USA > Indiana > Howard County > History of Howard County, Indiana, Vol II > Part 12
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The domestic life of Mr. Maddox dates from 1809, when he was happily married to Bertha Kidder, a lady of many accomplish- ments and a gracious personality, who is a native of Kokomo. This union has been blessed by the birth of two interesting children, namely: Florence M., born in 1900, and Raymond F .. born May 15. 1908.
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The substation of the Standard Oil Company is located at the corner of Morgan street and the Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company's tracks. It was built in 1892 by the Consolidated Tank Line Company and soon afterward fell into the hands of the Stand ard Oil Company. AAll varieties of oil are sold here at wholesale.
Fraternally Mr. Maddox is a member of the Red Men, Eagles and the Haymakers' degree, and he is also a charter member of the Owls. Politically he is a Democrat, but does not find time to take an active part in local politics.
The Maddox residence is at 1026 North Kennedy street. It is a commodious dwelling, nicely furnished, and is the gathering place for numerous warm friends of Mr. and Mrs. Maddox, who have shown by their consistent and upright lives that they are worthy of the esteem of all, which indeed they have, the circle of their friends being limited only by their acquaintance.
CHARLES S. JACKSON.
The history of a county or state, as well as that of a nation, is chiefly a chronicle of the lives and deeds of those who have con- ferred honor and dignity upon society. The world judges the char- acter of a community by those of its representative citizens and yields its tribute of admiration and respect to those whose works and actions constitute the record of a state's prosperity and pride. Among the prominent citizens of Howard county, who are well known because of their success in private business affairs and the part they have taken in public life, is he whose name appears at the he'd of this article, the present ( 1908) city treasurer of Kokomo.
Charles S. Jackson was born in Crawford county, Ohio. Feb-
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MORROW'S HISTORY
ruary 8. 1853. His mother dying in his infancy, caused the six children in this family to be separated, consequently the subject made his home among relatives, in several different families at Youngstown, Ohio, until he was eight years old, when he went to Huron county, that state. to reside with an aunt on a farm on which he worked and attended the common schools where he applied him- self in an ardent manner, receiving a splendid foundation for an education. enough to enable him to begin teaching when nineteen years old. which he continued for two terms in Huron and Seneca counties. In 1873 he left the Buckeye state and came to Miami county, Indiana, where he lived with an uncle until 1881. in which year he came to Kokomo, having been disabled so that he was com- pelled to leave the farm. Mr. Jackson engaged in the hardware business as clerk for twelve years, with the Armstrong-Landen Company, having been one of the best salesmen the firm ever em- ployed. manifesting a thorough knowledge of the business and al- ways courteous to customers.
Prior to his engagement as a salesman. the subject had been justice of the peace for one year. Since then he has been writing life insurance. He was foreman for four years of the Kokomo Steel & Wire Company. Having manifested an interest in the political affairs of the county and city and having become popular among the voters of the district through his business relations, Mr. Jackson was chosen and triumphantly elected city treasurer of Kokomo in November. 1905, and in September. 1906, he entered the office under Mayor Brouse. The duties of this office occupy his undivided at- tention and the consensus of opinion is that the office was never in more capable hands. The subject had served three years as city councilman from the second ward, from 1891 to 1893. This was during the period of natural gas in that locality and Kokomo was on the boom. In 1893 he assisted in rating the bonds to pay for a new
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city hall and as city treasurer he paid off in 1908 all the twenty-five thousand dollars issued in bonds. In his official capacity he handled the sum of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars in 1907.
The subject's wife died in April. 1903, leaving two daughters, Estella, a music teacher, and Glee, a bookkeeper, both living at home with the subject.
Mr. Jackson has always been a stanch Republican and takes an active part in local politics and is a prominent figure at conventions. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic brotherhood, having been active in its work and representative to the grand lodge ; also a member of the Chapter and Council. He is a member of the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men. Mr. Jackson is popular with all classes in Kokomo, where his life has been singularly free from wrong or suspicion of evil and he has won the just respect of the people of that locality.
PROFESSOR WILLIAM E. RAUCH.
The subject of this sketch has gained marked precedence in the work of his noble profession. to which he has devoted his undivided attention for many years, having gained a high position on the scroll of Howard county's able music teachers, being highly educated and the fortunate possessor of the noble personal traits necessary to win success in this somewhat exacting profession. Besides his ability as a musician he is admired for his well regulated life and public- spirited nature.
Professor William E. Rauch was born in Nazareth. Pennsyl- vania, in November. 1874. the son of Benjamin and Melasena ( .Ar- nold) Rauch, who are now living at Kokomo, Indiana, being among the influential residents of this city.
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The conditions under which our worthy subject began life were flattering, but reverses which later came to the family threw him almost wholly upon his own resources. He manifested those pro- gressive traits that win early in life, and after he had attended the schools of his native town his parents moved to Mansfield, Ohio, where he pursued his studies, after which he entered the Ohio Nor- mal University at Ada, Ohio, where he took a course in civil engi- neering. literature and music. becoming so proficient in the latter that his instructors persuaded him to devote the major part of his time to music while he was attending school, at the same time giv- ing private instruction, and thus making his way through school. He graduated from a school of methods, a summer school. connected with the Northwestern University of Chicago.
Professor Rauch has a fine, rich baritone voice, especially strong in lower register, and he sings with spirit and expression, and many articles of praise have been given by the press wherever he has ap- peared in public, having done concert work for three years. during which time he traveled extensively. He came to Kokomo in 1901. conducting cantatas and giving private instructions. In 1902 he gave a course of private instruction in the public schools and the circuit was in the schools of Swayzee, Bunker Hill, Converse and Amboy, and he performed this work with marked success to the schools and with credit to himself. Having gained such a wide rep- utation by his meritorious work as to attract general public attention. in 1904 he was elected supervisor of the schools of Kokomo, which position he has since very creditably filled, being still in the same capacity in 1908, entering upon his fifth year. Besides being in charge of the music in the public schools he is choirmaster in the First Congregational church, conductor of the Kokomo Oratorio Society, manager of the Kokomo Chautauqua, and during the sum- mer he is in great demand as instructor of music in the county in- stitutes and chautauquas. He also gives private instruction in voice.
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Professor Rauch is commended by those high in authority as a leading instructor and executor of music, not only in Indiana but in other states as well. He is a man of pleasing address and perfect personal manners, agreeable and kind to all, and he has a high stand- ing, not only in his profession but with the public, for his manly life. and no one in Kokomo is held in higher esteem by his fellow towns- men. He is a devoted member of the Congregational church of Ko- komo and delights in his work in this organization.
Fraternally Professor Rauch is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and in his political affiliations he is a Re- publican. He has preferred single blessedness and makes his home with his honored and highly respected parents and sister Mary at No. 419 West Walnut street, where he has an extensive library not only covering a wide range of musical subjects but the latest and best books of science, religion and literature in general are to be found on his shelves. He is decidedly a man of aesthetic tastes and his noble attributes are soon discovered by all having the pleas- ure of knowing him personally.
J. HUGH MCNEAL.
Any compendium of Howard county's representative citizens would be incomplete without reference to the life and character of the successful agriculturist whose name appears at the head of this review and who is now living in honorable retirement. enjoying a respite in the golden evening of his days after a life of earnest en- deavor and usefulness, who, because of his genial disposition, ster- ling worth and uprightness has gained and retained a host of friends throughout the county.
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J. Hugh McNeal was born in Centerville, Wayne county, In- diana, September 10, 1834, the son of James and Margaret ( Reahm) McNeal. The subject's paternal grandparents came from Scotland and his maternal grandparents from Ireland. They came to Hamil- ton county, Indiana, in the pioneer days from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where they had married. James McNeal, the grand- father, was a soldier in the Revolution. James McNeal. father of the subject, was born in Philadelphia and came to Hamilton county. Indiana, in 1835, when the subject was thirteen months old, and bought a half section of land from the government on the west side of White river, when but few white men lived in that vicinity, hav- ing as their neighbors Indians and wild beasts, surrounded by the dense woods. But being of the hardy type, Mr. McNeal transformed the woodland into a farm, where he and his wife spent their lives and from whence they passed on to their reward in the silent land.
The subject helped to clear the land secured by his father and attended such schools as those primitive times afforded, remaining under the parental roof until he was twenty-five years old.
Mr. McNeal was married in 1859 to Charlotte Brown. of Og- densburg, New York, who passed away in 1863. There were no children born to this union. In 1864 the subject remarried. his sec- ond wife being Malinda Little, of Kentucky, who, after becoming the mother of two children, was called to her rest in 1892. The children are: Charlotte Oretta, born in Hamilton county, and received a good education in the schools at Cicero, Indiana, and at the State Normal, which she attended for one year. She was also in school at Danville for one year. She became a teacher, at present ( 1908) being one of the instructors in the fifth ward school in Kokomo, with which she has been connected since 1893. She resides with her fa- ther. Edward W .. the second child. was born in August. 1871. He graduated from the commercial department of the Danville Normal school in 1893. He is now in South Dakota, where he has a claim.
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Mr. McNeal purchased a farm in Hamilton county, Indiana, in 1857. comprising one hundred acres, for which he paid fifteen hun- (red dollars, but remained here only a short time. He bought, sokl and traded in lands quite extensively, gradually increasing his for- tune by sound business methods, and finally located in Harrison township. Howard county, in 1881, where he resided on a well man- aged and well improved farm until 1806. He then moved to Center township. Having sold his farm in 1900 he moved to Kokomo, where he resides in a commodious and nicely furnished home at 904 Armstrong avenue.
Fraternally Mr. McNeal is a Mason, holding his membership in Lodge No. 196. Cicero, Indiana. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. No. 262, at Cicero, having twice passed the chairs in this order. He is the only charter mem- ber of this lodge now living. In politics he is a stanch Republican. having cast his first ballot for John C. Fremont for President. MI- though taking considerable interest in political affairs, always doing what he could to further the interests of his community, politically or any other way, the subject has never found time to take a very active part in local conventions or elections, and he has never as- pired to public office.
Miss Charlotte Oretta McNeal is a member of the General Cox Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution : also a mem- ber of the Rebekah lodge and the Eastern Star, and a member of the Chautauqua Round Table, having graduated in the class of 1902. She is a member of the church and is regarded as a woman of many estimable attributes and commendable traits, being very popular in all circles in Kokomo.
Mr. McNeal enjoys the unstinted respect and esteem of a large circle of friends as a result of his well regulated life, his uprightness and hospitality.
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JOHN W. HARBAUGH.
The strong, earnest men of a people are always public benefac- tors. Their usefulness in the immediate specific labors they per- foim can be defined by metes and bounds, but the good they do through the forces they put in motion and through the inspiration of their presence and example is immeasurably an infinite gauge or standard of value. The gentleman whose name introduces this sketch is a man of this type. Although well known and highly es- teemed. he is averse to any notice savoring of adulation and prefers to let his achievements rather than the fulsome praise of the chron- icler speak for him. Every life, however, if properly known, con- tains more or less of interest, and the public claims a certain property right in the career of every citizen, regardless of his achievements or the station he has attained. In placing before the reader the brief review that follows due deference is accorded the feelings of the sub- ject, in conformity with whose well known wishes the writer will endeavor to adhere strictly to facts and omit as far as possible com- plimentary allusions, at the same time realizing that the latter have been honorably earned and should form no small part of a life sketch in which it is sought to render nothing but what justice and merito- rious recognition demand.
John W. Harbaugh, of the firm of Miller & Harbaugh, is a native of Hamilton county, Indiana, and the son of Philip and Mar- tha ( Galbreath ) Harbaugh. He was born in 1874 on a farm, but at the age of two years was taken by his parents to Circleville, In- diana, where he spent his childhood and youth. In due time he en- tered the schools of that place, and after attending the same until acquiring a knowledge of the branches taught therein he came to Kokomo with his parents in 1890, and where he was not long in se- curing remunerative employment in a glass factory. After devoting
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the ensuing eight years to that kind of labor Mr. Harbaugh resigned his position, and subsequently ( in 1903) engaged in the real estate business, which he has since followed with most gratifying success. being at this time ( 1908) in partnership with F. D. Miller, the firm thus constituted having an extensive and rapidly growing patronage in Kokomo and throughout Howard county, doing business on their own capital and handling as much real estate perhaps as any other firm of the kind in the city.
In connection with the real estate transactions Mr. Harbaugh has also erected a number of houses, which he placed on the market for the benefit of purchasers, having put up in Kokomo alone more than one hundred first class edifices, all of which found ready sale at liberal figures, the margins realized in the enterprise fully justifying the undertaking. At the cost of twenty thousand dollars Mr. Har- baugh's firm some time ago purchased the land on which the Miller- Harbaugh addition to Kokomo was platted, consisting of forty-eight lots on South Washington street and Armstrong avenue, the enter- prise realizing the expectations of the promoters and proving a judi- cious as well as an exceedingly fortunate investment, as the rapid sale of these lots abundantly indicates. For the enterprising spirit displayed in thus providing so many beautiful and comfortable homes at moderate cost and at the same time adding so much to the beauty and attractiveness of Kokomo, as well as increasing the value of con- tignous property many fold, Mr. Harbaugh may be considered a pub- lic benefactor, for had it not been for his efforts in thus promoting the city's material advancement scores of respectable citizens would today be expending their means to landlords in rents or would per- haps have moved to other parts. Mr. Harbaugh's success from a business standpoint has been something beyond the ordinary, begin- ning as he did with little capital worthy of mention. He has moved steadily forward, overcoming difficulties that would have discour-
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aged many of less fortitude, venturing where others would have hesitated. taking advantage of circumstances and in the absence of opportunities creating them. he has rapidly forged to the front and today occupies a prominent place in business circles and has a strong and abiding hold upon the confidence and esteem of his fellow men of all classes and his life affords a notable example of what a young man can accomplish when actuated by lofty purposes and an earnest desire to assist others while using all honorable means to advance his own interests. AAmong Mr. Harbaugh's most pronounced char- acteristics are his clear foresight and sound common sense and dis- creet judgment, to which may be added becoming modesty and a tendency to minimize rather than magnify his own achievements. He stands high socially and the confidence reposed in him by his fel- low citizens is best illustrated by his election in 1906 to the city council, where his business tact and interest in the public welfare have made him an able and eminently useful municipal legislator. He is still serving in this body, having been elected thereto by the Republican party, of which he has been a loyal and zealous supporter ever since old enough to exercise the rights of citizenship.
Mr. Harbaugh is a married man and has a pleasant home in Kokomo, the crowning spirit of which is a young lady of culture and refinement who formerly bore the name of Effie Bridwell. Mrs. Harbaugh was born and reared in the city where she now resides, was graduated from the high school and for some time prior to her marriage was one of the city's most efficient and popular teachers, moving in the best social circles. She keeps pace with the trend of current thought on matters in which the most intelligent of her sex are interested. in addition to which she is also active in religious work, being a respected member of the Main Street Christian church and a liberal contributor to the support of the Gospel, both at home and abroad.
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CAPTAIN ROBERT JACOBS.
The most elaborate history is perforce a merciless abridgement. the historian being obliged to select his facts and materials from manifold details and to marshal them in concise and logical order. This applies to specific as well as generic history, and in the former category is included the interesting and important department of biography. In every life of honor and usefulness there is no dearth of interesting situations and incidents, and yet in summing up such a career the writer must needs touch only on the more salient facts, giving the keynote of the character and eliminating all that is super- fluous to the continuity of the narrative. The subject of this sketch has led an active and eminently useful life, not entirely void of the exciting, but the more prominent facts have been so identified with the useful and practical that it is to them almost entirely that the writer refers in the following lines.
Robert L. Jacobs is a native of Indiana, born in the county of Wa- bash on December 25th of the year 1870, being the son of Thomas and Margaret ( Polk) Jacobs. At the early age of ten years he was deprived of a mother's tender care and guidance, but the father kept the family together until the children were able to make their own way in the world and spared no efforts or pains in looking after his interests and instilling into his youthful mind proper conceptions of duty and the responsibilities which awaited him when he should grow up and take his place in the busy scenes of life. After remain- ing at home and attending the public schools at intervals until his fourteenth year he accepted the position of clerk and delivery boy in a grocery store, the duties of which he discharged until becoming a salesman for a clothing firm in the city of Wabash, his experience in these capacities having a practical value in making him familiar with business and enabling him the better to lay the foundation for
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his future course of action. Leaving Wabash in 1890 he came to Kokomo and entered the employ of Strickland & Company, and after some time with the firm accepted a position with E. Perkins, still later selling goods successively for Shonfield & Stone and Isaac My- ers. his experience with the above parties covering a period of twelve years, at the expiration of which time he severed his connection with the mercantile business to enter the employ of the Knerr Board and Paper Company, with which he became identified in 1902.
MIr. Jacobs entered the above establishment as assistant super- intendent, which responsible position he still holds and the duties of which he has discharged with credit to himself and to the satisfac- tion of the firm, whose full confidence he enjoys and by whom he is held in the highest personal esteem and regard.
When the Grant Fencibles, or Company L, Indiana National Guard. was organized in 1892, Mr. Jacobs entered its ranks as a private, but in due time rose to the position of sergeant, later passed by successive promotions to second and first lieutenant and in 1896 to the rank of captain, which position he was holding at the breaking out of the Spanish- American war. Shortly after the beginning of the struggle the company was called upon for active duty, being mus- tered into service on May 10, 1898. as Company L. of the One Hun- dred and Sixty-eighth Indiana Volunteers, and later joined the main command at Chickamauga, Tennessee, where it was stationed until transferred to Knoxville, that state, the following August, from which place it was ordered home the ensuing September. The war having closed the company was mustered out on November 4th of the same year, its experience, which covered a period lacking six days of six months, being in every respect satisfactory and reflecting credit upon its commanding officer, who during the time indicated brought the company to a high standard of discipline and won rec- ognition as one of the best and most soldierly captains in the service.
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Captain Jacobs has great liking for the military and a natural aptitude for the manifold duties connected with the army life. On the mother's side he came of a family of soldiers, his grandfather Polk, who was a cousin of ex-President James K. Polk, having per- formed military service, while two of his uncles served with distinc- tion in the Civil war, Robert Polk as colonel and Samuel as captain. the latter being killed in battle.
The captain is a prominent member of the Pythian fraternity. in which he has passed all the chairs and in the Uniform Rank of which he is captain of Company No. 6. besides serving at different times as assistant inspector general of the Indiana Brigade. Uniform Rank. on the staff of General Jones. He stands high in the order both locally and throughout the state, and has added greatly to the growth and influence of the company over which he has command. the latter being recognized as one of the best drilled and thoroughly disciplined organizations of the kind in Indiana. He is also identi- fied with Lodge No. 190, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he takes an active interest and the growth of which in public favor is due as much to his efforts as to those of any other member of the society.
Captain Jacobs is a Republican in politics, but by no means ag- gressive. Nevertheless he is familiar with the leading questions upon which men and parties divide and has the courage of his con- victions in these and other matters of interest and importance.
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