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 21
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lieved could best serve the people for a given purpose. In this way he supported various Republican candidates between the years 1870 and 1905, when he again enlisted under Republican banners, for he had come to believe that the issues which were now dominant found their strongest champion in the grand old party.
Mr. Rankin was prominent in the affairs of both the local and state Grand Army organizations. He became one of the charter members of Morton Post, No. I, of Indiana, and never missed a state encampment from that time forward. He filled various offices in the local organiza- tion and served on many committees. Always interested in military af- fairs and especially in the welfare of his old comrades in arms, he was a champion in the movement for the erection of a monument to the soldiers and sailors of Vigo county and was prominent in the organiza- tion which for more than a quarter of a century has been endeavoring to raise a fund. On the Saturday prior to his demise he was one of three who went before the county commissioners, petitioning them to make an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars for the monument. The cause of his death resulted from another public-spirited work, which he was undertaking entirely uninfluenced by personal reasons. The city council opposed the plans of the Vandalia Railroad Company to make changes in their tracks without consulting the council. Mr. Rankin, how- ever, whose lumberyard bordered the tracks, saw the value of such a course, not only to the railroad but to the city as well, and on the after- noon of his demise visited Mr. Cowan, one of the aldermen, to present the matter to him. On returning, when walking on the railroad tracks, he stepped from one track to get away from an approaching freight train and failed to note the approach of a passenger train. The accident which resulted caused almost immediate death and he passed away on the 19th of December, 1907.
While not a member of the church, Mr. Rankin took the deepest interest in moral progress and was an active Sunday school worker. His life was noble, his actions manly and sincere and one of the strongest traits of his character was his spirit of helpfulness, manifest in his aid to the individual, to the city and to every movement which he deemed would prove of benefit. It is not from the few conspicuous deeds of life that the blessings chiefly come which make the world sweeter, better, happier ; but from the countless lowly ministries of the everydays, the little faithfulnesses that fill long years. And thus it was that Morton C. Rankin contributed in large measure to the interests of Terre Haute and her citizens. Such were his strong and commendable characteristics and such his activity that the news of his death brought a sense of personal bereavement to almost every resident of Terre Haute.
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COL. WILLIAM EDWARD MCLEAN .- In a history of those men whose lives have conferred honor and dignity upon the communities that have honored them it is imperative that mention be made of Col. William Edward McLean, who is everywhere spoken of in terms of admiration and respect. His life was so varied in its activity, so honorable in its purposes, so far-reaching and beneficial in its effects, that it became an integral part of the history of Terre Haute and also left an impress upon the annals of the state. He exerted an immeasurable influence on the city of his residence; in professional life as an able lawyer; in social circles by reason of a charming personality and unfeigned cor- diality, and in politics by reason of his public spirit and devotion to the general good, as well as his comprehensive understanding of the ques- tions affecting state and national welfare.
His life record began in Frederick City, Maryland, on the 12th of October, 1832. His parents were George and Amelia (Cookerly) Mc- Lean, both natives of Maryland and of English lineage. The father de- voted his life to general farming, and while he never attained wealth he manifested throughout his business career and in every relation such characteristics as won for him unqualified respect. He died in 1833 and the early death of his mother left Col. W. E. McLean an orphan. He was an only child and in 1841 he came to Terre Haute with his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Dorcas Cookerly, in whose home he was reared. This city at that time contained a population of only about three thousand, and with its development as the years passed by Colonel Mc- Lean was closely associated, bearing his full share in the labors that have brought about its present prosperity and progress.
Completing his education by graduation from the State University of Indiana as a member of the class of 1849, Colonel McLean then turned his attention to the profession of teaching and for a time was this closely associated with the development of the public school system of Vigo county. He regarded this, however, merely as an initial step to other professional labor and, with the desire to become an active member of the bar, he took up the study of law, and in the fall of 1852 was admitted to practice. He opened an office in Terre Haute and for many years figured as one of the ablest and most prominent represent- atives of the legal profession in this city. He did not give undivided attention to the law, however, but left the impress of his individuality upon varied interests. He became the editor of the Terre Haute Journal. which was then published weekly and was the only Democratic news- paper in the congressional district. For five years he edited the paper with eminent success and then withdrew from the field of journalism to concentrate his energies upon other interests. In the year 1854 he was
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elected prosecuting attorney for the Vigo county circuit court and as a conservator of the legal interests of the county displayed the utmost fidelity in the performance of his duties, combined with a comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and notable correctness in their application to the points in litigation.
Still higher official honors, however, awaited Colonel McLean, who, in 1860, was chosen by popular suffrage to represent his district in the state legislature. He served as a member of the house of representatives until September, 1861, when he resigned to accept the appointment from Governor Oliver P. Morton as lieutenant colonel of the Forty-third In- diana Volunteer Infantry, with authority to raise and organize that regi- ment. Before the end of the month the regiment was organized, it being the last one raised in Vigo county under President Lincoln's first call for three hundred thousand troops. In October, 1861, the Forty-third proceeded to the south and joined the command of General Crittenden in Kentucky. Upon the resignation of Col. George K. Steele in January, 1862, Lieutenant Colonel McLean was appointed to succeed him and retained the colonelcy and command of his regiment until it was mustered out in June, 1865, having served as colonel longer than any other officer of that rank from Indiana. He had the love and confidence of his troops to an unusual degree and inspired his men with much of his own bravery and loyalty. After being mustered out Colonel McLean was breveted brigadier-general for gallant and meritorious services. He was ever interested in the military affairs of the country and especially in the welfare of his old comrades in arms, and in 1903 he wrote and published a full and accurate history of the Forty-third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers.
When the country no longer needed his military aid Colonel McLean resumed the practice of law in Terre Haute and again was called to aid in framing the laws of the state, being once more elected to the legislature in 1866. While in the house he gave careful and discriminating con- sideration to every question which came up for settlement, served on some of the important committees and, associated with others, was in- strumental in securing an appropriation for the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, now one of the strongest educational institut- tions of the state. In 1872 Colonel McLean was the Greeley elector of his congressional district and at the Cincinnati national convention, which nominated the distinguished editor of the New York Tribune for presi- dent, he served as secretary. He was thereafter a stalwart supporter of Democratic principles and in 1876 he was his party's candidate for Con- gress. From President Cleveland he received appointment as first deputy commissioner of pensions in March, 1885, and creditably filled the office until the change in administration, when in June, 1889, he resigned.
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After resigning from that position Colonel McLean became prominent in the practice of law in Washington, D. C., but afterward returned to Terre Haute, having the deepest attachment for the city in which so many years of his life were passed. His interest in its welfare was mani- fest in many tangible ways. He co-operated in every movement calcu- lated to prove of public benefit and instituted many measures for the general good. He served on the city board of park commissioners and was a trustee of the Indiana State Normal School. He was also secre- tary of the Vigo Agricultural Society and became a director of the First National Bank. He contributed liberally toward the Union Hospital of Terre Haute and was interested in various plans for the amelioration of hard conditions of life for the unfortunate.
Colonel McLean was married in carly manhood to Miss Juliette Barnes, who died in 1889, and later he wedded Miss Jessica Cliver, who survives him. She is well known in the social circles of the city, where her many good qualities have won her favorable regard. Colonel McLean held membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and main- tained active relations with the soldiers of the Civil war through his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic and the Loyal Legion. Few lawyers have made a more lasting impression upon the bar of the state, both for legal ability of a high order and for the individuality of a personal character which impresses itself upon a community.
THEODORE W. BARHYDT, JR., president and manager of the Barhydt Theatre Company, who have charge of the Grand Opera House in Terre Haute, is a member of a prominent old Holland family. The American representative fought in the Continental army during the War of the Revolution, and thus Mr. Barhydt is entitled to his membership in the society of the Sons of the Revolution of Indiana, of which he served as a director in 1906. A. G. Barhydt, the father of Theodore, moved west- ward from his native town of Schenectady, New York, to Burlington, Iowa, in 1857, and there he was subsequently married to Miss Mary Copp, who was born in Dunkirk, New York, and had moved to Burling- ton in 1863. She died in 1882, but the husband is still living, a resident of Colorado. For many years he was a boot and shoe merchant of Burlington.
It was in that city that Theodore W. Barhydt. Jr .. was born, on the Ist of May. 1867, and there he grew to years of maturity and received his education in the city schools and Elliott's Business College. After the death of his mother in 1882 he made his home with his uncle, for whom he was named, T. W. Barhydt, a banker of Burlington, and in
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1884 entered the employ of the T. W. Barhydt boot and shoe house of that city. After two years there he entered his uncle's bank as a mes- senger boy, and during his five years' connection with that institution he worked his way upward from the humble position of a messenger boy to that of teller, but in 1891 he left the bank and in company with F. W. Chamberlin, now deceased, assumed the management of the Grand Opera House of Burlington. They soon afterward enlarged their circuit to include the cities of Ottumwa, Iowa, and Quincy and Peoria, Illinois, and in 1893 Mr. Barhydt moved to Peoria to take personal charge of their interests in that city. In 1897 the partnership was dissolved, and on the Ist of November of the same year he came from Peoria to Terre Haute to assume the management of the Grand Opera House here. The building had just been completed at that time, and it was under his management that the theater was opened to the public. He is also president of the Lyric Theatre Company, owners and operators of the Lyric and Variety theaters, and president of the Barhydt-Hoffler Company, operators of the Lyric theater at Danville, Illinois. Mr. Barhydt has membership re- lations with the Commercial Club, the Young Business Men's Club of Terre Haute, the Burlington (Iowa) Boating Club, of which he was the treasurer for six years, and with the fraternal order of Elks. He married, October 23, 1897. Henrietta Viola, the daughter of George and Minnie Schulheis, prominent old residents of Quincy, Illinois.
CARL KRIETENSTEIN has for almost a half century resided in Terre Haute, witnessing its transformation from a small town into the second city in importance in the state. He has, moreover, taken an active and helpful part in the work of general improvement and is recognized as one of the leading German residents of Terre Haute. Born in the father- land. the place of his nativity was Langenholtzhauser, Auf Vavanholtz. Lippe-Detmold, and his natal day October 10, 1837. He is the son of Gobst Henry and Wilhelmina ( Ploger) Krietenstein, both of whom were born in the place where their son's birth occurred. In his boyhood he attended the common schools of his native town and afterward learned the bricklayer's trade. The favorable reports concerning trade condi- tions and business opportunities in America led him to cross the Atlantic to the United States in the spring of 1858. He made his way at once to Freeport, Illinois, where he resided until the succeeding fall, when he went south to New Orleans and spent the winter in that city. In the spring of 1859 he came to Terre Haute and entered the employ of Mr. Beigler, for whom he worked as a gardener and teamster.
In February, 1860. Mr. Krietenstein married, after which he sought
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and secured employment on the section of the old Terre Haute & Rich- mond Railroad, working eleven hours out of the twenty-four for a dollar per day. He eagerly availed himself of every opportunity for advance- ment, however, and in the spring of 1861 he began braking on a local freight between Terre Haute and Indianapolis. It was necessary that . he remain over nights in the latter city, and he paid for his lodging and meals out of his wages of a dollar and a quarter a day and at the same time maintained his home in Terre Haute. When that train was laid off the next spring Mr. Krietenstein began work for Henry Hellman, a plasterer and cistern builder of this city, carrying a hod for a dollar per day. In the meantime, however, his adopted country became in- volved in Civil war and his loyalty to the Union cause found expression in his enlistment in August, 1861, as a member of Company E, Thirty- second Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. It was the first German regi- ment raised in Indiana and remained at the front for three years, Mr. Krietenstein participating in all of the battles and engagements in which the Thirty-second took part. He was mustered out of the service in September, 1864, receiving an honorable discharge.
Mr. Krietenstein went forthwith to his wife and home in Terre Haute and soon afterward secured a position as assistant baggage master and night watchman with the Vandalia Railroad, thus continuing until 1866. At that time he accepted a position as freight and money clerk with the Adams Express Company and later entered the service of the American Express Company, each change indicating a forward step in his business career. In November. 1868. he entered the employ of Barr. Gulick & Berry, proprietors of a drug store in the old Terre Haute Hotel building. He continued with that firm during its different changes for twelve years and seven months, during which time he thoroughly mastered the business in principle and detail and on the Ist of June, 1881, formed a partnership with F. L. Shinkle under the firm name of Shinkle & Krietenstein, opening a drug store at No. 641 Main street, where is now located the office of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. They called the new establishment the Beehive Drug Store. but in the succeeding autumn the firm of Shinkle & Krietenstein was dissolved and Mr. Krietenstein entered into partnership with Will W. Adamson under the firm name of Adamson & Krietenstein, thus carry- ing on business until 1885, when the junior partner became sole pro- prietor. The following year he removed to the corner of Fourth and Ohio streets and in 1896 bought the brick business block on the south- west corner of Fourth and Cherry streets. Taking up his quarters in that establishment, he has since engaged extensively in the drug. paint
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and glass business, carrying a large line of goods and receiving a very gratifying patronage. His son George is associated with him in business at the present time and the firm constitutes one of the strong commercial organizations of the city. Connected with the drug and paint trade for forty years, Mr. Krietenstein is thoroughly familiar with the demands of the public and his earnest desire to please his patrons, com- bined with irreproachable business integrity, has gained him place with the most successful merchants of Terre Haute.
As stated, Mr. Krietenstein was married in early manhood, the lady of his choice being Miss Mary Glanzer, a native of Hessen, Germany, who came to the United States in 1858. They have two sons, George W. and William L., and a daughter, Minnie, now the wife of Walter A. Haley, a salesman with Thomas & Schloss, clothiers of Terre Haute.
Mr. Krietenstein has long been prominent in the German Benevolent Society, of which he has been a member since 1860 and an officer contin- uously since 1865. He was the first secretary of the widows' and orphans' fund, next financial secretary and afterward treasurer, serving in the last named position for twenty years. He has been a member of the Odd Fel- lows Lodge since the seventies, and is a past commander of Morton post, Grand Army of the Republic. Prominent in that military organization, he has served as aid-de-camp to the commander and chief of the Depart- ment of Indiana. These associations indicate much of the character of his interests, showing his devotion to those organizations which tend to ameliorate the hard conditions of life for the unfortunate. In politics he is a Republican, having long supported the party. He has prospered in his business and now has many interests in commercial and industrial circles. He is today president of the Central Manufacturing Company, while in other enterprises he has investments which are bringing to him substantial benefits annually. He is a notable example of the young man of foreign birth who, embracing opportunities offered by the new world, steadily works his way upward and in legitimate business lines gains not only gratifying success but also wins an honored name.
GEORGE W. KRIETENSTEIN, one of Terre Haute's prominent young business men, is associated with his father, Carl Krietenstein, in the drug, paint and glass business in Terre Haute, his native city. He was born on the 4th of July, 1871, and after completing his education in the city schools he engaged in business with his father and has so continued to the present time. Early realizing that all honorable success depends upon close application, unfaltering industry, good management and a high standard of commercial ethics, he has so directed his labors that he has
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contributed in substantial measure to the prosperity which is attending the firm.
Mr. Krietenstein is also a prominent figure in political circles, known not only locally, but in the state as well. He is recognized as one of the Republican leaders of this district and in 1900 was district manager of the Lincoln League, a state organization. He was also a member of its executive committee and is now its treasurer. At one time he was president of the Thompson Club, also a political organization, and he possesses that keen discernment and ability in co-ordinating forces so necessary in a political leader. In 1901 he was appointed by Governor Durbin as custodian of the state house, which position he filled until April, 1903, when he resigned. The same year Governor Durbin ap- pointed him deputy state oil inspector and he was re-appointed by Governor Hanly, so that he is now filling the position at the present time. During the administration of Governor Mount, Mr. Krietenstein served on his staff with the rank of major. He is widely known among the Sons of Veterans and served for three years as treasurer of the Department of Indiana and was state commander in 1901 and 1902. He is well known as an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks and the Maccabees. Local interests receive his co-operation in large measure and he gives his endorsement and aid to many movements for the city's welfare promulgated by the Commercial Club, of which he is a member, having served on a number of its important committees. He is likewise a member of the German Benevolent Society.
Mr. Krietenstein was married to Miss Minnie Schirathin, a daughter of Jacob Schirathin, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and unto them have been born a daughter and son: Bertha, born in 1894, and Carl Mount, in 1898. The parents are well known socially in this city, where Mr. Krietenstein has spent his entire life. His strong personality and marked individuality have made him a recognized force in fraternal, political and business circles. Strong and positive in his Republicanism, his party fealty is not grounded on partisan prejudice and he enjoys the respect and confidence of all of his associates, irrespective of party. He is a believer in that movement toward higher politics which is common to both parties and which constitutes the most hopeful political sign of the period and at the same time in his political work he labors for practical results and not for glittering generalities.
RICHARD VOORHEES NEWTON .- Terre Haute numbers among her able lawyers Richard V. Newton, who is a representative of a family who have
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been identified with the annals of Indiana's history since an early period in its development. In the early year of 1834 there journeyed from South- hampton county, Virginia, William Newton, the grandfather of Richard Voorhees, who, with his family, was bound for Parke county, Indiana. The journey was made with an ox cart, the male members of the little party walking most of the distance and on arriving in Parke county they established their home on a farm in Florida township. They were numbered among the early pioneers of this part of the state, and there William Newton spent the remainder of his life.
One of the sons of this Indiana pioneer was Richard N. Newton, who followed farming as a life occupation, and died on his farm in Parke county on November 12, 1898. By his marriage to Amanda A. Horne, two of the oldest families of that county were united. Her father, William Horne, established his home within its borders, in Florida township, at an early period in its history, but later in life he moved to Missouri, and died there at an extreme old age. Mrs. Newton died some years before her husband, in 1889, and both were members of the Christian church.
It was on their old home farm in Florida township, Parke county, that Richard Voorhees Newton was born, his birthday being the 22d of June, 1866, and in the old homestead there he grew to manhood's estate and received his early education in the public schools of Florida township. From the public schools he entered the Central Normal College at Ladoga, Indiana, and later was a student in the Indiana State Normal School, at Terre Haute. During the completion of his educational training he taught in the schools of Florida township for two years, and in 1890 was a mem- ber of the graduating class from the old Terre Haute Commercial College. For a time after his graduation he filled one or two clerical positions in this city, and then began his legal studies in the office of Rhodes & Wil- liams, entering their office on the 28th day of December, 1890, and he continued his reading under their able instructions until the beginning of the school year of 1891, entering the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and graduating with its class of 1893, with the degree of Bachelor of Law. Mr. Newton was now well equipped with an excellent literary and professional training with which to begin the battle of life for himself, and he returned to the office of his old preceptors, Rhodes & Williams, where he practiced from that time until his removal on the 10th day of May, 1903, to his present offices, rooms 14 and 15 Naylor-Cox building, corner of Wabash avenue and Fourth street. His ability as a lawyer has won him marked success and high judicial honors, and he is accorded a prominent position at the Vigo county bar.
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