. a due measure of success. For the past forty years he and his wife have resided on their present homestead farm, and he has been a citizen of prominence and influence in his community, having served as township trus- tee and having been called upon to serve in minor offices of public trust. In politics he is a Democrat and both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church. Mr. and Mrs. Harlan became the parents of four chil- dren, of whom three are living,-Mary E., Myron S., and Delphina R. Freda died in infancy.
SOLOMON CLAYPOOL. There is no need for conjecture or uncertainty in determining as to the value and success of the life of the late Judge Solomon Claypool, who was one of the distinguished legists and jurists of his native state and who was a scion of one of the hon- ored pioneer families of Indiana. In his gra- cious, equable, and well poised life he showed conclusively that he was "to the manner born." The eternal verities of human sympathy and human helpfulness found in him one whose appreciation was of the deepest and most po- tent order, and his life was one of noble thoughts and noble deeds. He left the impress of his strong individuality upon the history of jurisprudence in Indiana, and few of more solid and yet brilliant talent have dignified and honored the bar of the state by their lives and services. Judge Claypool was a man of broad intellectuality, and viewed life and its respon- sibilities in their correct proportions. He was not given to half-views or rash inferences. The leap from the particular to the general is ever tempting to the thoughtless, but never to this man of strength and judgment and lofty mo- tives. It is well that in this publication be accorded a tribute to his memory and to his services as one of the world's noble army of prolific workers and as a true friend of hu- manity. Judge Claypool died at his home in the City of Indianapolis, on the morning of Friday, March 19, 1898, and his remains rest in beautiful Crown Hill cemetery. He was born and he died, but between these two elemental points stretches a wealth of generous accom- plishment and of noble and kindly deeds.
Solomon Claypool was born on the homestead farm of his father, near the present City of Attica, Fountain County, Indiana, on the 17th of August. 1829, and was the fourth in order of birth of the children of Wilson and Sarah (Evans) Claypool. the former of whom was a native of Virginia. where the family, of stanch English origin, was founded in the early colo-
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nial epoch of our nation's history. Sarah (Evans) Claypool was a representative of a family that was founded in the colony of Mary- land in 1720, and the original progenitors in the new world came here from Wales. Wilson Claypool removed with his parents from Vir- ginia to Ohio and the family thus became pioneers of the Buckeye state. Near Chilli- cothe, that state, was solemnized the marriage of Wilson Claypool to Miss Sarah Evans, and in 1823, about seven years after the admis- sion of Indiana to the Union, they came to this state and established their home in Fountain County, where Mr. Claypool secured a large tract of wild land near the present thriving little City of Attica. In 1824 he erected on his homestead a frame house, the first of the kind to be built in the county, and this pioneer building is still standing, in an excellent state of preservation. In the early days it was con- sidered a very pretentious residence, and in this house the honored subject of this memoir was ushered into the world. There also his worthy parents continued to reside until their death, secure in the high regard of all who knew them.
The boyhood days of Solomon Claypool were passed on the old homestead farm which was the place of his nativity, and under its invig- orating discipline he waxed strong in mind and body. He secured his preliminary educa- tion in the district school and his predilection for study was manifest when he was a mere boy. Though it has often been stated that he was a so-called self-made man, this assertion is hardly accurate, according to the common in- terpretation of the expression. He came of a long line of ancestors who had been men of affairs, and his parents were abundantly able and willing to give him such advantages as were at that time available. His father believed in liberal education and sent his children, both boys and girls, to college. Solomon Clay- pool entered Wabash College, at Crawfords- ville, in which institution he completed the prescribed course and was graduated as a mem- "ber of the class of 1851. In this institution he became a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
After leaving college Judge Claypool began reading law in the office of Lane & Wilson, of Crawfordsville. and a short time afterward he removed to Terre Haute, where he continued his technical studies under the able preceptor- ship of Judge Samuel B. Gookins, with whom he remained until he was admitted to the bar. He initiated the practice of his profession in the Village of Covington. Fountain County, where he remained but a short time, as he returned to Terre Haute in 1855.
Judge Claypool was an ardent Demoerat in his young manhood, as well as in later years. and he soon became actively identified with the work of his party. In 1856 he was elected to represent Vigo County in the state legisla- tnre, where, despite his youth, he took a lead- ing part in the deliberations of both the floor and the committee room. He was both promi- nent and influential. He was clear-headed and quick-witted and succeeded in making a most favorable impression upon Governor Williard, who, without any solicitation whatever on the part of the young legislator and lawyer, ap- pointed him judge, to fill a vacancy on the bench of the sixth judicial circuit, composed of Vigo and seven other counties. Popular ap- proval of Judge Claypool's course on the bench was shown in the following year, when he was elected, for a term of six years, to fill the ju- dicial position he had previously held by gu- bernatorial appointment. He ran far ahead of his ticket and his administration amply justi- fied the confidence thus manifested by the voters of the circuit.
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