History of Hamilton County Indiana, her people, industries and institutions, Part 84

Author: John F. Haines
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1051

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Among the practicing osteopathic physicians of Indiana there are none who enjoy a better reputation for keeping abreast of all the latest knowledge which the unceasing researches of science daily are bringing to light relating to the treatment of humanity's ailments. than Dr. Paul B. Wright. the sub- ject of this interesting biographical sketch. Dr. Wright, who has admirably equipped and pleasantly situated offices in rooms 3-4-5, Opera House block. Noblesville, Indiana, is one of the most active among the younger professional men of Hamilton county. During the three years he has been located in Noblesville he has made many warm friends, not only in the county seat, but in all parts of the county. where the practice of his profession has called him. He undoubtedly has succeeded in proving to even the most doubting ones, who, not very many years ago, were inclined to look askance at the claims

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PAUL B. WRIGHT

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set up by the osteopathic school of treating human ills, the actual and un- mistakable benefits growing out of the methods of this school of practice, and his friends see a fine future ahead of him in this community.

Paul B. Wright, son of Henry E. and Kathryn I. (Kirwhin) Wright, was born February 2, 1890, at Hartford, Connecticut. His father was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and his mother was a native of New York state. Henry E. Wright was educated in the public schools of Reading, and was graduated from the high school at that place. He then attended the Kansas State University at Kansas City. This education was supplemented by a comprehensive course in a Kansas City business college, after which he engaged in the lumber business in Kansas City for a time. He then engaged in the brokerage business in Hartford, Connecticut, with offices in the Con- necticut Mutual building, later engaging in the dry-goods business at Spring- field, Massachusetts. He also had a store at Hartford, Connecticut, in which city he lived for twenty-five years.

In 1908 Mr. Wright entered the A. S. O. at Kirksville, Missouri, and was graduated from that institution in 1911, after which he located in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, for the practice of osteopathy. His wife was gradu- ated from the same institution in 1912, later doing post-graduate work in the college of osteopathy in Philadelphia, from which institution she was graduated with the class of 1915 and is assisting her husband in the practice of their chosen professions. Henry E. Wright is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Hartford Country Club, is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church and in politics always has adhered to the principles of the Republican party.

To Mr. and Mrs. Wright were born five children, as follows: (1) Harry Edward. educated in the grammar and high schools and Martin's private school at Hartford, Connecticut, after which he attended for three years the A. S. of O. at Kirksville, Missouri, being graduated from that institution in June, 1914. During the course of his instruction he practiced osteopathy for two years at Greenfield, Indiana, and is now doing post- graduate work at Chicago, Illinois.

(2) Paul B., the subject of this biographical sketch, was educated in the public schools of Hartford, Connecticut, after being graduated from which he attended Martin's private school, from which he also was graduated. He then attended the high school at Kirksville, Missouri, and put in one year at the D. C. of O). at Des Moines, Iowa. He then entered A. S. of O. at Kirksville, Missouri, and was graduated from that institution with full

(53)

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honors. Following his graduation he formed a partnership with Dr. F. W. Hanna, with offices in Indianapolis and Noblesville, Indiana.

(3) Ruth E., educated at Hartford, Connecticut, and in the public schools of Kirksville, Missouri, after which she attended the Missouri State Normal school for three years and is now a teacher at Lathrop, Missouri.

(4) Olive, following attendance at the public schools of Hartford and Kirksville, was graduated from the Missouri State Normal school and is now a school teacher at Palmyra; Missouri.

(5) Walter Theodore, attended the high school at Kirksville, Missouri, and is now attending the high school at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, from which he expects to be graduated in 1916, after which it is his intention also to take up the study and practice of osteopathy.

Here certainly is a remarkable tribute to the efficacy of the comparatively new school of osteopathy. Father, mother and three sons devoting their lives to the welfare of humanity and the treatment of humanity's ailments by rational methods is a record perhaps unique in American medical annals.

Dr. Paul B. Wright is entitled to all the commendation which has been bestowed upon him by the people of Noblesville and the surrounding com- munity since taking up his residence in Hamilton county's capital. He is making a fine reputation in the practice of his chosen profession and his earnestness and painstaking efforts to apply the practical proofs of the osteo- path's principles are doing very much to make that school of treatment really popular in the community in which his influence is being so widely manifested.

WALTER L. STURDEVANT.

The occupation of farming is becoming recognized as one in which brains as well as brawn must play a part. The old idea that any one could farm is fast giving away to the modern idea that it takes an educated man to get the best results from the soil. The soil now must be fed as carefully as the live stock upon the farm and the farmer who understands how to fertilize his land properly has all the advantage over the farmer who knows nothing about scientific fertilizing. The methods of fifty years ago would send a farmer to the poor house and, as it is, there are too many farmers who are barely making a living. On the other hand, there never was a time when the farmer could make as much money on the farm as he can today. Among the

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successful young farmers of Hamilton county who are keeping fully abreast of the times in agricultural lines there is no one who is making a better record than Walter L. Sturdevant, a prosperous farmer of Washington town- ship.

Walter L. Sturdevant, the son of Calvin and Emma ( Beals) Sturdevant, was born November 14, 1882, on the farm where he is now living. His father was born in a log cabin on the same farm and lived all his life in this county, dying February 3, 1914. Calvin Sturdevant was a very successful farmer and one of the leading citizens of his county. He was elected auditor of Hamilton county on the Republican ticket in the fall of 1896 and filled that office to the entire satisfaction of the citizens of the county from March, 1897, to March, 1901. To Calvin Sturdevant and wife were born three children: Elmer, the secretary of the Hamilton County Trust Company at Noblesville; Dr. J. D., who is practicing medicine in Noblesville, and Walter, whose history is presented in this connection. The mother of these three children is still living, at the age of sixty-four.

Walter L. Sturdevant received an excellent education, graduating from the common school and then taking the four-year course at the Noblesville high school. After he had graduated from the high school, in 1900, he went to work upon his father's farm and has been managing it ever since. On this farm of one hundred and fifty-five acres he raises excellent crops and keeps as much stock as he can feed from the produce of his farm. The farm is well improved and he has every modern convenience for successful farming.

Mr. Sturdevant was married October 9, 1907, to Mabel Johnson, the daughter of Cyrus and Minnie (Parr) Johnson, both of whom are natives of Hamilton county. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of five children : Claude, Westfield, Indiana; Mrs. Myrtle Hinshaw, Westfield; Blanch C., who is still at home; Mabel, the wife of Mr. Sturdevant, and Esther, who is still at home. Mr. Johnson died March 9, 1912, and his widow is now living in Westfield. Mr. and Mrs. Sturdevant have two little daughters, Ruth, born March 7, 1910, and Rebecca, born July 26, 1911.

Mr. Sturdevant is a stanch Republican in his politics, but has never taken an active part in the deliberations of his party. His agricultural in- terests have consumed all his time and. while taking a part in the general welfare of his community, he has never been a candidate for any political office. He is a member of the Friends church. while his wife holds her membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, belonging to Lodge No. 115 at Westfield, and

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to the Royal Arch and Council at Noblesville. Mr. Sturdevant is a young man with a bright future before him and his record in the past presages a successful career. He is living such a life as to bring him the esteem and high regard of his fellow citizens and possesses the ability to carve out an honorable career.

IRVIN STANLEY.

There is no nobler profession than that of teaching, and the conscientious teacher has more to do with the molding of the youth of this country than has the practitioner of any other profession. One of the most successful teachers of Hamilton county, a man who has spent his life in the school room, is Irvin Stanley, who is now living a retired life in Westfield. He taught in Kansas for about fifteen years, and while in that state was superintendent of the Mitchell county schools, a position which he filled with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the citizens of the county. Mr. Stanley has been the cause of hundreds of young men getting a better grasp on life, the in- fluence which he has wielded over the lives of young people always having been of the higher order. It is not too much to say that if all of the young people of this county were under the guidance of such teachers as Mr. Stan- ley during the formative periods of their lives the history of our county would be different. The good which such a man does cannot be measured.

Irvin Stanley, son of Milton and Leah .(Pickering) Stanley, was born in Howard county, Indiana, near Russiaville, in 1848. His father was a native of Guilford county, North Carolina, and was the son of John Stanley. While still a child, Milton Stanley came with his parents to Greensboro, Indiana, where he grew to manhood and married Leah Pickering. His wife was born at Greensboro, her parents being natives of Ohio. Milton Stanley and wife were early settlers at Russiaville, Howard county, Indiana, where Mr. Stanley followed the trade of a tanner. Later he followed this profession at Russia- ville, Wabash, Deming and still later at Westfield, to which latter place he moved during the Civil War. He spent his declining years at Westfield, where he followed both the tanning business and harness-making.

When Irvin Stanley was a lad he "worked out" among the farmers in the summer time, and went to school during the winter months. He at- tended the Union high school at Westfield, and in 1875 graduated from Spiceland Academy, at Spiceland, Indiana. He then became a teacher in the common schools of Hamilton county, teaching his first school at the Poplar Ridge schools in Clay township, remaining there for five years. He

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then became principal of the schools at Carmel for two years, after which he came to Westfield, and for nine years was associate principal of the Union high school. In 1884 Mr. Stanley moved to Kansas and remained in that state until 1900. During his sixteen years of earnest service in the cause of education in that state he served for four years as county superin- tendent of Mitchell county, and was on the state reading circle board of Kansas for the same length of time.

In the year 1900 Mr. Stanley returned to Westfield in order to take care of his father and mother and has since made that city his home. His father died in 1901, and his mother in 1911. Both of them were loyal members of the Friends church.

After his return to Westfield, Mr. Stanley again assumed the charge of the Union high school at that place and continued as superintendent of the school until 1906. It is probably true that he has signed more diplo- mas than any other person ever connected with that excellent school. Some of the best known educators of the United States have gone to school to Mr. Stanley. Several of his pupils are now college professors, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that the president of Washington State Uni- versity was once a pupil of his. Still another pupil won a Cecil Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University, England, and after completing his three- years' course in that famous university, returned to this country and is now a professor at Oxford University in Ohio. A colored lad from Noblesville went to school to Mr. Stanley and later to severeal colleges, and is now preparing for a professorship in a southern colored college. Mr. Stanley has always striven to get boys to go to college, and has even arranged ways and means whereby they might secure a college education. He had to make his own way when a young man and realizes the necessity of encouraging boys who have little money to continue their educational work.

Mr. Stanley has an established reputation as an astronomer, his accom- plishments in that line having brought him substantial recognition from the United States government. In 1874 and again in 1882 Mr. Stanley was sent with government expeditions to observe the transits of Venus, which occur in pairs every eight years, and each pair a hundred years apart. The first observation station was at Kergulen Island in the South Indian Ocean. The second one in 1882 was in the southern part of South America, in Patagonia, within three hundred miles of the Straits of Magellan.

Mr. Stanley was married in 1876 to Ruth A. Heston, who was born in Miami county, Indiana, the daughter of George and Mary (Jackson) Heston. Her father was born in Maryland and came to Indiana with his parents,

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Samuel and Susan Heston. Mary (Jackson) Heston, the mother of Mrs. Stanley, was born in Wayne county, Indiana, the daughter of Ruth and Corbin Jackson. Mrs. Stanley's father was a blacksmith, and when she was a small girl her parents moved to Rochester, Indiana, where her father continued his trade until his death. Mrs. Stanley was five years of age at the time of her father's death, and her mother later married Nathan Weesner, and moved to Wabash county, this state, where Mrs. Stanley grew to womanhood. She entered Oxford College at Oxford, Ohio, and taught school in Wabash county, Indiana, until 1874. In that year she came to Hamilton county as a teacher in the Union high school at Westfield, and while teaching there she met and married Mr. Stanley.

Mr. Stanley and his wife have two children living and one deceased. Raymond married Alice Estes, and lives at Indian Head, Canada. He was graduated from Earlham College and later from Purdue University in the electrical engineering course. He is now an electrician with headquarters in Canada. Three sons have been born to Raymond Stanley and his wife, Rol- and, Raymond and Allen. Laura, the other living child of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley, was graduated from Earlham College and then married Robert Haskett and lives in Washington township, this county. She has two daugh- ters, Ruth and Anna.

THOMAS A. FESMIRE.

We should be proud of the fact that there is no limit in this country to which natural ability, industry and honesty may not aspire. One born in the most unpromising surroundings and reared amid the most adverse en- vironment may, nevertheless, break from his fetters and rise to the highest station in the land, and the qualities do not have to be of transcendent char- acter to enable him to accomplish this result. Such a rise is due more to the way he does it and to the skill with which he grasps the opportunities pre- sented, than to any remarkable qualities possessed by him. Accordingly, it is found that very often in this country the chief executive of the nation or state possessed no greater ability than thousands of others, but such men have been more prompt to seize advantage of their opportunities than their fellows, this great underlying truth running through every occupation. The farmer or business man rises above his competitors merely by taking ad- vantage of conditions which others overlook or fail to grasp. It is so with Thomas A. Fesmire. a man who has carved his own fortune, having started in life with no assets but a strong heart and willing hands.

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Thomas A. Fesmire, the son of Isaac and Mary (Macon) Fesmire, was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, July 28, 1867. His parents were both natives of the same state, and left Randolph county, North Caro- lina, March 7, 1870, for Kansas, intending to make that state their permanent home. They arrived at Eudora, Kansas, March 14, 1870, but left there at the time of the grasshopper plague which was sweeping the state. Isaac Fesmire was a wheelwright and followed this occupation while he lived in Kansas. The family remained in Kansas for about four years, leaving there September 8, 1874, with two two-horse wagons, and arriving in Hamilton county, Indiana, October 15, 1874. Isaac Fesmire conducted a general black- smith and repair shop in this county the rest of his life and died here August 14, 1905, his wife dying July 12, 1911.

Isaac Fesmire and wife were the parents of eleven children, Simeon, a farmer of this county; Mrs. Jane Chance, of Rose Hill, Kansas; Jessie, of Rose Hill, Kansas; William, a farmer of this county; Mrs. Ann Hammack, whose husband is a farmer in this county : Eli, deceased; Mrs. Emily Slater, deceased; Mrs. Rosanna Tweedy, of Indianapolis; Thomas A., whose life history is here recorded; Mrs. Vashti Perisho, of Hamilton county, and Walter, deceased.

Thomas A. Fesmire was three years of age when his parents moved from North Carolina to Kansas, and seven years of age when they permanently settled in Hamilton county, Indiana. His education was received in this county in the district schools of his home neighborhood, after which he at- tended the high school for a time. Early in life he decided that he would follow the vocation of a farmer and when twenty years of age he rented a farm and rented continuously until 1902. He was an energetic farmer and a man of frugal and thrifty habits. He farmed so successfully that he was enabled to purchase sixty-seven acres of fine farming land on October 28, 1902. It is interesting to note that he paid one hundred dollars an acre for this land. the same land which had been purchased many years before for one dollar and a quarter an acre. He is probably the first man in Washing- ton township who paid one hundred dollars an acre for land. He has made a large number of improvements on this farm, and now has one of the beauti- ful country homes of the county. He has been making a specialty of hog raising and has built a hog barn twenty-four by sixty feet with a cement floor and every other modern convenience for successful hog raising. He was one of the principal promoters of the electric light line which was built a few years ago between Westfield and Horton, this county, and he now has electric lights in his own home.

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Mr. Fesmire was married July 14, 1900, to Harriett E. Jessup, the daughter of Morris and Rachel ( Hiatt) Jessup, both of whom were natives of Indiana. Morris Jessup was a blacksmith by trade, but also carried on farming in connection with his blacksmithing. He died in January, 1899, and his wife died in March, 1905. Mrs. Fesmire is a graduate of the Union high school at Westfield, and a teacher of many years' experience.

Mr. Fesmire was originally a Republican in politics, but for the past fourteen years he has been voting and working for the success of the Pro- hibition ticket, believing, as do thousands of other voters, that the liquor traffic constitutes one of the greatest evils in this country today. Mrs. Fes- mire is a member of and earnest worker in the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union. Both are loyal members of the Friends church and deeply in- terested in the work done by the churches.

The life of Mr. Fesmire has been filled with good deeds. As a public- spirited citizen he has always acted for the material, moral and intellectual uplift of those with whom he has come into contact. He has always used his . influence in behalf of all moral and benevolent enterprises, and has been deeply interested in whatever tended to promote the prosperity of his town- ship and county.

HERMAN LAWSON COVODE.

Change is constant and general ; generations rise and pass away and it is due to posterity as well as to the present generation to gather up and put into imperishable form on the printed page the record of men who have left the imprints of their personalities on their respective communities. Among the many good citizens of Hamilton county who have passed to their reward there is none more worthy of having his life history recorded in this volume than the late Herman Lawson Covode, a man of education and culture, a man of high business qualities, and above all, an honorable, upright and courteous gentleman who made his influence felt wherever he went. A pro- tracted fever in 1895 left him in feeble health, from which he never recov- ered, and during the remainder of his life he was a great sufferer. In 1897 he became an earnest follower of the Master and experienced an exaltation of spiritual life which comforted and sustained him until the end. He believed that a gentleman and true soldier of the Cross should meet the vicissitudes of life with courage and optimism and after the manner of this belief he lived a life of singular sweetness. He knew life in all its phases and loved it

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for what it had to give him. He departed from this earth willingly and with absolute confidence in the future in the early dawn of March 12, 1913. He spent the last two years of his life at Los Angeles, California, surrounded by every comfort which the loving ministrations of his wife could give him, and there the end came peacefully.

Herman L. Covode, the son of Jacob and Minerva (Wilson) Covode and nephew of the Hon. John Covode, of Pennsylvania, was born at Sharps- burg, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1860. He received a good common school education and later entered the University of Pittsburg, where he was in attendance when his father died in 1877. He then withdrew from the university and went to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, but left before graduation, in order to enter business life. While in the University of Pittsburg, and later at the Naval Academy, he had made a special study of civil engineering and had no difficulty in qualifying as a railroad civil engineer with the Northern Pacific railroad. For a few years he was in the employ of this railroad as civil engineer and later owned a ranch in Montana. After retiring from the ranch he went to St. Paul, Minnesota, and engaged for a few years in the insurance and real estate business in that city with marked success.

Mr. Codove was married in the Friends church at Westfield, Indiana, in 1886, to Manzanita Anderson, the daughter of William Wright and Rhoda Ann (Mendenhall) Anderson. After his marriage he remained in Hamilton county and engaged in live stock farming.

It was in 1895, when in the full bloom of manhood, he was stricken with a fever, from which he never fully recovered. From that time on he never was able to do any work, the condition of his health being such that it was impossible for him to do any physical labor. For eighteen years he was an invalid and yet during all of that time no one ever heard him murmur against his fate. He and his beloved wife went to Los Angeles, California, in the hopes that his health might be improved, but it was not to be. They then went to Florida and various places in the South, hoping that changes of scene might prove beneficial, and returned to Los Angeles, remaining there until the end.

Mrs. Manzanita Covode is now living on her farm of one hundred and seventy-seven acres in this county, which she is superintending with a success which speaks well for her ability as a manager. She is a devout member of the Friends church and never wearies of taking part in the work of her church and Sabbath school. She is a woman of culture and refinement and greatly beloved by all who know her.

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History of Hamilton County Indiana, her people, industries and institutions, Part 84

Author: John F. Haines Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1051

Author: John F. Haines
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1051