USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 35
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FRANK WAMPLER. The locality where Frank Wampler grew up and spent his boyhood was Gosport in Owen County, Indiana. In the year 1895 he conceived the idea of getting Gosport into communi- cation with the outside world by means of a telephone system. When the idea had been properly weighed and discussed and acted upon Mr. Wampler was put in charge as manager of the local company.
That was the beginning of his career as a telephone man. Today his home and headquarters are in Indianapolis, and he is general manager of the Central Union Telephone Company for the State of In- diana and one if not the best known tele- phone men in Indiana. When the United States began marshalling and organizing its power, resources and men for the effi- cient conduct of the great war, Mr. Wampler was asked by Governor Goodrich to serve on the State Council of Defense of Indiana, and was appointed chairman of the Committee on Communication and chairman of the Committee of Employers' Cooperation. After that he divided his time and energies between the C. U. T. Company's offices and the office of the State Council of Defense.
Mr. Wampler was born on a farm a mile east of Gosport, Indiana, June 18, 1875. His grandfather, Jefferson Wampler, a na- tive of Virginia, was reared in the faith of the Dunkard Church. He was one of the pioneer settlers of Monroe County, Indiana, and at Gosport was one of those instru- mental in establishing the Methodist Epis- copal Church.
John Wampler, father of Frank Wam-
pler, was a farmer and stock raiser of Monroe County and died in Gosport in 1907, at the age of seventy-five. In 1885 he also established a store at Gosport, but retired from that service in 1900. For many years he had served continuously in the office of justice of the peace. His chief characteristic was his hospitality, and he was never happier than when his house was filled with congenial guests. John Wampler married Margaret E. Johns, who was born in Morgan County, Indiana, and died at Gosport in 1915, in her eightieth year. Her children were: James W., now in the government service; Nora B., wife of Melvin T. Moore, of Gosport; Charles E., roadmaster of the Monon Railway at Bloomington, Indiana ; Rebecca E., widow of Albert H. Rott and living at Joliet, Illinois ; Maggie, deceased; Thomas C., of Gosport; and Frank.
Frank Wampler spent most of his boy- hood on the farm and in Gosport. He at- tended the common schools and as soon as old enough began helping his father in the store. Several summer seasons he helped furnish recreation for the community by playing baseball with his home town team. He was married in 1894 to Nellie K. Rog- ers, who was also born and reared in Gos- port. In 1895, when he was twenty years of age, he accepted the position of manager of the local telephone exchange at Gosport. In 1896 he was made solicitor at Indian- apolis for the Central Union Telephone Company, and was employed in that capac- ity in different towns and cities of the state until 1898. Then following a brief interval the Central Union Telephone Com- pany was glad to get him back in the ca- pacity of solicitor, and after a short time he was made special agent for the com- pany, with widely varied and oftentimes very important duties. Finally he became district superintendent at Terre Haute, and in 1914 his office headquarters were. re- moved to Indianapolis.
While Mr. Wampler has easily been too busy for public office except so far as he has regarded public service as a duty im- posed upon him by the great war, he has been interested in good government every- where and in 1898 he held the office of city clerk of Gosport. He is a democrat, and a firm believer in the principles of the Jeffersonian type of democracy. In Ma- sonry he is affiliated with Gosport Lodge
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No. 92, Free and Accepted Masons, is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis. He is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Indiana Democratic Club, the Indiana Athletic Club, Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Jovian Order, the Hoosier Motor Club and the Canoe Club. He is in- terested in agricultural stock raising and enjoys the time that can be spared from his other duties looking after his farm. He has always been and still is a consistent hard worker, and believes that this char- acteristic has been 99% responsible for his success. He is a splendid judge of men, has shown ability to retain the loyalty of his subordinates, and is one of the all around good citizens of Indiana.
GEORGE H. DUNN, a representative to Congress from Indiana, resided in Lawrenceburg of this state. He was a member of the State Legislature a number of years, and was elected as a whig to the Twenty-fifth Congress. He died at Lawrenceburg in 1854.
HARRY STOUT, who died at Indianapolis June 10, 1914, was a supremely successful merchant and at the age of forty-nine had achieved a position that would have done credit to a much longer life.
His spirited citizenship was on a par with his business ability. That citizenship, dominated by ardent patriotism, is a mat- ter of pride with Indianapolis people who in recent months have followed closely the performance of his three soldier sons. No family in Indiana can be traced further . back, to the very foundation of the Ameri- can Republic. The remote American an- eestor was Richard Stout, an Englishman, who established his home in the colony of New Jersey about the time the Pilgrim Fathers were preparing to colonize the bar- ren and hostile coast of Massachusetts. Soon after he went to New Jersey a Dutch ship was wrecked off the coast of Sandy Hook. Among the passengers was a man named Van Prince and his wife Penelope. They escaped to the coast only to fall into the hands of Indians, who murdered Van Prince. Through the intercession of one of the chiefs of the war party Mrs. Van Prince was ransomed, and after incredible hardships, subsisting on berries, she eventu-
ally reached New Amsterdam, now New York City. There in 1622 she united her fortunes with Richard Stout. As a pioneer American mother her achievements were remarkable. She lived to the age of 110 years, reared a large family, and in eighty- eight years numbered her descendants at 502. One son, David, was born and lived all his life in New Jersey. His son, Ben- jamin H., crossed the mountains and ven- tured into the wilderness of Kentucky and helped redeem that country from savages.
Dr. Oliver H. Stout, son of Benjamin H., was born at Lexington, Kentucky, May 16, 1800. He married Harriet Whaley, who was born in the same locality August 31, 1807. Dr. Oliver Stout graduated from a medical college at Lexington which has since been removed to Louisville, and was in the active practice of medicine in Ken- tucky until he removed to Thorntown, In- diana, about 1858. He finally came to Indianapolis, in which city he died August 13. 1862.
Benjamin G. Stout, son of Dr. Oliyer Stout, was born at Lexington, Kentucky, June 11, 1829. September 13, 1853, he married Elizabeth Howe. Soon after their marriage they came to Indianapolis. In that city for a time he worked as a book- keeper, later was in the wholesale and re- tail grocery trade, and also conducted _a retail shoe business. He is remembered by some of the older citizens as a typical Southern gentleman, devoted to his home, honest and upright in all his dealings, and widely known and respected. He died Feb- ruary 22, 1875. His wife was born in Kentucky, January 3, 1837, and is still liv- ing at Indianapolis at the advanced age of eighty-two. She was the mother of five children. the only two to reach maturity being Edward E. and Harry.
Edward E. Stout was born July 25, 1862, in Indianapolis, and this city has been his home all his life. He was educated in the public schools, and the greater part of his adult years were spent as an active associate with his brother in merchandising. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite and Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He married Helen E. Billings.
The late Harry Stout, whose ancestry and family record has thus been briefly traced, was born July 16, 1865. His brief life was impressive in its character and its
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accomplishments. He completed his edu- cation at Purdue University, where in two years he did all that was required of the regular three years course. Mr. Harry Stout had original ideas and the courage to put them into effect. In 1888 he entered the retail business at 318 Massachusetts avenue. This location was then clearly out of the regular retail district of the city, and it was freely predicted that he would fail. Three years later his brother Edward joined him. They adopted the plan of handling reputable goods for the popular trade, sold on a smaller margin of profit, and by selling in large quantities attained the same ends which other merchants reached by selling at larger profits and in lesser quantities. The Stout brothers pros- pered, and in time established four branch stores, all of which are still in flourishing operation.
It is evident that Harry Stout had the true business instinct. He was a careful buyer, painstaking, and always the courte- ous, kindly gentleman. His earthly life ended when youth and ambitions were still fresh possessions, and his death was a dis- tinet loss to the community.
He married Florence Allerdice, who is also deceased. Their four children were: Oliver Hart, born March 11, 1896; Sidney A., born March 10, 1897; Richard Hard- ing, born October 15, 1899; and Florence Lydia, who was born February 5, 1902, and died June 28, 1913.
Though the three sons are still young, they have already won the right and priv- ilege of lasting memory in any history of Indianapolis. The son Oliver H. was graduated from Princeton University in 1917. He joined the first officers training camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, was transferred to the aviation corps at Colum- bus, and on completing his course stood second in his class, with an average of 93%. He was sent to Europe for training and spent three months in France and twenty months in Italy. He held the rank of first lieutenant at the time of his discharge.
Sidney A. Stout, the second son, was graduated from the University of Wiscon- sin in 1918. In August, 1917, he volun- teered for the aviation corps in the war against Germany and was commissioned second lieutenant May 12, 1918. He held this rank at the date of his discharge.
Richard H. Stout, the youngest, lacked
three months of finishing the second year at the University of Wisconsin when he en- listed in the American Ambulance section of the French Army. He sailed for Europe March 10, 1917, on a vessel carrying muni- tions to the allies and seventy-five recruits. For transporting wounded under heavy fire and gas attacks in the Champagne and at Verdun on the 20th of August and 5th of September, 1917, he was decorated with the French Cross of War with the Palm. The few who have received these awards among Americans have had their names and rec- ords published from coast to coast in this country. He was discharged from the am- bulance service and enlisted in the Ameri- can Air Service in Paris, October 25, 1917. He received his flying training in France and was commissioned second lieutenant May 17, 1918. He is still in service abroad.
While much has necessarily been omitted, even this outline shows that the Stout family from earliest times to the present have exemplified the best of Americanism in spirit and practice and it is a particu- larly honored name at Indianapolis.
JOHN W. CLOW is one of the eneregtic merchants of Anderson, has been in busi- ness in that city for many years, and is proprietor of the Clow grocery and meat market at 1130 Main Street.
He was born on a farm in Madison Township, Putnam County, Indiana, June 22, 1860, son of William and Louisa (Brown) Clow. The Clows are Scotch and the Browns are an Irish family. Grand- father John Clow came from Syrshire, Scotland, when eighteen years of age, and with his two brothers, Stephen and Alex- ander, settled in New Hampshire on gov- ernment land. In the War of 1812 they served as soldiers, and after that struggle became separated and there is no record of the brothers of John. John Clow after- ward moved to Kentucky and reared a fam- ily of five daughters and three sons. His home was at Sharpsburg, Kentucky, where John Clow died at the remarkable age of ninety-nine years, eleven months and twen- ty days.
William Clow, the second' son of his father, was reared and received his school- ing at Sharpsburg, Kentucky, and lived there until he was twenty years old. In 1848 he came to Putnam County, Indiana, and later started for the Southwest and
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traveled over a large part of Texas on foot. While on that excursion he was captured by Indians, and was held a prisoner for six months. He finally managed to make his escape, reached civilization at San An- tonio, and came back to Indiana chiefly by the water route. He married at Green- castle, Indiana, in 1858, and from there moved to Iroquois County, Illinois, where he took up a government homestead. On that he lived eleven years, selling out to return to Putnam County, Indiana, and finally moved from his farm in that county to Boone County, and spent his last. years at Advance. He died April 21, 1915, aged eighty-four years, two months and eleven days.
Thus John W. Clow inherits a strain of hardy and vigorous ancestry, and his nor- mal expectation of life is much above the average. He received his early schooling chiefly in Martin Township of Iroquois County, Illinois. He was a school boy in the country distriets of that county up to the age of fourteen, and at the same time worked for his father. Later he was a hired man for laboring farmers, and at Georgetown, Illinois, acquired a knowledge of the butcher business. Mr. Clow came to Anderson in 1890, and on the 21st of April began work in a local butcher shop. He was employed by various grocery and butcher markets altogether for twenty-eight years. February 2, 1916, Mr. Clow set up in business for himself with a meat market at 1130 Main Street, and in October, 1917, added a stock of well selected groceries and now has one of the liberally patronized establishments of the city.
Mr. Clow married in 1881 Sarah E. Fuqua, danghter of George L. and Martha (Myers) Fuqua of Greencastle, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Clow had five children, only two of whom are now living. Louella is Mrs. Herbert C. Wright of Anderson. Rol- land Angus. the son, was born in 1894 and is associated with his father in business. He married, May 28, 1917, Hazel Holtz- claw.
Mr. Clow is a democrat in politics, is affiliated with Anderson Lodge No. 416, Knights of Pythias, with the Modern Woodmen of America, and stands high both in business and social circles.
ALBERT JAMES HENRY, second vice presi- dent of the Michigan City Trust and Sav-
ings Bank, has been identified with the business and civic affairs of the city for the past thirty years and is one of the old- est and best known residents of LaPorte County.
He was born at Pine Station in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. His grandfather was an early settler in that county, buying land bordering on the stream which became known as Henry Run. He was a farmer and also a distiller, and was drowned while fording the Susquehanna River. Thomas Henry, father of Albert James, spent all his life in Clinton County, and died there in 1898. He was then eighty-four years of age. He was a whig and republican. He married Elizabeth Shaner, who was born in Clinton County and died at the age of eighty-three. They had six children : Margaret, Sadie, Tillie, Flora, Cordie and Albert J.
Albert James Henry grew up on his father's farm, attended public schools, and as a boy entered the lumber industry. He acquired a knowledge of all the oper- ating details of the business, and in 1879 removed to White Cloud, Newaygo, County, Michigan, where he worked in a lumber mill. In 1882 he came to Michigan City, and was for one year in the employ of Ross and Root, and then for nine years was manager of the Jonathan Boyd Lumber Company. Mr. Henry then formed the Henry Lumber Company, and that is one of the oldest firms dealing in lumber at the south end of Lake Michigan.
In 1889 he married Miss Emma Frehse, who was born at LaPorte, daughter of Charles and Wilhelmina Frehse. Mr. and Mrs. Henry have two sons, Charles L. and Albert J., Jr. Charles was a member of the Thirteenth Company of the Twentieth Engineers, and saw active service in France during 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Henry are members of the Trinity Episcopal Church, of which he is senior warden and for fif- teen years has held the office of vestryman. He is affiliated with Acme Lodge No. 83, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Michi- gan City Chapter No. 25, Royal Arch Ma- sons, Michigan City, Commandery No. 3, Knights Templar, and belongs to the Scot -. tish Rite Consistory of Indianapolis.
EDWARD HARVEY GRISWOLD, M. D. Though Indiana is not his native state, Doctor Griswold has earned more than a
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local reputation by his work as physician and surgeon at Peru, where he located more than twenty-five years ago as physician in charge of the Wabash Employes Hospital. Credit is given him, and deservedly, for making that institution what it is today, one of the largest and best equipped rail- road hospitals in the Middle West.
This is a time when many men experi- ence a sense of peculiar satisfaction that their own lives are so deeply rooted in the American past. Doctor Griswold possesses a most interesting ancestral history. The Griswold family was founded in America by Edward Winslow Griswold, who came from England and located at Windsor, Connecticut, as early as 1639. Harvey Griswold, grandfather of Doctor Griswold of Peru, was a native of New England and at the age of nineteen moved west to Mis- souri. He established a home in the his- toric community known as Marthasville, and became owner of a traet of land which included a little country cemetery in which the body of Daniel Boone was laid to rest when that great pioneer died at Marthas- ville. Later the State of Kentucky claimed the remains of Boone, asserting a prior and larger claim upon him than Missouri. The decision in the matter rested with Har- vey Griswold. He consented on the con- dition that the Kentucky commissioners en- ter into a contract binding themselves and their state to the erection of a suitable monument to Boone's memory. This con- tract, now many years old, is in the posses- sion of Doctor Griswold of Peru. There were other historic associations around the old Griswold home and the little Town of Marthasville. One is connected with the little log house, put together with wooden pins, and standing not far from the bury- ing ground of Daniel Boone. In that house was held the first conference of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church west of the Missis- sippi River.
Sylvanius Griswold, son of Harvey Gris- wold, took up the profession of medicine, which his grandfather before him had adorned. Doctor Sylvanius was born at Marthasville, Missouri, August 10, 1832, was educated in the Masonic College at Lexington, Missouri, and graduated from the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis. He married into a physician's family, his wife being Lockie Ann Arnold, a native of Missouri and of Scotch ancestry. Her
father, Doctor Arnold, was a native of Vir- ginia and for many years practiced medi- cine at Lexington, Missouri.
Edward Harvey Griswold came by his profession naturally, with his father, mater- nal grandfather and paternal great-grand- father as worthy examples and followers of the calling. Doctor Griswold spent his early life in Lafayette and in Franklin County, Missouri, finished his literary edu- cation in the Missouri State University, and hegan the study of medicine under his father. He graduated from the University Medical College at Kansas City March 14, 1891. After a brief practice at Marthas- ville he accepted the position of physician in charge of the Wabash Employes Hos- pital at Peru, and became a resident of that city June 1, 1891. He is a member of the Order of Railway Surgeons of the Miami County and Indiana State Medical Societies and the American Medical Asso- ciation, and a Fellow of the American Col- lege of Surgeons. He has always been a close student of medicine, and has used his personal influence and prestige to advance the standards of the profession generally. Doctor Griswold attended a post-graduate school in New York in 1895. He is a Knight Templar Mason and with his wife is a member of the Episcopal Church.
In May. 1895, Doctor Griswold married Georgine Rettig. They have two sons, Ret- tig Arnold and Edward Harvey Griswold. Rettig Arnold Griswold, who was a student at Harvard University, at the age of eight- een enlisted at the declaration of war. en- tering the naval aviation service, and re- ceived his commission as ensign in March, 1918, since which time he has been in ac- tive service in naval aviation on the North Sea and in Italy, and is still in the service. Edward Harvey enlisted for the war, but being too young had to content himself with the Students Army Training Corps.
CHARLES GUSTAVE LAWSON is a veteran in experience in the glass making industry, and has been connected with plants all over the district of the Middle West from Western Pennsylvania to Indiana. He is at present factory manager of Works No. 7 of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company at Elwood.
Mr. Lawson was horn on a farm in the district of Sodermanland, Sweden, in 1865. His parents were Lars Eric and Annie
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Charlotte Anderson. His father was a skilled cabinet and pattern worker, and was also employed for many years on a large estate in Sweden. While getting his edu- cation Charles G. Lawson helped his father on this farm and remained in Sweden until 1882, at the age of seventeen, when he came to America, landing in New York and join- ing an uncle who lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. He had no special qualifi- cations through skill in trade or otherwise, and depended upon his hands and labor to earn him a place of usefulness in the world. For 31/2 weeks he worked on the streets of Allegheny City. He then began as laborer in the plant of the Pittsburgh Clay Pot Company, and was with that firm for nine years, learning in every detail the trade of pot maker. Leaving them he removed to Findlay, Ohio, and was potmaker for the Findlay Clay Pot Company for seven months. In 1891 he went to Pittsburgh and was with the Phoenix Clay Pot Com- pany until June, 1892, when he went to Muncie, Indiana, and for one year was foreman in the clay pot plant of Gill Broth- ers Company. He returned to Pittsburgh in the fall of 1893, during the financial panic, and failing to secure employment in his regular line he did landscape garden- ing seven months. He was pot maker un- til 1895 with the Lancaster Co-operative. Glass Company at Lancaster, New York, and then went back to Findlay as pot maker for the Findlay Clay Pot Company. In 1896 Mr. Lawson joined the Ohio Val- ley Clay Company at Steubenville, Ohio, and after a year and a half was made fore- man of the plant and was there until 1909. He then accepted the position of foreman of the clay department at Bellairville, Pennsylvania, for the Columbia Plate Glass Company. In February, 1911, he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, and took contracts for the making of clay pots for the Federal Plate Glass Company eleven months. Then for two years he was foreman of the clay department of the Ford Plate Glass Com- pany åt Toledo, and on March 17, 1914, came to Elwood as factory manager of Plant No. 7 of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. This is one of the large plants of what is perhaps the largest plate glass company in the world, and at Elwood they manufacture shapes and blocks for glass making.
Mr. Lawson still owns property at Steu-
benville, Ohio, where he lived for many years. In 1902 he married Miss Stella N. Carnahan, daughter of Franklin and Mar- garet (Hale) Carnahan of Steubenville. They have two children : Charles Edward, born in 1908, and Dorothy Evelyn, born in 1911. They also legally adopted when one year old Vergil Irene Cheeks. This adopted daughter, who grew up in their home, is now Mrs. Lowell Rogers of El- wood and has one child, Robert Lowry, born on March 7, 1918.
Mr. Lawson has always been a vigorous republican in politics. At Steubenville he was elected a member of the City Council in 1907 from the First Ward, representing it two years. In 1917 he was elected a re- publican councilman in Elwood from the Third Ward for a four year term. His election was the only break that year in the solid triumph of the socialist party at Elwood. All other city offices were filled by socialist candidates. Mr. Lawson is chairman of the claims committee and a member of the advertising and other com- mittees of the City Council. He is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, and is prominent in Masonry, be- ing affiliated with Steubenville Lodge No. 45, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a past master, is past high priest of Royal Arch Chapter No. 15, and has also filled the various offices in the Council, Royal and Select Masters. In the Knights Templar he has filled all the offices except Knight Templar commander. He is a member of the Lodge of Perfection of the eighteenth degree, Scottish Rite, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks at Elwood and in 1918 was vice chancellor of the local lodge of Knights of Pythias. He is also a mem- ber of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
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