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 6
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The sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. David Watson were as follows: Sarah, born in New York city, married Macelroy B. Glenn, and is now a widow, residing in Terre Haute.
John C., born February 4, 1857, attended the public schools and as a boy worked with his father, becoming his partner in business and succeeding to the business upon his father's death. He then conducted the enterprise alone until the firm of D. W. Watson's Sons Company was formed and he is now senior partner. He is recognized as one of the leading citizens and business men of Terre Haute and has a wide acquaintance both socially and in the trade. Fraterally he is connected with the Masons.
David L. Watson was born March 11, 1859, pursued a public school education and afterward learned the trade of plumbing and gasfitting with his father, in whose employ he remained for a number of years. In 1878 he went to Texas and for four or five years was engaged in the stock business in that state. He afterward spent several years at different points in New Mexico and returned to Terre Haute to locate permanently in 1886. He became office man for the D. W. Watson's Sons Company and had charge of that department until 1896, when he assumed the duties of the office of county clerk of Vigo county, to which he had been chosen at the previous regular election in 1894. He filled the office for one term and then was re-elected in 1898, serving out the last term, after which he retired from the office in 1904, as he had en- tered it-with the confidence and good will of all concerned, for he had proven himself a trustworthy and capable official. In 1904 he became largely interested in land in North Dakota, purchasing an entire town- ship in that state. He disposed of this, however, in 1906, after. which
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he engaged in the oil and gas business, organizing the Watford Oil & Gas Company, of which he is secretary, treasurer and general manager. This company drilled the second hole in the Illinois oil field. To this business he now gives his entire attention, being only a silent partner in the D. W. Watson's Sons Company. He is one of the most prominent members of the Elks fraternity in Indiana. He organized the local lodge, served as secretary of the lodge for a number of years, was twice exalted ruler and was also deputy grand exalted ruler, of the state of Indiana. for two years. He is now chairman of the finance committee of the local lodge and a member of the committee having in charge the erection of the new Elks club room. Mr. Watson was a candidate for grand secre- tary of the grand lodge of Elks at the national convention held in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, in 1904. and after a canvass of only a week's time was defeated for that position by only two votes, his large following indicat- ing his personal popularity in the order.
Lester W. Watson, the next member of the family, was born at the southwest corner of Third and Mulberry streets, in Terre Haute, July 10, 1864. He attended the public schools, then entered his father's shop, where he mastered the trade, and in 1886 located in Vincennes, Indiana, where he engaged in the plumbing and heating business for two years. Returning to Terre Haute, he became a member of the D. W. Watson's Sons Company and has so continued to the present time. In 1906 the company opened an elaborate showroom on South Seventh street, of which he has charge. He married Miss Mame Whomhart, a daughter of J. M. Whomhart, of Terre Haute, and they have one daughter, Josephine. The name of Watson has been closely associated with the history of Terre Haute for more than a half century and has ever been a synonym for business enterprise and integrity, for public-spirited citi- zenship and for social worth.
WILLIAM H. JACKSON is the vice president, treasurer and manager of the Valentine Company, wholesale meat dealers. From an early. period in his life he has been prominently identified with the live stock business, buying, feeding and growing, and while thus engaged he prob- ably shipped more stock to the large markets than any other man in Vigo county. Since 1901 he has maintained his home in Terre Haute, and was engaged in the retail meat business until, with Harvey Valen- tine, he organized, in 1904, the Valentine Company, wholesale meat dealers, and he then retired from the retail business. At the formation of the Valentine Company he was made its vice president, treasurer and manager, and his wise management and business ability have contrib- uted not a little to the success of the undertaking. He has likewise been
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prominently interested in the public affairs of his community, and in 1904 was elected a member of the West Terre Haute council, but resigned his position after a year and eight months in order to devote more time to his business affairs.
Mr. Jackson is a native son of Vigo county, born in the township of Riley, August 3, 1867, a son of Charles D. and Lavina (Hickson) Jackson, who were early pioneers in the township. Charles D. Jackson, born in Dearborn county, Indiana, August 18, 1836, was a son of Enoch and Betsey Jackson, who came to Indiana from Ohio in an early day. Enoch Jackson died here in 1837 almost immediately after locating in Riley township, and his widow then moved to Clay county, Indiana, where her death occurred in 1879. Charles D. Jackson followed farming and stock raising throughout his entire business life. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jackson resided in the village of Riley. She was a member of a family who came from Ohio to Indiana during an early period of its develop- ment. and was born in this state on the 9th of November, 1844. The name of her father, John Hickson, is enrolled among the early pioneers of Riley township. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson became the parents of the following children: Glenora, deceased; Anna, the wife of A. Free- lander, of Terre Haute : William H .; Mary, the wife of J. S. Whittacre, of Riley : Minnie Gertrude, the wife of C. S. Murray: Lizzie, the wife of Dr. C. M. DuPuy, and Bertha, all of the village of Riley.
William H. Jackson remained on the farm in Vigo county until his removal to Terre Haute in 1901, and in the meantime he had become extensively interested in the stock business. It was in 1886 that he first began dealing in live stock, and from a grower and shipper he has gradually worked his way into the wholesale meat business, and is now at the head of one of the leading establishments in his line in the city. He is a member of the Masonic, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias fraternities, and votes with the Republican party.
Mr. Jackson has been twice married, first wedding Mary Edna Foulk, a daughter of David and Isabella C. (Fagan) Foulk, and a native of Clay county, Indiana. She died on the 4th of October, 1896, leaving two sons: Guy G., born March 22, 1890, and Crawford, born November 8, 1892. On the 10th of November, 1897, Mr. Jackson mar- ried Olivine Florence Ray, who was born in Vigo county and is a daughter of John and Martha Meighan. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are members of the Methodist church.
SAMUEL T. GREENBERG .- In this age of colossal enterprise and marked intellectual energy, the prominent and successful men are those whose abilities, persistency and courage lead them into large undertak-
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ings and to assume the responsibilities and labors of leaders in their re- spective vocations. During the past few years Terre Haute has grad- ually but surely forged to the front as one of the most prominent manu- facturing centers of Indiana, and among the men who have given the city prestige in this direction must be placed the Greenbergs, father and son, the one the vice president of the A. L. Greenberg Iron Company. and the other its secretary and treasurer.
The latter, Samuel T. Greenberg, is one of the representative young business men of the city, but was born in Buffalo, New York, in August, 1875. He received his educational training in the public schools of Indian- apolis and Terre Haute, and at the early age of fifteen he entered the clothing store of Thorman & Schloss, of Terre Haute, as a salesman, and remained with that house for fourteen years. In 1901 he entered upon his present business career as a partner of his brother-in-law. Jacob R. Finkelstein. In 1907 the two incorporated their large business as the A. L. Greenberg Iron Company, with Samuel T. Greenberg as its secretary and treasurer. His success in the business world stands forth in its own exemplification, and he wields a potent influence in further- ing the interests of many of the city's leading industrial institutions and enjoys a wide acquaintance and marked popularity here. He is a stock- holder of the Linton Ice and Cold Storage Company, of the Linton Opera House Company, of the Southern Indiana Railroad, of the Phoenix Building and Realty Company, of the Kettle Creek Coal Company and the Riley Oil Company. He is a member of the Phoenix Club.
A. L. Greenberg, the vice president of the A. L. Greenberg Iron Company, and a well known business man of Terre Haute. is a native son of Poland, where he was born February 11, 1846. He left his native land in 1867 for England, and from there, in 1869, came to the United States, making his way from the harbor of New York to the city of Syracuse, where he spent about nine months. During the next two years he was located in Detroit, Michigan, from whence he returned to the state of New York, but after a residence of about fifteen months in Buffalo he came to Indianapolis, Indiana, and from that city to Terre Haute in 1886. His next removal was to Brazil, Indiana, but after five years there he returned to Terre Haute, and in 1896 he went to Quincy. Illinois, and was engaged in business there for a year and a half. Fol- lowing this he was for three years at Sullivan, Indiana, and it was at the close of this period that he returned to Terre Haute to reside perma- nently. During all of his various residences, with the exception of the time spent at Syracuse, New York, he was a jewelry salesman, but since locating permanently in this city he has been engaged along the clothing and iron lines.
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Mr. Greenberg married in Detroit, in 1872, Rachael Tilser, who was also born in Poland, and there have been born to them four children : Louis L., engaged in the millinery business at 515 Wabash avenue, Terre Haute; Samuel T., secretary and treasurer of the Greenberg Iron Com- pany : Bertha, the wife of J. R. Finkelstein, the president of the Green- berg Iron Company ; and Tillie, at home.
JACOB R. FINKELSTEIN has gained distinctive recognition as one of the leading financiers of Terre Haute, but perhaps his name is best known through its connection with the presidency of the A. L. Greenberg Iron Company. This is one of the largest corporations of its kind in the west, and its business ramifies into all parts of the country. Although young in years he has shown a marked capacity for the successful conduct of large affairs, and he is not only ranked among the most prominent men of his own city but his reputation extends throughout many portions of Indiana.
Mr. Finkelstein was born in Creston, Iowa, December 25, 1877, a son of Christopher and Sarah Finkelstein. In the year following his birth the family moved to Indianapolis, and it was there that the son was reared and educated and where for many years his father was an exten- sive dealer in old iron. At the age of thirteen years young Finkelstein began his commercial career by going on the road for his father, traveling for a number of years over the United States and buying iron from all the large concerns in that business. It was while thus employed that he laid the foundation for his successful career of the present time. In 1901 he located in Terre Haute to engage in the iron and machinery business with Sam T. Greenberg, beginning on a very small scale, their volume of busi- ness at first not exceeding five hundred dollars a month. But by leaps and bounds it has grown and expanded until at the present time their sales average three hundred and fifty to four hundred thousand dollars annually. In May, 1907, the business was incorporated under the name of the A. L. Greenberg Iron Company, with Mr. Finkelstein as president. A. L. Greenberg as vice president, and Sam T. Greenberg as secretary and treasurer. The company handles new and second hand machinery of all kinds, buying, selling and exchanging, also steel culverts, rails, engines, pumps, tanks, boilers, beams, pipe, ctc., and handles scrap iron extensively. Their offices and yards are located at the corner of Tenth and Crawford streets, with their uptown office in the Grand Opera House block.
Besides his presidency of this, the largest manufactory of its kind in the west, Mr. Finkelstein was for a time secretary and general manager of the Linton ( Indiana) Rolling Mill Company, the vice president of the Linton Ice and Cold Storage Company, a stock holder in the Linton Opera
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House Company, a stockholder in the Southern Indiana Railroad Com- pany. a director of the Phoenix Building and Realty Company, of Terre Haute, a stockholder in the Kettle Creek Coal Company, of Terre Haute, the president of the Fairbanks ( Indiana ) Oil and Gas Company, and owns stock in a number of gold and silver mining properties. He is president of the Phoenix Club, of Terre Haute, and a member of the Commercial and Young Business Men's clubs, of this city, and of the Columbia Club, of Indianapolis. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Mr. Finkelstein married, March 5. 1901, Miss Bertha, a daughter of A. L. Greenberg, of the Greenberg Iron Company.
WALTER RHODES, D. O., has won prominence in Terre Haute and Vigo county as an osteopathic physician, and has practiced here since January. 1904. He was born on the same farm near Lovington, Illinois, which was the birthplace of his father, Hillary Rhodes. The grandfather. John Rhodes, had moved to Illinois from North Carolina with his father when but five years of age, and had later entered this farm from the government. He was of English origin. Hillary Rhodes married Angie Kepler, a native of Pickaway county, Ohio, and a daughter of James Kep- ler, who was born in Germany, but coming to America became one of the early pioners of Ohio.' Mrs. Rhodes came with her widowed mother and her family to Illinois, and both she and her husband are living on a farm in that state.
Dr. Walter Rhodes, the eldest of their six children, born Septem- ber 2, 1868, was born and reared on the old Rhodes farm near Lov- ington. He received an excellent educational training in the district schools, the Lovington high school. the Christian ( Denominational ) Col- lege, of Eureka, Illinois, and the Illinois State Normal School. Having decided to adopt the practice of osteopathy, he became a student in the Still College of Osteopathy, in Des Moines, Iowa. During his term as student at Still College he was assistant professor in pathology and bacteriology, under Dr. Carl Heinrich Hoffman, of Heidelberg, Ger- many, and was in charge from time to time of the classes in physiology, anatomy and nervous diseases, and was offered the chair in college on nervous diseases. He graduated therein in 1904. Previous to this time as a stepping stone for his high professional training he had traveled in the interests of the Standard Oil Company, also spent three years as a singing evangelist for the Christian church, and taught at intervals. He began the practice of osteopathy in Terre Haute in January, of 1904. and has built up a large practice in this city and surrounding country. He is a member of the Indiana State Osteopathic Society and of the Amer- ican Osteopathic Association, and also has membership relations with the
walter Ghodes
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Astor, Lonox and Tilden Foundations. 1909
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Young Business Men's Club and the Central Christian church, being a deacon.
JOHN O'NEIL belongs to the group of influential manufacturers who have made Terre Haute one of the principal manufacturing centers of the state. His name is associated with the O'Neil Machine Works, located at the norteast corner of Eleventh and Sycamore streets, and for many years he has been an active factor in the industrial interests of the city. His father. Terrence O'Neil, was for many years connected with rail- road advertising here. Both he and his wife, Ann (Denning ) O'Neil, were natives of Ireland. Terrence O'Neil came from county Longford to the United States in 1836, and in 1851 brought his family to reside in Terre Haute, but, after a residence here of seven years, he, in 1858, started overland for the Golden state. He never reached his destination, however, and when his family last heard from him he was leaving Kansas city, so that his death must have occurred somewhere between that point and Cali- fornia. His widow survived until 1886, and died in this city.
John O'Neil was born in the city of New York, February 28, 1845, but his educational training was received in Terre Haute, in its public schools. Before he had a chance to establish himself in life the Civil war was inaugurated, and in June of 1862. when he had just passed his seven- teenth birthday, he enlisted in Company H, Fourth Regiment of Indiana Cavalry, and saw service with the army of the Southwest. He participated in many of the hard-fought battles of the conflict. and among them may be mentioned those of Stone River. Chickamauga, Dalton. Resaca, Kenne- saw Mountain, the siege of Atlanta, Jonesboro. Franklin and Nashville. After the battle of Nashville he went with his command on the Wilson raid into Alabama and Georgia to liberate the prisoners confined in Ander- sonville prison, and it was his brigade that captured Jefferson Davis. During his three years of army life Mr. O'Neil was neither captured nor wounded, although he was often in the thickest of the fight. and after being mustered out near Nashville, Tennessee, in June, 1865, he returned at once to Terre Haute and entered upon his career as a machinist and manu- facturer. His first employment was in the machine shops of Holmes & Laws, and from there went to the Old Phoenix Foundry Company, where he worked for twenty-five years and in that time was advanced to the superintendency of the machine department. The year of 1893 witnessed the establishment of his own works, first on a small scale, but gradually he has broadened and enlarged his interests until his manufactory is numbered among the largest and most important of the city's industries. Business is now conducted under the name of O'Neil & Son.
He married Kate Leonard, who was born in Marshall. Illinois, a
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daughter of Elias Leonard, and to them have been born four children : Edward, with the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, at Terre Haute : John L., in business with his father; Grace H., and Robert H. Mr. O'Neil is a member of the Union Veteran Legion, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and of the Commercial and Manufacturers' clubs.
GUSTAV C. LINDEMANN, the cashier of the Terre Haute Brewing Company, is a native son of the Buckeye state of Ohio, born on a farm near Cincinnati, July 4, 1850, a son of Julius G. and Fredericka ( Kahle) (Vordemann) Lindemann. Julius G. Lindemann, the father, was born in . Göttingen, province of Hanover, Germany, in 1821, and came to the United States in 1846, his first location having been in Cincinnati, Ohio. In his native land he had learned and followed veterinary surgery, but after coming to Cincinnati he with a friend who had accompanied him on the voyage to America, engaged in the manufacture of cigars. But after a number of years he transferred his activities from a commercial to an agricultural life and farmed twelve miles out from Cincinnati until 1856. During the following year he farmed near Indianapolis, Indiana, spent an- other year in Greencastle, and in 1858 came to Terre Haute and formed a partnership with Dr. Lambey in the drug business in the Terre Haute House. In 1866, however, Mr. Lindemann retired from the business and purchased the E. A. Chess music store on Wabash avenue, where he re- mained until one month before his death, which occurred in December, 1869. He was a member of the Lutheran church, of which denomination his father. Gustay Lindemann, was a minister in the fatherland.
Mr. Lindemann was married in Cincinnati to Fredericka (Kahle ) Vordemann, who was born in Brunswick, Germany, in 1825. She came to the United States in 1846, and married first, Mr. Vordemann, the friend and business associate of Mr. Lindemann. Her death occurred in Terre Haute. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Lindemann : Gustav C .: Oscar, deceased ; Julia, the widow of Ernest Kloer and a resi- dent of Chicago; and Julius G., the teller of the First National Bank of Terre Haute.
Gustav C. Lindemann, after attending the public schools of Terre Haute, entered upon a course in the old Garvin Commercial College. of this city, and with his education completed entered his father's music store. After the death of his father he clerked for one year in the retail grocery store of James Davis, and then for twenty-three years was with the H. Hulman Company, finally leaving that firm to become chief deputy revenue collector at the Terre Haute office, under Collector Jump, remain- ing in that position for years. In 1898 he assumed the important and responsible position of cashier of the Terre Haute Brewing Company,
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his present office. During three years, from 1894 to 1897. he was a mem- ber of the Terre Haute school board, and at one time made the race for councilman against Dr. J. S. Young. His opponent was a popular man, and the ward is nominally Republican by over one hundred, but in the face of all this Mr. Lindemann was defeated by only twenty votes. He is a member and past chancellor of the Oriental Lodge, No. 21, Knights of Pythias.
Mr. Lindemann married Edith F., the daughter of John and Louise Fisbeck, of Terre Haute, and their three children are: Clara. Paul and Lucy. The eldest, Clara, is the wife of M. P. Smith, a resident of this city.
FRED WILDY has attained distinction in the business circles of Terre Haute as the proprietor of the Wildy Distilling Company, wholesale liquor dealers. He was born in this city on the 12th of February, 1871, a son of the late Joseph M. Wildy, the former mayor and a prominent citizen of Terre Haute, who was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and in his early life learned the carriage making trade. In 1861 he came to Terre Haute and became a member of the firm of Harper, Wildy & Company, carriage manufacturers, and that business he later carried on alone, and still later as a member of the firm of Wildy & Poths. In 1864 he enlisted for service in the Civil war as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Thirty-third Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and when his term expired he veteranized in Company E, One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Charles Smith commanding. He was made the second lieutenant of his company, and continued as a soldier until the close of the conflict.
Returning to his home after the close of the war Mr. Wildy con- tinued in the carriage manufacturing business until 1882, and then became the collector for the Terre Haute Brewing Company, continuing in that ca- pacity for fourteen years. But he not only attained prestige in the business life of Terre Haute, becoming conspicuously identified with its political his- tory as well, and served as a member of the city council for two terms, as a justice of the peace, as police judge and in 1878 was made its mayor, the only representative of the Greenback party ever elected to that office. Mr. Wildy married Sarah A. Watson, who with the following children survive : William R., born May 1, 1859, is a sign writer and decorator in Terre Haute : George Mc., born October 10, 1861 ; Mary, born February 13. 1864. married W. T. Brown, of Terre Haute : Joseph, born November (). 1866, and Frederick.
Fred Wildy left the public schools of Terre Haute to become a clerk in the shoe store of N. Stein & Company, and continued with that firm
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and its successors, Hornung & Bernheim, until he went to Chicago in 1896 to take a position as clerk in the Hub clothing store. At the close of his two years connection in that city he became a traveling salesman for the Steuben County (New York ) Wine Company, and remained with them for five years, traveling west of the Mississippi river. He then be- gan work for the old Kentucky Distilling Company, of Louisville, but after a year returned to the Steuben County Wine Company and continued with them until he went into business for himself, in 1906, establishing the Wildy Distilling Company, wholesale liquor dealers, in Terre Haute.
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