USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes > Part 86
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
When Judge Claypool attained the age of thirty-five years he had been on the bench seven years and his name had become familiar to members of the bar throughout the state, as well as in his circuit. Concerning him the following appreciative statement has been made by one familiar with his career: "Judge Clay- pool was known as a clean, strong man, an able and impartial judge." When his term of office expired he at. once resumed the practice of law. In 1866 he was nominated by acclamation as the Democratic candidate for Congress. While he ran ahead of his ticket, he was defeated. In 1868 he was a candidate for attorney-general of the state and again with the rest of his party was defeated. Here ended his political aspi- rations. From that time he gave his life's ef- fort to his chosen profession. After leaving Terre Haute he resided for several years at Greencastle, Indiana, and in 1876 he removed thence with his family to Indianapolis, where he had become the head of the law firm of Claypool, Mitchell & Ketcham three years pre- viously. With no uncertain step Judge Claypool climbed to professional eminence. He was rec- ognized as the peer of any lawyer in the state. and of him it was well said that "When there came a struggle of right and wrong, when a man's character or fortune was at stake, then it was that Judge Claypool stood at the head of the bar of Marion County." For a quarter of a century he was employed on one side or the other of nearly all the great legal battles of the state. He was a terror to his opponents. who took good care not to arouse the immense reserve strength of which he was possessed. His
1065
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
brilliant mind and his powerful method of presenting his side of a case before court or jury, called his services into requisition in many parts of the state when trials of impor- tance were in progress. During his active career at the bar he had, and well deserved, the repu- tation of being one of the very strongest advo- cates in the state. He was known for his rug- ged honesty and his inviolable devotion to principle. In his death the Indiana bar lost one of its most distinguished members and the state lost a citizen whose influence was always for that which is best in civic life.
As has been consistently stated, it is difficult to sum up in words what Judge Claypool's life meant to Indianapolis. He was a strong mem- ber of a great profession and he honored and dignified the same by his services. He was al- ways ready to combat with evil wherever he saw it. Right was right and wrong was wrong with him; here was no compromise with expediency ; he knew no middle ground. To those in any way weaker than himself he always extended a willing, helping hand, having an abiding sympathy for all those "in any ways afflicted in mind, body or estate." Few who heard him making a strong plea for a cause in court, where the vital points of his case absorbed his attention, could realize that he was a man of intrinsic reserve, even diffidence, and that he had no desire to be in the limelight. Conse- quently his charities and benevolences were never known to the public. He "remembered those who were forgotten." His gifts to others were made in his own modest way- a loving word, a kind look, his time or a substantial sum, when it was needed. He did many things of this order but never talked of them. Strong powerful, and aggressive in his defense of right and justice, in personal character he was as gentle and sweet-spirited as a child. Whatever may have been his attitude to the world, in the sacred precincts of his home his true and noble qualities illumined and pervaded the entire at- mosphere, and to his wife and children he was all in all, as were they to him.
Judge Claypool was a man of attractive and impressive appearance. He was nearly six feet in height, well proportioned, and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. He had thick, black hair, which covered a broad, fair brow, and his keen blue eyes often twinkled with anisement, or looked with tenderest sympathy, or flashed with indignation at a wrong. The atmosphere that surrounded him was one of purity and refinement. His religious faith be- came an intrinsic element of his character, and by it, his entire course in life was guided and governed. Apropos of his deep appreciation of spiritual verities the following quotation is
of interest : "During one of the great revivals that prevailed at Wabash College while he was a student in that institution he became the sub- ject of carnest religious convictions, which never left him and which gave a positive moral power to his entire life." He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, as is also his widow.
Judge ('laypool enjoyed perfect health until about five years before his death, when he was stricken with a nervous disease that undermined his strong constitution. While he became help- less and unable to speak above a whisper, he retained full mental vigor until almost the hour of his death, which occurred on the 19th of March, 1898, as already noted in this con- text. At a meeting of the Indianapolis Bar Association, which assembled to make proper recognition of its sense of loss and to pay a tribute of respect to his memory, the following significant statement was made by a professional confrere who had known him long and inti- mately: "Judge Claypool was a man against whom no scandal or suspicion was ever known -a great lawyer, a good citizen, a pure and spotless man."
In September, 1855, at Terre Haute, Indi- aua, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Claypool to Miss Hannah M. Osborn, a daugh- ter of John W. Osborn, one of the ablest and most distinguished newspaper editors of the state in the early days. Mrs. Claypool was born in Terre Haute, this state, and since the death of her honored husband she has continued to reside in Indianapolis, secure in the affec- tionate regard of all who have come within the sphere of her gentle and gracious influence. In conclusion of this memoir is entered brief record concerning the seven children of Judge and Mrs. Claypool.
Anna C., who died in Indianapolis, on the 31st of Angust, 1909, was the wife of Hon. George W. Faris, of Terre Haute, who repre- sented the Fifth district in Congress for ser- eral terms. John W. Claypool, the only son, was his father's law partner and is still en- gaged in the practice of his profession in In- dianapolis. Hannah M. is the wife of Thomas H. Watson, of Chicago. Ruby C. is the wife of Chester Bradford, of Indianapolis. Mary Alice is the wife of Ridgely B. Hilleary, of this city. Lucy Gookins died in 1890, and Miss Eliza- beth C. remains with her widowed mother.
RIDGELY B. HILLEARY. As representative of that alert and vigorous spirit of progress which has so significantly vitalized and forwarded the industrial and commercial precedence of the Indiana capital, Ridgely B. Hilleary merits consideration in this publication. He is num- hered among the successful and prominent
1066
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
business men of the younger generation in In- dianapolis, where he is president of the Amer- ican Foundry Company, one of the substantial industrial concerns of the city.
Ridgely Brown Hilleary was born at the an- cestral homestead, Mount Pleasant, Frederick County, Maryland, on the 2nd of April, 1868, and is a son of John and Janet (Henderson) Hilleary, the former of whom was born at Mount Pleasant, in 1832, and the latter in Georgetown, District of Columbia, in 1837.
The Hilleary family lineage is traced back to stanch Scotch origin and the progenitors of the American branch settled in Calvert County, Maryland, in 1663. In 1770, John Hilleary, great-grandfather of him whose name intro- duces this sketch, bought from Governor Thomas S. Lee a large tract of land in Fred- erick County, Maryland, where he built his home and gave to his demesne the name of Mount Pleasant. Tilghman Hilleary, his son, who married Ann Worthington, of Virginia, inherited a large portion of the landed estates of the family and also the homestead. He was a planter and slaveholder, maintaining his plantation under the generous and patriarchal conditions of the ante-bellum days. In due time John Ililleary, father of Ridgely B., in- herited Mount Pleasant, which is situated only eight miles from Harper's Ferry and but a short distance from Crampton's Gap, South Mountain, in the very midst of the fighting ground of the Civil War. John Hilleary, who had been a successful planter, found himself, like most southerners, greatly reduced in cir- cumstances through the ravages of the war, and he was never able to recoup his large financial losses. The Hilleary family was obliged to endure the hardships of the so-called reconstruction period. In 1887 the family re- moved to Roanoke, Virginia, where the father died in 1902 and where his widow still main- tains her home. Three sons and two daughters survive the honored father, and one of the sons, Clarence Lee Hilleary, is general pas- senger agent of the Lake Erie & Western Rail- road, with residence and official headquarters in the City of Indianapolis.
In 1885 Ridgely B. Hilleary came to Indian- apolis, in accordance with the advice of his uncle, Charles English Henderson, who was at that time general manager of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, which is now a part of the great New York Central system. Soon after his arrival in the Indiana capital 'Mr. Hilleary obtained employment with the Indianapolis Malleable Iron Company, but within a short time he assumed a better posi- tion with the Indianapolis Foundry Company, with which corporation he remained continu-
ously for nearly thirteen years. He severed his connection therewith in January, 1899, to be- come secretary and manager of the Pneumatic Elevator & Weigher Company, which is now known as the Climax Machinery Company. While he still remains a director of this com- pany, Mr. Hilleary resigned from active asso- ciation with its affairs in January, 1903, to become president of the American Foundry Company, of which position he has since re- mained incumbent. He has steadily pressed forward until he is now one of the representa- tive business men of Indianapolis, and he has so ordered his course as to gain and retain the high regard of those with whom he has come in contact, in connection with the busi- ness and social activities of the fair city in which he has established his home.
Mr. Hilleary, true to ancestral faith, is aligned as a stalwart in the camp of the Demo- cratic party, and he has rendered zealous and effective service in the promotion of its cause. He is president of the Indiana Democratic Club, and is first vice-president of the Indian- apolis Commercial Club at the time of this writing. He holds membership in the Uni- versity Club of Indiana and is a member of various other local organizations. Both he and his wife are members of the Second Presby- terian Church, in which he holds the office of deacon.
In Indianapolis, on the 26th of April, 1893. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hilleary and Miss Mary Alice Claypool, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Joseph A. Mil- burn, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Hilleary is a daughter of the late Judge Solomon Claypool, to whom a spe- cial memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work, so that further mention of the family history is not demanded in the present con- nection. Mr. and Mrs. Hilleary have one daughter, Elizabeth Claypool Hilleary.
JOHN W. CLAYPOOL. In a profession digni- fied and honored by the able interposition of his distinguished father, long one of the lead- ing members of the Indiana bar, John W. Claypool himself has attained marked success and prestige, and he holds today a place of security as one of the representative legal prac- titioners of Indiana's capital city, the while his professional reputation has far transcended mere local limitations. The ancient axiom expressed in the statement that "few sons at- tain the praise of their great sires" has taken root in the intervening ages, but its implication of occasional exceptions may consistently be brought to bear in connection with the pro- fessional and civic career of him whose name introduces this sketch. Mr. Claypool is one of
1067
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
the essentially influential citizens of "Greater Indianapolis", where his interests are varied and important, and it is but consonant that in this publication be incorporated a brief re- view of his career. On preceding pages of this volume is entered a memoir to his father, the late Solomon Claypool, so that a further review of the family history is not demanded in the present connection.
John Wilson Claypool was born in the City of Terre Haute, Indiana, on the 19th of Octo- ber, 1858, and is the only son of Solomon and Hannah M. (Osborn) Claypool. The first eight years of his life were passed in his native city, in whose private schools he secured his rudimentary education. In 1866, his parents removed to Greencastle, this state, where he completed the curriculum of the public schools. He then entered Asbury University, now De- Pauw University, in that city, in which insti- tution he gained a liberal academic education, though he did not graduate. In January, 1876, the family removed to Indianapolis, and the capital city of his native state has since that time represented his home and been the scene of his productive activities. Here his father became a member of the strong law firm of Claypool, Mitchell & Ketcham, which later be- came Claypool, Newcomb and Ketcham, and at the age of eighteen years the subject of this review became a student in the office of the firm of which his father was thus a member. His technical studies were carefully guided by his able father and he also gained valuable experience in the details of office work in con- nection with the extensive legal business of the firm.
In September, 1881, John W. Claypool was admitted to the bar, to which he came specially well fortified by preliminary discipline and natural predilection. He forthwith engaged in active practice in Indianapolis and soon after- ward, upon the dissolution of the firm of which his father had been a member, the father and son became associated in practice, under the firm name of Claypool & Claypool. This grate- ful and effective alliance continued until the death of the honored father, March 19, 1898, and during the intervening period of nearly a score of years the firm held exalted standing at the har and was concerned in much of the most important litigations in the State and Federal courts of the Indiana capital. Since the death of his father, Mr. Claypool has con- tinued in individual practice, and he holds precedence as one of the leading members of the bar of Indianapolis. He is known as a specially versatile and resourceful advocate and has appeared in connection with many impor- taut causes brought before the local courts,
confining his practice largely to the civil branch of his profession. He attained special promi- nence in connection with the protecting and administering of the large estate of the late Mrs. Maria Rhodius, of Indianapolis, involving interests amounting to fully a million dollars, and through his able and conscientious efforts in this connection he has gained wide repute. Mr. Claypool was long the legal adviser of Mrs. Rhodius, and upon her death, which oc- curred November 14, 1905, he was retained in the same capacity by her son and only heir, the late George Rhodius.
On the night of January 21, 1907, Mr. Rhodius, "a man without mind", and sick, was stolen from his rooms by a notorious woman, taken out of the state, and forced through an alleged marriage ceremony, pursuant to a con- spiracy to loot him of his vast estate. In order to escape with him the woman traveled with him from place to place under false names. Mr. Claypool traced the couple, finally causing the woman's arrest, and the return of Mr. Rhodius to Indianapolis. Mr. Claypool was so earnest in his devotion to his client, and to what he knew to be his trust, that this was done at great personal risk of large finan- cial loss. On the ground that Mr. Rhodius was insane, and also otherwise physically a wreck and unable to contract a marriage, Mr. Claypool succeeded in securing the appoint- ment of a guardian; then suit was brought to annul the alleged marriage. Mr. Claypool's contentions were eventually fully sustained by the courts, Rhodius was declared insane, and the marriage annulled. Much praise, from his professional confreres and the general public was received by Mr. Claypool for his able efforts in connection with this celebrated cause. Mr. Rhodius died December 20, 1909, leaving a will in which Mr. Claypool was named as executor. In this the greater portion of his vast wealth was given to the various worthy charities and to the city for park purposes. The document has the signature of Mr. Rhodius. While on the so-called wedding journey, the woman and her co-conspirators declare that another will was made, making her (the alleged Mrs. Rhodius) sole beneficiary. This will is signed with a mark. The adjustment of the affairs of the estate are at this time (1910) in the hands of the Probate Court.
The contest concerning the property is still continuing, owing to the claims of the various heirs seeking to break the will, and to the de- mands of the woman who claims the legality of the will in her favor. As Mr. Claypool has been absolutely successful thus far, in everv step in this litigation, it is believed that he will continue to be, in which event he will admin-
1068
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
ister the estate,.and the money will go as was intended, for the benefit of the city and hu- manity.
Mr. Claypool has given practically his undi- vided time and attention to the work of his exacting profession and retains a large and representative clientage, based alike on his dis- tinetive strength as a lawyer and his unques- tioned integrity and honor in all the relations of life. As a loyal and progressive citizen he shows a deep interest in all that tends to con- serve the advancement and stable prosperity of his home city, and while he takes active part in the promotion of the cause of the Demo- cratic party and a lively concern in public af- fairs of a local order, he has never sought or desired public office of any description, as he considers his profession worthy of his undivided fealty. He is a valued member of the Indiana Democratic Club and is identified with various local organizations of representative order. He holds membership in the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis. Reared under patri- cian influences, Mr. Claypool has the equipoise and savoir faire that naturally results from such environment. He is essentially demo- cratic in his bearing, unassuming, direct and sincere at all times, but possessed of those im- pregnable convictions and that fidelity to prin- ciple that stand as the exponents of strong character and beget popular confidence and es- teem. Mr. Claypool is a bachelor.
HENRY S. McMICHAEL. A substantial prac- titioner at the Indianapolis bar and, specific- ally, counsel for the State Life Insurance Company, Henry S. McMichael is a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, born on the 8th of March, 1858. His education prelimi- nary to his professional training was obtained in the Lancaster County schools and at the Millersville State Normal. He was employed in educational work for a number of years, be- ing school principal in Wichita, Kansas, for six years. He was graduated from the Indiana Law School in the class of 1895. Mr. Mc- Michael was admitted to the bar of Indiana during the same year, when he returned to Lan- caster and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. He then returned to Indianapolis and was engaged in general practice until 1906, when he was appointed counsel of the State Life Insurance Company of that city, having since devoted his time to the interests of that progressive corporation.
Mr. McMichael is a son of James and Hes- ter (Phillips) McMichael. The father was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1811, and spent the many active years of his long, useful and moral life as an agriculturist in that part of the state. He was a Whig and
a Republican, but, before all, an ardent member of the Methodist Church, in which he was long a classleader and superintendent of Sunday school. James McMichael died in 1901, at the venerable age of ninety years, and his life had been such that he was not only a venerable man but a venerated member of the community. He was the father of a large family, and his wife died when his son, Henry S., was but two years of age.
The Mr. McMichael of this sketch is an able member of the Indiana bar, and has made a pronounced success of business and corpora- tion law, the standing which he had previously attained earning him appointment to his pres- ent position with the State Life Insurance Company. He is an active member of the Mar- ion County and State Bar Association, and of the Commercial and Marion Clubs, having served as secretary of the last named for one term. He has also been prominent in the af- fairs of the Knights of Pythias, being Past Chancellor of Lodge No. 470 and a member of Shambah Temple, D. O. K. K. He is a mem- ber of Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Indianapolis, and active in Sunday school work. In politics Mr. McMichael is a Republican, and, although he is always able to give a sound reason for the faith which he holds and to present it in cogent terms, he has never sought other than professional advance- ment.
J. GEORGE MUELLER. Among the sterling and aggressive business men who typically rep-, resent that progressive spirit that is making for the development of the larger and greater In- dianapolis is numbered J. George Mueller, a native son of the Indiana capital. His entire business career has been one of close and worthy identification with local interests and in connection with the wholesale drug business he has contributed materially to the commercial prestige of the city which has been the scene of his well ordered endeavors and the center of his interests and civic loyalty. He is secretary and treasurer of the Mooney-Mueller Drug Company, one of the stanch wholesale con- cerns of Indianapolis, and in the same has as his coadjutor William J. Mooney, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work.
J. George Mueller was born in Indianapolis on the 21st of June, 1860, and was the eleventh in order of birth of the fourteen children of Charles G. and Margaret (Heumann) Mueller, both of whom were born in Coburg, Germany,- the former on the 13th day.of May, 1822, and the latter on the 11th of June, 1824. Of the children seven `died in infancy and five sons and two daughters are now living. The mar-
t069
HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.
riage of the parents was solemnized in their native land, and there two of their children were born .. In 1852 they immigrated to Amer- ica, and after a long and weary voyage on a. sailing vessel of the type then in commission, they landed in the City of Baltimore, Mary- land, whence they soon afterward made their way to Connersville, Indiana, where the father became identified with a woolen mill, which he conducted for some time. He removed with his family to Indianapolis about the year 1856, and here he was engaged in the retail grocery trade until 1865, after which he had charge of the home of the Indianapolis Maennerchor and Turnverein, two of the oldest and most prominent German societies in the city, for a number of years. Thereafter he lived virtually retired until his death, which occurred on the 19th of May, 1883. Not one of the German citizens of Indianapolis was better known or held in higher esteem than was he, and his popularity had its basis in the sterling attri- butes of character that ever indicated the man as he was. He was a member of the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of Druids, and his religious faith was that of the Lutheran Church, as is that of his widow, who still resides in Indianapolis, where she is held in affectionate regard by all who know her. In politics Charles G. Mueller was a stanch supporter of the cause of the Demo- cratic party until the last few years of his life, during which he gave his allegiance to the Re- publican party. He was a man of strong men- tality and ahowed a lively interest in public affairs, in which connection he was well forti- fied in his convictions as to matters of political import.
J. George Mueller is indebted to a German and English private school of Indianapolis for his early educational discipline, which included instruction in both German and English, so that he commands not only the vernacular of his native land but also that of his ancestors. While still in school, as a boy of thirteen years, he became associated with the line of enter- prise in which he has since gained distinctive success and priority, for at that age he secured a position in a local drug store and began learning the business in its various scientific and practical details. Finally, when twenty years of age, he entered the Cincinnati Schools of Pharmacy and Chemistry, in the City of Cincinnati, in which he completed the pre- scribed course and was graduated. Thus ad- mirably fortified for the work of his profes- sion and business, he continued to be employed for some time in a leading retail drug store in Indianapolis, and in 1887 he became the pro- prietor of the business, which he thus continued
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.