USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
was one of the state commissioners that se- lected Indianapolis as a site for the new state capital and made the first plat of the city.
Mr. and Mrs. Goodell have two sons, Charles Lawrence, born in Franklin, In- diana, May 12, 1895, and Robert Taylor, born at Indianapolis March 20, 1898. Charles Lawrence gave up his studies as a sophomore in Denison University in the spring of 1917 to go into business at In- dianapolis. A short time later he enlisted in the Naval Radio Reserve, took his train- ing in the Great Lakes Naval Station, was transferred to the Ordnance Department and is now Merchant Marine Quartermas- ter Customs Naval Inspector at Geneva, Ohio. Robert Taylor Goodell took his aca- demic training in Doane Academy of Deni- son University and is now in Franklin, In- diana.
HILARY EDWIN BACON, owner of a large department store in Evansville, is a suc- cessful and it may be said a typical Ameri- can business man, thorough, methodical, broad-minded, public spirited and with many interests that make him valuable to the community, though essentially one of its quiet and most modest members.
He was born November 6, 1851, at Roar- ing Springs, Trigg County, Kentucky, of a fine old Southern family, his father, Charles Asbury Bacon, having been born in Virginia and his mother, Margaret (Gib- son) Bacon was a native of Alabama. He grew up on a Kentucky farm, attended country school, and left business college at Evansville to enter the dry goods busi- ness. The large department store of which he is proprietor is in the nature of an evo- lution of his own abilities and progress from young manhood to the present. He is also a director of the Citizens National Bank and the Morris Plan Bank. Politi- cally he is classed as a liberal democrat, voting for the best man and the best meas- ures of the time regardless of party. He is on the official board of the Trinity Metho- dist Episcopal Church.
October 11, 1888, he married Miss Albion Fellows, daughter of Rev. Albion and Mary (Erskine) Fellows. The sketch of Mrs. Bacon as one of the prominent Indianà women of the present generation is pub- lished on other pages of this publication.
2169
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
Mr. and Mrs. Bacon had four children: Margaret, deceased ; Albion, wife of George D. Smith; and Joy and Hilary, twins.
PUBLIC SAVINGS INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA is one of several prominent in- surance organizations whose home is in In- diana. It has already developed an exten- sive business in ordinary and industrial in- surance, and is the only company of its kind in Indiana covering these two lines.
It was organized January 1, 1910, start- ing out with a capital of $100,000. In 1911 this was increased to $289,010, which is its present paid up capital.
The first president of the company was H. Thomas Head, the first secretary-treas- urer was Charles W. Folz, and the first vice president, Lawrence G. Cummins. The first medical director was Dr. M. C. Leeth. In 1917 Mr. Head retired as presi- dent and was succeeded by Dr. Carl G. Winter. In 1911 Mr. Cummins was suc- ceeded by William F. Fox as vice presi- dent.
GUSTAVUS SCHURMANN, remembered by many of the citizens of Indiana, and par- ticularly Indianapolis, was christened John Melchior Gustavus Schurmann, It is with- in the bonds of moderation to speak of him as one of the most eminent foreign born citizens who had their home at Indian- apolis. He died in that city October 4, 1870. The impress of his life and works can be traced in Indianapolis commerce and real estate today.
America received a priceless gift of citi- zenship in the thousands of high spirited Germans who were driven out of their na- tive country and came to this land of free- dom during the late '40s. Among those who thoroughly represented the wealth and social station of the Fatherland Gustavus Schurmann was one. He was born at Eilpa, near Hagen in Westphalia, Ger- many, on Christmas day, 1811. His father was a well-to-do cloth manufacturer. Gus- tavus was liberally educated, and when a young man took up the manufacture of broadcloth at Aix-la-Chapelle, this being his father's occupation. Eventually he op- erated one of the largest establishments of its kind in Prussia, a factory that pro- duced broadcloth and woollen blankets. His intellectual pursuits were varied. He mar-
ried in Germany and became the father of two children by this wife, who died in the old country.
It is highly significant that Gustavus Schurmann, though a man of considerable property, had an active sympathy with the movement toward democracy in the Ger- man provinces and staunchly aligned him- self with those who brought this movement to the circle of the revolution in 1848. Many thousands of aspiring young Ger- mans had expatriated themselves after the collapse of the revolution, but Gustavus Schurmann had to do even more, he had to sacrifice much of the wealth which he had accumulated. From Antwerp he took pas- sage on a sailing vessel bound for America, landing in New York after seven stormy weeks. He went first to Washington and then to Virginia, and in this state he mar- ried Catharine Bengels, who had come to America on the same vessel that brought Mr. Schurmann.
The capital he had brought from the old country, made him a fortune. About 1850 he came west, locating in Louis- ville, Kentucky, where he soon acquired considerable property. One of his charac- teristics was his undaunted faith in Amer- ican investments. At one time when Louis- ville citizens were offering their properties for sale at a sacrifice on the Court House steps, he invested freely and placed a large share of his surplus in local properties which subsequently redeemed themselves and proved the validity of his judgment. While at Louisville he also acquired inter- ests in the Louisville & Nashville, the old J. M. & I. and the Little Miami and other railway properties.
He was a keen and eager student of American life and institutions. Indianap- olis appeared to him as a city of commer- cial possibilities and as a home town, and later he bought the property at the north- west corner of New York and Meridian streets, on which stood one of the first brick dwelling houses in Indianapolis. During the early '50s he came to Indianapolis to make this his permanent home, and there- after steadily devoted himself to his grow- ing business interests. Gustavus Schur- mann, as this record indicates, was a man of wonderful capacity and of varied knowledge and adaptability. He supplied much capital and also his individual
2170
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
strength of judgment to many of the com- mercial enterprises at Indianapolis. He was also one of the founders of Oil City, Pennsylvania. At the time of his death he was regarded as one of the largest real estate owners in this city.
With all his wealth he was extremely charitable. He contributed liberally of his means to the support of benevolent and charitable concerns. Especially during the Civil war his patriotism displayed itself in generous contributions to the Union. He was the largest individual contributor in Indianapolis of money and means to the cause. From first to last he had implicit faith in the North, in the justice of its stand and in the inevitable issue of the conflict. He was a Protestant in religion, and in politics had no active part so far as office holding was concerned. His wife died at Indianapolis April 11, 1858. Their four sons and one daughter were named Alphonso, Charles, Emma, Edward, and Henry. Charles died December 22, 1911. Alphonso, who married Emma Baunach, lived in New York and died May 11, 1919. He has two children surviving him, named Edward and Clifford. Charles married Maria H. Jones, who had been principal of the Sixth Ward School in Indianapolis, and of their two children, Howard and Helen, the latter is now deceased. Emma married Edward Schurmann, a cousin, and is now living near Dresden, Saxony. The son Henry was born April 7, 1858, was edu- cated in this country and abroad, married Eva L. Smock January 12, 1881, and lives in Indianapolis.
Edward Schurmann was born at Indian- apolis May 2, 1856. He received his first advantages in the local schools of this city, but at the age of fourteen was sent abroad to Germany, where he attended private school at Dresden, also Leipsic University, and coming back to his native land pur- sued special courses in chemistry and lan- guages at Harvard University. Mr. Schur- mann is a widely traveled citizen of In- dianapolis. He has been abroad many times for pleasure, and he knows European life and conditions almost as well as those of his native country. After his education he engaged in the art glass business at Indianapolis. He has interested himself in many movements for civic improvement and betterment. He married Lida R. Heaton.
JOSEPH H. WEINSTEIN, M. D. Combin- ing the services of father and son there has been a Weinstein engaged in the prac- tice of medicine and surgery in Terre Haute for forty years. Both representa- tives of the name have gained distinction in the field of surgery, and Dr. Joseph H. Weinstein might be named with the ablest men in that branch of the profession in In- diana.
His father was the late Dr. Leo J. Wein- stein, who died at Terre Haute in 1909. He was born at Covington, Kentucky, Jan- uary 19, 1848. His father, Joseph Wein- stein, was a native of Russia and his mother of Germany. Doctor Leo was six years old when his mother died and eleven at the death of his father, and was thus early thrown upon his own resources. Possess- ing rather more than average abil- ity and ample courage and enterprise to adapt himself to circumstances, he man- aged to acquire considerable schooling in Cincinnati, Covington, Kentucky, and Day- ton, Ohio, and all the time was working out the problems of his existence. Though very young at the time, he was handling a small clothing business at Pana, Illinois, while the Civil war was in progress. While at Pana he began the study of medicine under Doctor Huber, later studied under Dr. J. H. Leal at Bement, Illinois, and during 1867-68 was a student in Rush Med- ical College in Chicago. He began prac- tice as an under graduate in Piatt County, Illinois. In 1874 he graduated M. D. from Miami Medical College at Cincinnati. Early in 1878 Dr. Leo Weinstein moved to Terre Haute, where his abilities and tal- ents soon gained him recognition and brought him a large and profitable practice. In 1894 he went abroad, and was a student of the advanced methods and of some of the great physicians and surgeons of Lon- don and Edinburgh. Dr. Leo Weinstein as a specialist in gynecology was for a num- ber of years on the medical staff of the Union Hospital at Terre Haute, which he with Doctor Young, and Doctor Swafford established. He retired several years be- fore his death. He was a member and at one time president of the Aesculapian Medical Society of the Wabash Valley, and also a member of the Vigo County and In- diana State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. He was also a figure in local politics as a republi-
2171
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
can. In 1887-89 he represented his home ward in the City Council, became secretary of the Terre Haute Board of Health in 1884, and was secretary of the County Board of Health from 1887 to 1889. In 1902 he was elected a member of the Vigo County Council, and during his two terms of service was president of the council. The Wabash Bridge and the Glenn Orphan Home were built while he was president. He was a Mason and Odd Fellow and a member of the First Congregational Church of Terre Haute.
December 25, 1866, Dr. Leo Weinstein married Miss Thirza B. Hamilton, who was born in Vigo County, Indiana, and is still living at Terre Haute. Her father, Joshua B. Hamilton, was a pioneer physician of the county. Dr. Leo Weinstein and wife had three children : Carrie L., wife of John V. Barker; Alice E., wife of Alexander G. Cavins, of Indianapolis ; and Joseph H.
Dr. Joseph H. Weinstein was born near Monticello, Piatt County, Illinois, July 16, 1876, and was two years of age when his parents moved to Terre Haute. In that city he acquired his early education in the grammar and high schools, afterwards for a time was a student of medicine and den- tistry at Chicago, attending Rush Medical College, also studied privately under his father, and in 1897 graduated from his father's alma mater, Miami Medical Col- lege at Cincinnati. He became associated with his father in practice at Terre Haute, and gradually assumed practically all the business of the firm. After the death of his father he was associated with several men of his profession. Doctor Weinstein has accepted every opportunity to associate himself with the eminent men of his pro- fession, went abroad in 1905, attending clinics and medical courses at Berlin, Vienna, and London, and before returning to Terre Haute was a resident student of the New York Polyclinic for a time. For a number of years he has been gynecologist of the Union Hospital staff at Terre Haute, and is a member of the Aesculapian Med- ical Society, the State Medical Association, and the American Medical Association. He also is affiliated with the Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows, and with Lodge No. 86 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In a business way he was vice president of the Fouts Hunter Manufac- turing Company of Terre Haute.
In 1898 Doctor Weinstein married Anna M. Hunter, daughter of Col. W. R. and Callie Hunter, both now deceased. They have one daughter, Marion, who attended Goncher College at Baltimore for two years, after which she served in the medi- cal department of the army, as laboratory technician, at Rockefeller Institute, New York City.
Dr. Joseph H. Weinstein was given a cap- taincy in the Medical Corps of the army, and assigned to duty for special course of instruction at the Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago, May 4, 1918. From there he was sent to Camp Logan, Houston, Texas, where he was transferred to and made chief of surgery in Base Hospital Eighty-Six, sail- ing September 1st, 1918, for France. This Base, located at Mesnes, is the largest hos- pital center of its kind in the world.
BURTIS PAUL THOMAS, City Engineer of LaPorte, has spent all his life in LaPorte County, is a practical civil engineer and surveyor, and his name and career serve to introduce . a number of well known fam- ilies of that part of the state.
Mr. Thomas was born in Scipio Town- ship, a few miles south of LaPorte, June 29, 1874. His great-grandfather was a relative of the Daniel Boone family, and was born in Buncombe County, North Car- olina. He moved across the mountains and became an early settler of Kentucky, where he married. Later he established a home in Jennings County, Indiana, and was there in time to live with and be ac- quainted with many of the Indians and In- dian chiefs. He was a real frontiersman, and was completely at home in the wild life of that section. An expert hunter, he practically supplied his table with wild meat all the year. He also improved a good farm from the wilderness, and con- tinued his residence there until his death.
His son, Elias C. Thomas, grandfather of the LaPorte civil engineer, was born in Jennings County and though his boyhood was spent in a time when schools were meagerly equipped, he made such good use of his opportunities that he was able to teach and conducted some of the pioneer subscription schools in the log cabins of his locality. He also became very profi- cient in using the old fashioned implement known as the frow in making shingles. After his marriage he moved to Jefferson
2172
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
County, Indiana, renting land seven miles from Madison, and lived there until 1844. That was the year when the Thomas fam- ily became established in LaPorte County. From the southern part of the state they came north by wagon and teams, since there was practically no other method of transportation. They also brought along two cows. They were on the road sixteen days, and on arriving they found LaPorte a small village. The head of the family used his team to haul and transport goods and various commodities for a time, and later rented land in Kankakee Township and continued the life of a farmer until his death at the age of sixty-two. He mar- ried Caroline Patton. She was a native of North Carolina. Her father, Houston Pat- ton, a native of the same state, came to In- diana as a pioneer in Jefferson County, im- proved a farm there, and in 1844 he also came to LaPorte County and bought land that is now included in the Fair Grounds. Houston Patton was an active farmer un- til after the death of his wife, when he re- tired to LaPorte and lived with his son, dy- ing at the advanced age of eighty years. He married a Miss Cunningham. Caroline Patton Thomas died when about sixty years of age. Her nine children were Frank, Davidson, Joseph A., Thomas J., Andrew, Elizabeth, Lizzie, John M., and Silas A.
Joseph A. Thomas, father of Burtis Paul, was born in Jefferson County, In- diana, October 12, 1842, and was in his sec- ond year when the family came to LaPorte County. He attended the pioneer schools here, and after reaching manhood became associated with his father and brother in farming. In May, 1864, he enlisted in Company B of the One Hundred Thirty- Eighth Indiana Infantry for the 100 days' service. He was made corporal in his com- pany, and was with his regiment in the South until honorably discharged Septem- ber 20, 1864. He then resumed his place on the farm and after his marriage bought land in Scipio Township. This he occupied several years and then moved to the farm of his mother-in-law in Wills Township of LaPorte County. This farm subsequently was inherited by his wife, and they made that their home until 1918 and now live retired in LaPorte. In 1873 Joseph A. Thomas married Mary Ingram. She was
born in Wills Township of LaPorte County August 21, 1852. Her father, William In- gram, a native of the vicinity of Hagers- town, Maryland, and the son of a planter and slave holder in that state, grew up there and after a brief residence with an uncle in Ohio came to LaPorte County and bought land in Wills Township, becoming identified with the country in its pioneer area of development. A log cabin stood on the land, and in that cabin his daughter Mary was born. Later the logs were plas- tered inside and weather-boarded out, and with a frame addition it served as a com- fortable residence until the death of Wil- liam Ingram at the age of sixty-two. He married Sarah Wagner, a native of Hamil- ton County, Ohio. Her father, David Wagner, was one of the first settlers in La- Porte County, securing land in Wills Town- ship, which he occupied until his death. Mrs. Sarah Ingram survived her husband many years and passed away at the age of seventy-seven. Joseph A. Thomas and wife had two sons, Burtis P. and Benja- min J.
Burtis Paul Thomas attended the city schools of LaPorte. He was very fond of athletics and outdoor sports and while in high school was a member of the football team, and in one of the games was seriously injured, his hearing being impaired, and in consequence of this injury he did not re- main to graduate and soon resumed his place on the farm. Later he took up the study of surveying and civil engineering, and has rendered a great deal of service in that capacity. In 1911 he was elected county surveyor and re-elected in 1913, serving two full terms. In January, 1918, he was appointed city engineer of LaPorte and is now giving to that position all his professional time and energies.
In 1909 he married Miss Ella C. Seidler. She was born at LaPorte, a daughter of Joseph and Mary Seidler. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have two children, Valerie and De- los. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are members of St. Paul Episcopal Church. He is af- filiated with Excelsior Lodge No. 41, An - cient Free and Accepted Masons, LaPorte Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons. La- Porte Council No. 32, Royal and Select Masters, and he and his wife are members of LaPorte Chapter No. 280 of the Eastern Star. He is also affiliated with the Elks.
2173
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
CLEMENS VONNEGUT. As was pointed out by Mr. Dunn in his History of Indian- apolis, no single foreign nationality, as a nationality, had a greater influence in the development of the city than the German. The city owes a special debt to the Ger- mans who came following the collapse of the revolutionary movement of 1848. Iu that struggle they had lost their father- land, but they brought with them to the New World a vision and an impulse to in- tellectual and political betterment which meant much to the new nation, as a nation, and to countless communities throughout the Middle West. On the broad prairies and in the forests, in peace and in war, in every branch of human endeavor and hu- man achievement, by brave and earnest. service they made compensation to the land of their adoption. One of these at Indian- apolis was the late Clemens Vonnegut.
At fifteen years of age Clemens Vonne- gut, Sr., was apprenticed to a merchant banker in Muenster, Westphalia. Six years later he entered the business of a manufacturer of silk velvet ribbons at Cre- feld, on the Holland border. He made rapid progress and after having covered France, Belgium, Holland, England, Aus- tria, and the German countries as a com- misvoyageur he was entrusted with the task of establishing an agency in America.
Mr. Vonnegut arrived in New York City in the summer of 1851, when twenty-seven years of age. He came, he saw, and he was conquered. The purpose in hand ac- complished, he resigned his position, re- nounced allegiance to his erstwhile king, and became a citizen of the United States, in all that word implies.
Before we follow him out West let us speak of the personality of the man, who has now long been gathered unto his fath- ers. He had to quit school before grad- uating because of ill health and weak eyes. While he did not become robust, he built up his constitution through outdoor exer- cise and gymnastics, and was enabled to endure the hardships, first of a European apprenticeship and then that of the Amer- ican small-town storekeeper in the days when business hours extended from the crow of the cock until late into the night.
When he left school he decided to im- prove his interrupted education after busi- ness hours, and while his colleagues lounged, he finished his school work, and
kept up his music and reading of English, French, and German classics and history. He was never interested in cards, hunting, or fishing, and that may account, in part, for his aversion to the handling of sporting goods, which in the early days consisted mainly of guns and tackle. Golf was not then in vogue. For sociable recreation he joined a singing society and a gymnastic association.
He was earnestly interested in public af- fairs, especially in educational matters. He was a republican in politics, independ- ent, however, in local affairs, yet he was a member of the School Board for twenty- eight years and but for enfeebled health could have enjoyed the honor more years, though he never spent a minute nor a dol- lar at electioneering. He was willing to serve conscientiously, if called, but willing to retire if another should be found more desirable. It is very fitting and appro- priate that one of the public schools of his city is named in his honor.
Before becoming so closely identified with the public schools he assisted in the founding of the German-English Inde- pendent Schools, which the German citizens of Indianapolis established in 1859 to sup- plement the rather meagre facilities af- forded at that time by the common school system. For a dozen years following the Civil war it was one of the famous institu- tions of Indianapolis, and for over fifteen years Mr. Clemens Vonnegut was one of the most active members of the society sup- porting the school ; in fact was its president most of the time.
Mr. Vonnegut was also a member of the Indianapolis Turngemeinde, from which was later developed the Social Turnverein of Indianapolis. This characteristic insti- tution of German club life was established in 1851. The members of this organiza- tion were the pioneers in introducing phy- sical education and manual training in the public schools. Clemens Vonnegut held a fifty-five years membership in the Turn- verein, and his influence and co-operation were vital in the establishment and suc- cessful operation of the Normal College of the North American Gymnastie Union, lo- cated in the Athenaeum.
It is worthy of note that in 1917 Gov- ernor Goodrich and Lieutenant Ord, of the United States Army, found the members of the college better qualified for drill mas-
2174
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
ters than the members of any other local organization.
When in 1896, at seventy-two years of age, Mr. Vonnegut retired from business, he kept himself in good physical condition through gymnastics and long walks. He continued the study of music and wrote essays on education and moral philosophy, and translations into his native tongue from a favorite American author.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.