USA > Indiana > Vigo County > Terre Haute > Greater Terre Haute and Vigo County : closing the first century's history of city and county, showing the growth of their people, industries and wealth > Part 15
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Samuel K. Duvall was reared as a farm boy, working in the fields through the summer months and attending the public schools in the winter seasons. He enjoyed, too, the pleasures and sports common at that day. Further educational advantages were afforded him, and in 1886 he was graduated from the Indiana Normal School. Becoming im- bued with a desire to enter professional circles, he resolved to make the practice of law his life work and to this end matriculated in the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he completed the full course by graduation in 1891. The same year he was admitted to the bar and has since been an active follower of his profession. He first formed a partnership with W. J. Whittaker, under the firm name of Duvall & Whittaker, a connection that was continued until the junior partner was elected probate judge. Mr. Duvall then practiced alone until November, 1907, when he was joined by Fred W. Beal. in forming the present law firm of Duvall & Beal. He has con- ducted important litigation in the federal and state courts with gratify- ing success. He has much natural ability, but is withal a hard student and is never contented until he has mastered every detail of his cases. He believes in the maxim "there is no excellence without labor." and
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follows it closely. He is never surprised by some unexpected discovery by an opposing lawyer, for in his mind he weighs every point and forti- fies himself as well for defense as for attack. He convinces by his con- cise statements of law and facts rather than by word painting, and so high is the respect for his legal ability and integrity that his assertions are seldom questioned seriously in court.
In 1892 Mr. Duvall was married to Miss Lucretia E. Moore, a daughter of William Moore, of Linton township, this county. She died in October. 1905, leaving a daughter, Lois M. Fraternally Mr. Duvall is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Uniform Rank and is thoroughly in sympathy with the principles of the order. He has not sought to figure prominently in public life aside from his profession, but gives undivided attention to his law practice and the interests of his clients, with the result that he has made for himself a creditable place at the Terre Haute bar.
HARVEY V. JONES, superintendent of police of Terre Haute, was born in Owen county, Indiana, June 17, 1861, a son of Hazle K. and Rebecca (Close) Jones, both of whom were born in Ohio, the father in Tuscarawas county, and the mother in Carroll county. They were both young when they came with their respective parents to Indiana, and they were married in Patricksburg, Owen county. Hazle K. Jones was fatally injured May 27. 1868, while coupling cars at the old Planet furnace, six miles northeast of Brazil, and died on the day following the accident. Although he was reared on a farm, the most of his life after attaining mature years was spent in public works, in mill machinery, etc., and he was but thirty years of age at the time of his death. Mrs. Jones is now living in Terre Haute, having reached the Psalmist's span of three score years and ten, for she was born on the 17th of September, 1838. Of their family of three children only two, a son and a daughter, are now living.
The boyhood days of Harvey V. Jones were spent on a farm in Vigo county, for his mother had come to this county with her father in 1871. but when he was twenty-three young Jones left the farm and worked at different places at the carpenter's trade for a number of years. In 1890 he came to reside permanently in Terre Haute, and eight years aft- erward, on the 22d of January, 1898, was made a member of the Terre Haute police department as a patrolman. For four years he was also the desk sergeant. but retiring from that position again became a patrol- man for ten months, and was then promoted to patrol sergeant. On the 3d of September, 1906, he became the superintendent of police of Terre Haute, his present office.
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Mr. Jones married Sophrona Z. Fox, who was born and reared in Riley township, Vigo county, and is a daughter of Michael and Mary E. Fox. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Marrilla, died in less than a month after her birth. Mr. Jones is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Amico Lodge, No. 707, and Terre Haute En- campment, No. 307; the Knights of Pythias, Oriental Lodge, No. 81; Social Lodge, No. 86, Free and Accepted Masons ; the Modern Wood- men, Terre Haute Camp, No. 8800, and the Rebekahs, Alma Lodge, No. 568.
JAMES D. BIGELOW, the prominent real estate man of Terre Haute, and the pioneer of "Insurance and Real Estate Row," as South Seventh street has become known, is a representative of that famous old Con- necticut family which numbers in its ranks that New England darling of the Revolution, brave Israel Putnam. The General was the maternal great-grandfather of our subject, and his grandfather on the paternal side was Col. Guy Bigelow, also of Revolutionary fame. Mr. Bigelow himself was born in Colchester, Connecticut, on the 9th of September, 1856, son of Asa R. and Ann P. ( Brown ) Bigelow. The old-world origin of the family is England, the American ancestors coming to New England in early colonial times. Asa R. Bigelow, the father, followed the traditional occupation of farming in Connecticut, and died within the limits of that state in 1904, at the age of seventy-six. His wife had preceded him to her rest in 1898, aged sixty-seven years.
James D. Bigelow was reared and educated in his native town of Colchester, and in 1874, at the age of eighteen, located at Terre Haute, entering the law and insurance office of Boudinot & Brown. He was admitted to the bar in 1879. In 1881, following the death of Mr. Brown, he became associated with the surviving partner, and two years later, when Mr. Boudinot retired to become insurance inspector, he succeeded to the business. For ten years he maintained the office in the old Opera House block, corner of Fourth and Main streets, and in 1890 removed to No. 22 South Seventh street, at which time his was the only office of its kind on the thoroughfare which has since received the distinctive name of "Insurance and Real Estate Row." In 1903 he transferred his busi- ness home to the present location, corner of Seventh and Ohio streets. Mr. Bigelow's business is firmly established and expanding in a substan- tial manner. He also takes a keen interest in progressive organizations of a semi-public character, such as the Commercial Club of Terre Haute, and is closely identified with the Masons, Odd Fellows, Elks and Na- tional Union fraternities.
Mr. Bigelow's wife was formerly Miss Kate Krout, daughter of
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Robert K. Krout, an old and leading citizen of Crawfordsville, and sister to Kate K. and Caroline Krout, well known writers of Indiana. Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. James D. Bigelow: Ann, who graduated from an eastern institute and for two years has been a student of music in Germany, and Jane, a graduate of Butler College, and now a student at the Chicago University.
EDWIN R. BRYANT, freight agent of the Pennsylvania Lines at Terre Haute, and one of the oldest and best known railroad men of the city, is of New England birth and a representative of an old family of that section of the country. He was born in Enfield, Massachusetts, on the 5th of June. 1839. his parents being Oliver and Susan P. (Richards) Bry- ant, natives of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, respectively, the father being a cousin of William Cullen Bryant, the poet. Oliver Bryant was engaged in mercantile pursuits at Enfield, Massachusetts, for a long pe- riod, and in 1851 removed to Lawrence, that state, where for a long period he manufactured machine cards for cotton and woolen manufacturers. His wife died in Lawrence in 1858. Later in life, after he had retired from active business pursuits, he removed to Ohio, making his home in Cincinnati until his demise in 1865.
Edwin R. Bryant was reared in Enfield and in Lawrence, mastering the branches of learning which usually constitute the public school cur- riculum. In the latter city he also took up the study of telegraphy, which he followed as a profession for a number of years, becoming quite expert in that field of endeavor. When the Civil war was inaugurated he was an operator for George B. McClellan, and when that distinguished officer later became commander of the Army of the Potomac Mr. Bryant was attached to his staff as telegrapher, in which connection he did ex- pert service in sending and receiving the dispatches indicating the move- ments of the army and other important war business. He remained on General McClellan's staff until 1862, when he was disabled and retired from the service.
On returning to the north Mr. Bryant entered the service of the Vandalia Railroad Company at Indianapolis as train dispatcher, and from that time to the present, covering a period of more than forty-five years, has been continuously in the employ of the Pennsylvania company as one of its most trusted, capable and efficient representatives. He came to Terre Haute in 1865 and has since been freight agent at this point.
Mr. Bryant was married in Terre Haute, in 1864, to Miss Rose Ross, a daughter of the late Harry Ross, one of Terre Haute's old-time leading business men and prominent citizens. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bryant was born one son, Harry, whose birth occurred in 1870, but who died in 1903.
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Mr. Bryant is a member of the Commercial Club and is connected with the board of trustees of the Rose Dispensary. He is also an Elk and has attained the Knight Templar degree in Masonry. The craft finds him an exemplary representative, who follows its teachings concerning brotherly kindness and mutual helpfulness. No higher testimonial of fidelity to duty could be given than the fact that for almost a half century he has been in the employ of one company, doing faithfully and well the duties that devolve upon him in this connection.
CHARLES E. TEMPLE is one of Terre Haute's well known citizens and the superintendent of the Central Manufacturing Company. He was born in Washington county, New York, April 30, 1846, a son of Joseph and Emeline (Norton) Temple. Joseph Temple moved from his native state of Vermont to New York when a young man, while in 1857 he left there for Beaver Dam, Pennsylvania, in 1860 became a resident of Canton, Ohio, in 1863 removed to Oregon and Wisconsin, and in 1864 came to Terre Haute. His residence in this city covered a number of years, and he passed away in death in 1880, aged fifty-four years. His first wife, the mother of Charles E. Temple, died in young womanhood, and he married for his second wife Josephine Frazier.
The school days of Charles E. Temple were spent in his native state of New York, and when he had attained the age of sixteen he began learning the pattern maker's trade under his father's directions, and with him he came to Terre Haute in 1864 and began as an engineer in the round house. After a year there he accepted a position with the Eagle Iron Works, and after three years had passed he became the fireman of an engine in the city fire department. Next he became the general super- intendent of the Spoke and Wheel factory. In 1883 he formed a part- nership with Sidney and Walter Temple and organized the Central Manu- facturing Company, of which he was made the superintendent.
Mr. Temple married, January 13, 1869, Mary, a daughter of Elisha Baker, and she was born in Vigo county, Indiana, October 11, 1850. Their three children are Frank E., Floyd L. and Nellie.
Floyd L. Temple, the secretary and manager of the Temple Laundry Company of Terre Haute, was born in this city July 10, 1878, and re- ceived his education in its high schools and the old Isabell College. During several years after the completion of his education he was with the Central Manufacturing Company, while for a year he served as the manager of Hunter's Laundry in Chicago, and then for six years he was with M. K. Weems & Company as the manager of their laundry at Springfield, Illinois. Returning to Terre Haute in July, 1907, he turned his attention to the installing of the Temple plant, of which he is the
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promoter and for whom it is named. Mr. Temple is a member of the Elks fraternity.
The Temple Laundry Company of Terre Haute was organized in April, 1907, with the following gentlemen as its officers: Levi G. Hughes, president : Frank E. Temple, vice president ; Frank P. Brink- man, secretary, and Floyd L. Temple, secretary and general manager. The company began the erection of their building on the Ist of April, 1907, and on the Ist of October of the same year the building was com- pleted and the machinery installed ready for operation. The factory is located at 703 Lafayette avenue. and is a two-story concrete block in the form of an L, one hundred and sixty-six feet long, fifty-eight feet wide in the rear and thirty-eight feet front. The lower floor is devoted to flat or family work and the second to finished articles, and constant em- ployment is furnished to between forty-five and fifty employes. The plant is equipped with the very latest and most approved laundry ma- chinery, and at the present time the company confine themselves to laundry work only. They have their own water works, their own elec- tric light plant, and their hand ironing is done by electric irons. All work is delivered by wagons, and they have no city agencies, the com- pany thus dealing directly with the people. This is one of the leading industries of Terre Haute, and its promoter, Floyd L. Temple, is rapidly winning for himself a name and place high on the roll of its prominent business men.
HENRY CLAY HANNA .-- The business record as well as the official record of Henry C. Hanna are alike commendable, for in both relations he has been true to his trusts, and has had the honor of serving as the president of the board of commissioners of Vigo county, and is still a member of that board. He is a native son of Indiana, born near Wave- land. in Montgomery county, March 23. 1844, a son of William and Mary D. (Watson) Hanna, both of whom were born in Kentucky. the father in Shelby and the mother in Crab Orchard. William Hanna be- came a citizen of Indiana during his early manhood and entered land about Waveland, where he afterward made his home. Both he and his wife are now deceased.
It was on his father's farm there that Henry Clay Hanna was born and attained manhood's estate, receiving his education in the Waveland Academy. In August, 1862, soon after the tocsin of war had sounded over the land, he enlisted in Company B, Seventy-eighth Indiana Regi- ment of Volunteer Infantry, but shortly after he had been mustered in he was discharged on account of illness, and for ten years following the close of the war he was an invalid. During that time he opened a mer-
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cantile business in Waveland, but was forced to abandon it on account of continued ill health, and from that city he went to Parke county and opened a livery and feed barn at Rockville. During a period of seven or eight years he was in business there, but at the expiration of that time he went to Sullivan, Indiana, but later returned to Rockville, and after four years went to Danville, Illinois. From there, in 1888, he came to Terre Haute and purchased and operated for fourteen years a transfer business, but during this time he was also engaged in the horse and mule trade, and is now the second oldest dealer in that line in the state of Indiana. He sold his transfer business at the close of the four- teen years. But while participating actively in the business life of Terre Haute and Vigo county he has at the same time been conspicuous in its political councils. In 1904 he was elected one of the county's com- missioners for a three years' term. As above stated he was made the president of the board.
Mr. Hanna married Sophrona E. Russell, a daughter of J. W. and Lucinda Russell, who were born in Kentucky, but are now deceased. The two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Hanna are Scott Clay and Hubert Russell. They have lost three children: Mamie Clay, dying at the age of nine years ; Clare, a son, when two years old, and Mabel E., at the age of two and one-half years. Mr. Hanna is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Masonic fraternity.
PROFESSOR JOHN SHERMAN HUBBARD, superintendent of the schools of Vigo county, is prominently before the people as an instructor, and his ability has rapidly forced him to the front as an educator. He was well fitted for the position he now holds by an excellent training in his earlier life, passing from the district schools to the graded schools of Odon, Indiana, where his parents had established their home, and after graduating from the high school he spent two years at DePauw Uni- versity, of Greencastle. From there he entered the Indiana State Nor- mal at Terre Haute and graduated, and in 1885 began teaching in Madi- son township, Daviess county, Indiana. Thus his first educational labors were in the county of his nativity, for he was born on a farm in that county, July 31, 1864, a son of William and Harriet M. (Laughlin) Hubbard, natives, respectively, of Kentucky and Indiana, and both are now deceased.
After teaching in Daviess county and other locations Mr. Hubbard came to Terre Haute in 1901 to take charge of the Burnett school, and from there, after two years, he went to the Highland school in Harrison township, where he remained for two and a half years, and in the mean- time this school had become a part of Terre Haute. In 1907 he was
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promoted to the Hulman school in the city, but after two months there he was elected the superintendent of schools for Vigo county to fill out the unexpired term of C. F. Grosjean. At the following election in June, 1907. he was re-elected for a full term of four years.
Professor Hubbard married Miss Emma J. McCoy, who was born in Washington. Daviess county. Indiana, a daughter of Hugh and Eliza J. McCoy, and their children are Donald M., Walter R., Hattie H. and Edith E. The second born. Walter R., died in infancy.
FELIX F. BLANKENBAKER, attorney-at-law with offices in the Naylor- Cox block, Terre Haute, is one of the city's promising young lawyers, who in a few years only has established a reputation which promises well for the future. He is a representative of a prominent old family of the Old Dominion state of Virginia, from whence came Felix Blankenbaker. the great-grandfather of Felix F., to Indiana in an early day. He estab- lished his home in Harrison county and reared a large family of children, among whom was Felix Blakenbaker, Jr., who moved from his native county of Harrison to Clark county, Illinois, in 1851. entering land there and there also spending the remainder of his life. His son and the father of Felix F. was Samuel C. Blakenbaker, who was also born in Harrison county, Indiana, and was reared on his father's farm. He served three years in the Civil war as a member of Company G, One Hundred and Twenty-third Regiment, Wilder's celebrated brigade, and yet he main- tains his home in Clark county, Illinois. He married Samantha J. Athey, born in Licking county, Ohio, in 1844.
Among their children was Felix F. Blankenbaker, who was born in Clark county, Illinois, March 2, 1868, and was reared on his father's farm there. In 1888 he graduated from the Martinsville (Illinois) high school, and soon afterward was elected a justice of the peace in that city. It was during his tenure of that office that he first began reading law, and his legal studies were further pursued in the Northern Illinois College of Law, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and following this took a post-graduate course in the same institution and was given the degree of Master of Laws. In 1901 Mr. Blankenbaker came to Terre Haute to engage in the practice of law, and during the time which has since intervened he has served as counsel in many important cases and in the majority of them was victorious. He has never lost a suit for personal injury damages. He won an important damage suit against the American Car and Foundry Company, of this city, also one of the same nature against the city of Terre Haute, but his most recent and probably his most important triumph in this line was the case against the Big Four Rail-
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road Company in the noted Sanford explosion of powder on their lines, in which he was pitted against leading Indianapolis counsel. Mr. Blank- enbaker has exceptional talents as an orator, and is a convincing and effective speaker before the jury. He is a member of the Sons of Veterans, the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias fraternities, and of the Methodist Episcopal church.
He has been twice married, wedding first, Alice Lafferty, who was born in Martinsville, Illinois, a daughter of J. F. Lafferty, and their only child is a son Ralph. The wife and mother died on the 22d of May, 1902, when only twenty-six years of age, and Mr. Blankenbaker subsequently married Reba, a daughter of William Secrist, of Terre Haute.
J. IRVING RIDDLE is conducting a prosperous business in fire insur- ance and real estate at Terre Haute, and is widely known in these fields, even outside the state of Indiana. His birth occurred upon a farm near the little city of Wauseon, Fulton county, Ohio, on the 7th of September, 1847. his parents being James S. and Matilda (Siddons) Riddle. The family ancestry is traced to Scotch and English stock, the paternal fore- fathers living at Riddell Castle, on their estate near Edinburgh, Scotland.
Mr. Riddle was reared upon the home farm and received his edu- cation in the Wauseon public schools and at Williams Center Academy. In his boyhood days he worked upon the home farm, and later taught school, as well as entered the field of fire insurance. Finally he became agent at Wauseon for the Phenix Fire Insurance Company of Brooklyn New York, and gradually advanced to the supervisorship over ten coun- ties. In 1873 he removed to Terre Haute, became associated with W. B. Wharton in the insurance and real estate business, and following the death of his partner became sole proprietor. In 1878 the firm of Riddle, Hamilton & Company was formed. and in 1893 the Riddle-Hamilton Com- pany was incorporated, with Mr. Riddle as president. In January, 1908, the Doak-Riddle-Hamilton Company was organized to succeed Riddle, Hamilton & Company, with a capital of $25,000 and Mr. Riddle president of the new corporation.
In 1874 Mr. Riddle was appointed Indiana agent for the Phenix Fire Insurance Company of Brooklyn, and has held that position ever since. its responsibilities and importance having vastly increased during the in- tervening thirty-four years. He has charge of more than 500 agents, and his supervisory duties now keep him on the road the greater portion of the time. In his capacity of state manager he has manifested marked ability in controlling, assimilating and shaping into unity the elements which constitute a compact and at the same time an elastic business of
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this character. and has made the Indiana territory of the company one of the most productive in the United States. He is regarded as an authority on all matters connected with fire insurance, makes frequent contributions to insurance periodicals. and is one of the best known men in the field of the middle west. An illustration of his wide acquaintance with those in the same line of business is his collection of photographs representing fire insurance men throughout the country. It really approaches the dig- nity of a gallery, and is undoubtedly the finest collection of the kind in the world.
On the 7th of September. 1873. at Detroit, Michigan, occurred the marriage of Mr. Riddle and Miss Fannie M. Joy, a native of St. Law- rence county, New York. They have three living children-Herbert W .. Vinita B. and Don C. The parents hold membership in the Christian church, in which Mr. Riddle has served as an official for many years and been a constant and helpful worker. He is also an earnest and worthy Mason. In manner he is a congenial. cordial, social gentleman, who wins friends by his attractive qualities and firmly retains them by his sterling traits of substantial ability, honesty and practical helpfulness.
WILLIAM F. CARMACK, attorney-at-law and a prominent leader of the Republican party in Terre Haute, was born in Douglas county, Illinois, January 18, 1862. He is a son of Isaac A. and Minerva (Howell) Carmack. The father, a native of East Tennessee, was a son of Isaac Carmack, and in the year 1856 became a resident of Douglas county, Illinois, where his remaining days were passed. His wife was a native of Eugene, Vermilion county, Indiana. Their son. W. F. Carmack, was born and reared upon the home farm and acquired his early education in the common schools. Later he continued his studies in the public schools of Danville, Illinois, and in the Terre Haute Commercial Col- lege. He came to this city in 1882 and accepted a position in the office of the county assessor under Frank Armstrong. Later he be- came deputy county treasurer under C. A. Ray, and afterwards was first deputy recorder under Levi Hammerly. In the meantime he had become imbued with a desire to practice law and to this end became a student in the office and under the direction of Hugh Roquett, an attorney of Terre Haute. After thorough preliminary reading he successfully passed the examination which secured his admission to the bar in 1898. He has since engaged in the practice of his profession in Terre Haute and although advancement in law is proverbially slow, he has yet made a good record in building up a clientage and now conducts a law business of considerable importance. He is likewise prominent in political circles. His early official service and connection with those who were political
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