USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 5
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
since, developing a large clientele all over Madison County, so that the Starr pianos are probably as widely represented in the homes of the county as any other one make.
Mr. Duckworth married in 1898 Miss Dessie Jones, of Indiananolis. She died in 1905, leaving four children. In 1911 he married Miss Leone Cobburn, of Bluffton, Indiana. Mr. Duckworth is a republican, and is affiliated with the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
FREDERICK A. Joss has been engaged in the practice of law in Indiana more than a quarter of a century, and his home dur- ing nearly all this time has been at Indian- apolis. His prestige as a sound and able lawyer has long been secure. He has also been a prominent leader in the republican party, and through his profession and his public influence has exerted a commendable activity in various fields of business and civic affairs.
In the paternal line Mr. Joss is of Swiss ancestry. His grandfather was John Joss, who spent the greater part of his life in Germany, and served with distinction in the German army. His last years were lived in Constantine, Michigan. He had a liberal pension from the German govern- ment because of his army services.
Capt. John C. Joss, father of the In- dianapolis lawyer, was born and reared in Germany, was educated in the universities of Heidelberg and Halle, and soon after- wards, in 1856, came to America. He be- came editor of the Constantine Commercial Advertiser, a pioneer newspaper of Michi- gan. He was one of the few men in that section of the state at the time who pos- sessed a university training, and that to- gether with his own individual talents and ability brought him to a position of suc- cess and prominence. At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted in Company A of the Second Michigan Infantry, rose to the rank of captain, and was in the serv- ice three years, until incapacitated by an injury. He was in seventeen important battles of the war, including both battles of Bull Run, Chantilly, Fair Oaks and the siege of Vicksburg. At Knoxville, Ten- nessee, he received a severe wound, and on the third day of the battle of the Wilder-
1932
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
ness suffered an injury which necessitated the amputation of his left leg above the knee.
Coming out of the army Captain Joss returned to St. Joseph County, Michigan, and was elected county clerk, an office he filled continuously for fourteen years. While a county officer his home was at Centerville. After leaving office he lived in retirement, and was killed in a railroad accident February 2, 1881. Captain Joss married Mary Moore Merrell. She was born in Chautauqua County, New York, of New England Puritan stock.
Frederick A. Joss was born May 5, 1867, while the home of his parents was at Cen- terville, St. Joseph County, Michigan. He lived there thirteen years, acquired his first training in the public schools, after- ward was a student in the Ann Arbor. High School, and entered the University of Michigan with the class of 1889.
From university he went to Canada and spent about eighteen months looking after some important mining interests in the Province of Quebec. Returning to the United States, he located at Frankfort, Indiana, where he studied law under Samuel O. Bayless, who in his time was one of the prominent railroad attorneys of Indiana. Admitted to the bar in 1891, Mr. Joss did his first professional work in Frankfort, but in June of the following year came to Indianapolis and after a brief interval was accepted into partnership by Ovid B. Jameson. The firm of Jameson & Joss and later that of Jameson, Joss & Hay for many years had a standing second to none among the strong and resourceful legal combinations at Indianapolis. Mr. Joss is still practicing law and is also serv- ing as secretary of the Marion County Realty Company, and spends much time looking after extensive investments in vari- ous parts of the United States.'
His public record has three distinctive points, his service as corporation counsel of Indianapolis, his membership in the State Senate, and his leadership in the re- publican party of Indiana. He was ap- pointed corporation counsel in 1901. A notable feature of his official term was his success in bringing together the conflicting interests and claims of the local street rail- way people and the interurban lines to a settlement which contributed to the per- manent position Indianapolis occupies as
one of the chief centers of interurban and electric railways in the United States. Out of that settlement one of the immediate results was the construction of the great interurban station at Indianapolis.
Mr. Joss was elected a member of the State Senate in 1898, serving through the sessions of 1899-1901. Of his work as a senator and as a republican leader the best statement is found in the following words : "While in the Senate he introduced the famous Joss Railroad Consolidation Bill, a measure affecting noncompeting lines of railroads similar to the measures now recommended to congress by the In- terstate Commerce Commission, ex-Presi- dent Roosevelt and President Taft, amen- datory of the Sherman Law. He was also author of the Joss Primary Law, which was the initial step in this state toward primary reform and which Mr. Joss be- lieves to contain the correct theory of primary legislation, and to which all prim- ary laws will ultimately come, vız: a de- finite legal primary for the organization of parties, an optional legal primary for the selection of candidates, for the reason that an extensive double election system is a remedy and not an every day diet. In the season of 1899 he was one of the original Beveridge men, the manager of Mr. Beveridge's interests on the floor of the cancas when the latter became nominee of the republican party for the office of United State senator, and was chosen to make the nominating speech on the floor of the senate. Mr. Joss has been prominent in the councils of the republican party leaders during the last decade, being a delegate to the Republican National Con- vention in 1916, and has been distin- guished by a singular clearness of percep- tion and resourcefulness coupled with an unswerving loyalty to causes and men whom he espoused. He is an intense con- servative, a believer in existing conditions, but an advocate of change whenever the necessity and the method is plain."
Many times in the course of his active career Mr. Joss has left his business and other interests for travel, and has a knowl- edge of the world and its peoples such as come only as a result of wide travel and extensive observation. Shortly before the outbreak of the European war he spent two years abroad, traveling and studying, visit- ing practically all the countries of con-
1933
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
tinental Europe and also Northern Africa and Western Asia. Mr. Joss is a member of the Columbia Club, the Marion Club, University Club, Dramatic Club, Country Club, the German House, and the Indian- apolis Maennerchor. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree of Scot- tish Rite and membership in the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Dutch Reformed Church of America. September 2, 1891, he married Miss Mary Quarrier Hubbard. She was born and reared in West Vir- ginia, member of one of the oldest and most prominent families of Wheeling. Her parents were John R. and Lucy (Clark) Hubbard. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Joss are Mary Hubbard, Lucyanna Hubbard and John Hubbard. Besides the advantages of local schools these children were educated abroad, spending much time in finishing schools in Switzerland, the home of Mr. Joss' ancestors.
During the recent World war and after putting his business interests in a position to stand the unusual conditions Mr. Joss in 1918 moved his whole family to Wash- ington, where they were engaged in war work. Mr. Joss becoming legal advisor of the Engineering Division of the War De- partment.
HERBERT MARION ELLIOTT has been a member of the Grant County bar for a quarter of a century, but his work has been too broad to be included in any one pro- fession. He has been called "the chil- dren's friend" of Marion, and it is his achievements as a disinterested and public spirited citizen that make him best known in his home locality.
For several years he was secretary of the Marion Federation of Charities; for four years was probation officer for Grant County ; for six years was president of the Board of Children's Guardians; and since its organization has been secretary of the Grant County Hospital Association. This last institution is now one of his deepest interests. He was not satisfied until the association had carried out its plan and in 1917 had completed a well equipped hos- pital building valued today at $70,000 and representing one of the institutions that mean most to the welfare of the City of Marion and the county. All his work in behalf of child welfare has not been done merely through official channels. In fact
much of it has been as a result of his private enterprise. He has found homes for a large number of children, and the community has frequently expressed its gratification over the fact that it possesses a man who requires no official prompting to zealously preserve and safeguard the interests of delinquent and homeless juv- eniles. Several years ago Mr. Elliott wrote an article for a history of Grant County on the work of the Juvenile Court and its kindred agencies, and if the truth were known his own efforts would furnish most of the real material for the story of that philanthropy and official service. Mr. El- liott has written much on the subject of child saving and charity in general, and some of his ideas regarding the working of jail prisoners for the benefit of their families was made the subject of special endorsement at a session of the National Prison Reform Board. Mr. Elliott was the first man in Indiana to advocate the plan of using vacant lots in a city for rais- ing crops by and for the poor, a plan which of course has received much wider extension as a result of the war garden movement.
Mr. Elliott was born at Holly, Michi- gan, September 15, 1853, son of Marcus DeLos and Emily A. (Seely) Elliott, both natives of New York State. His father during the Civil war was captain of Com- pany H of the Eighth Michigan Light Ar- tillery, was a farmer by occupation, and among other offices served as a member of the Michigan Legislature from Oakland County in 1877-78. He died September 5, 1905, while his wife passed away in March, 1895. They had four children: Herbert M .; Addie E .; George M., now of Tacoma, formerly of Marion, Indiana ; and John D. By the second marriage of his father, Mr. Elliott has a half sister, Marion H., who is a public school teacher in Michigan. A foster sister, Cora Belle, was adopted into his father's family and who later as a public entertainer became broadly known as the "Child Elocutionist of Michigan."
The early life of Herbert Marion Elliott was spent on a farm and he early learned the lessons of self reliance. He attended common schools at Holly, high school and college at Ann Arbor, and increased his educational opportunities during a service of nine years spent as a school teacher.
1934
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
He also did some practical farming in Oak- land County. For about four years, un- til 1882, he was in the drug business at Holly, Davisburg and at Detroit. He also studied law, and on January 4, 1884, was admitted to the bar at St. Johns, Michi- gan. He practiced several years at Au- sable and Oscoda, Michigan, and in 1890 opened an office at Detroit. In April, 1893, he moved to his home at Marion, Indiana. While in Michigan he served as prosecuting attorney of Iosco County two terms and was Circuit Court commissioner for two terms, and for two terms was secretary of the board of education of Oscoda. Mr. Elliott and his brother George were in partnership as lawyers at Marion for fif- teen years. In that time they organized and established the Marion Planing Mill Company and the Marion Insurance Ex- change, and were identified with a number of other local enterprises. Mr. Elliott is a Mason, active in the Presbyterian Church and its Sunday School, and is a repub- lican in politics.
September 4, 1878, he married Miss Ella A. McLean, of Clio, Michigan. She was born in Genesee County, that state. Mrs. Elliott has been in close sympathy with her husband in matters of charitable work. They have two children, Harry McLean of Los Angeles, California, and Merle Dee Clark, of Indianapolis, Indiana.
WILLIAM LANGSENKAMP came to Indian- apolis about 1853, and was a coppersmith when the present metropolis of the state was but little more than an overgrown vil- lage. He continued to reside here sixty- four years, and his own activities and those of his descendants have brought many prominent associations of the name with the industrial welfare of Indianapolis.
When he came to Indianapolis William Langsenkamp was about eighteen years of age. He possessed the inherited thrift and industry characteristic of the German- American people, and it was not many years before he bought out the old copper- smithing firm of Cottrell & Knight, and thereafter until his retirement conducted it under his own name.
He was born in the Kingdom of Hano- ver, Germany, in 1835, and there had his early rearing. At the age of eighteen he left home and native land, following an older brother to America, and his entire
later life was spent in Indianapolis. He early became known as a skillful worker, and always retained the reputation of an honorable, upright man of business. He married Helen Hunt in 1862. Their chil- dren were: Henry; Helen, Mrs. Henry Gramling; Lilly; William; Clara, Mrs. William Clume; Bertha, Mrs. John Hab- ing; Frank; and Edith, Mrs. Leo Sulli- van.
William Langsenkamp died February 14, 1917, at the age of eighty-one, honored and respected for his many estimable quali- ties and achievements.
J. RALPH FENSTERMAKER, , secretary- treasurer of the Hugh J. Baker Company of Indianapolis, is one of the younger but among the most progressive business men of the capital city.
He was born at Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, July 18, 1891, son of John R. and May C. Fenstermaker, both of whom are still living at the respective ages of sixty-three and fifty-eight. This is an old colonial family in America. The first an- cestor arrived in 1732, and successive moves of the present branch is indicated by the fact that Mr. Fenstermaker's great- grandfather was born in New York State, his grandfather in Pennsylvania, his own father near Warren in Eastern Ohio, while he was born at Dayton in Western Ohio, and his son in Indianapolis.
Graduating from the Steele High School at Dayton at the age of sixteen, Mr. Fen- stermaker then pursued post-graduate work in languages and history at the high school and attended the old Miami Commercial College, one of the pioneer schools offering a general business course, which was sup- plemented by thorough commercial experi- ence in the Winters National and the Third National banks at Dayton, and also as spe- cial agent for a Casualty Insurance Com- pany.
Mr. Fenstermaker came to Indianapolis in June, 1911. He was at that time asso- ciated with Hugh J. Baker, formerly of Dayton, who had married Mr. Fenstermak- er's sister in June, 1906. The business as established at Indianapolis was a copart- nership known as the Fireproofing Spe- cialties Company. Later it was incorpor- ated in 1914 as the Fireproofing Company, and still later was consolidated with the reinforcing steel and engineering business
F. Ralph Fenstermaker
1935
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
of Hugh J. Baker on January 1, 1918, as the Hugh J. Baker Company. This is one of the large and important establishments of Indianapolis, and more information con- cerning it will be found elsewhere in con- nection with the sketch of Mr. Hugh J. Baker.
Mr. Fenstermaker has entered actively into all social and community affairs at Indianapolis. He is affiliated with Orien- tal Lodge No. 500, Free and Accepted Ma- sons, Oriental Chapter No. 147, Royal Arch Masons, the various Scottish Rite bodies and the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club, the Optimist Club and is a director in the Indianapolis Credit Men's Association. October 17, 1912, he married Wanda Louise DeBra, of Dayton, Ohio. Their two children John Ralph, born April 29, 1914, and William Bancroft Fenstermaker, born January 29, 1919.
THOMAS REED COBB was born in Law- rence County, Indiana, July 2, 1828. He attended Indiana University, and after completing his law training practiced at Bedford from 1853 until 1867. He then removed to Vincennes, where he was en- gaged in the practice of law until his death, June 23, 1892. He served as a member of Congress for ten years, from 1877 until 1887.
CHARLES H. RINNE. For upwards of thirty years a large section of the popu- lation of Indianapolis has known and ap- preciated the business service rendered by Charles H. Rinne. Until he retired a few years ago he was in the grocery business, and has accumulated a number of interests that give him a substantial position among the leading commercial men of the city. Mr. Rinne is now secretary of the Grocers Baking Company.
He was born near Hanover, Germany, July 9, 1865, son of Charles H. and Emilie (Wirgman) Rinne. His father, after serv- ing his time in the German army received the appointment as a deputy court officer, corresponding to the position of deputy sheriff in this country. He died in 1882, at the age of fifty-six. His wife died when her son Charles was a small child. Both parents were members of the Evangelical, Lutheran Church. In their family were seven children.
Charles H. Rinne was reared and edu- cated in his native land, and while there served a brief apprenticeship at the trade of confectioner. His brother Herman E. had come to this country and located at In- dianapolis in 1872, and it was the example thus set that afforded Charles H. Rinne his inspiration to become an American. He gratified that desire when seventeen years of age. Reaching Indianapolis, he worked for a time with Warmeling Brothers, and then entered the employ of the Vonnegut Hardware Company, with whom he acquired a thorough business ex- perience. When twenty-one years of age Mr. Rinne made application for citizen- ship papers, and at the age of twenty-five he became a full fledged American citizen and has always taken his citizenship seri- ously.
After leaving the Vonnegut Hardware Company Mr. Rinne worked for his brother Herman in the latter's grocery store, and three years later acquired a partnership in the business. In 1901 'Mr. Rinne sold out his store on Kansas and Meridian streets and at once opened a new store on Washington Street. In 1912 he retired from active merchandising. Be- sides his official position in the Grocers Baking Company, of which he is one of the seven originators, Mr. Rinne helped reorganize. the Indianapolis Casket Com- pany. This was a small business formerly conducted at Shelbyville, Indiana. The present organization was formed and took it over and established the plant at Indian- apolis, and has made it one of the larger enterprises of its kind. .
In February, 1889, Mr. Rinne married Emma Kuerst, daughter of Henry Kuerst. Mrs. Rinne was born in Indianapolis, at Madison Avenue and McCarty Street. They are the parents of two children, Her- man and Mrs. Edward Ott, of Dayton, Ohio. The son Herman is a successful young business man of Indianapolis and is also prominent in musical circles. Mr. Rinne is identified with various benevolent societies, and in Masonry is affiliated with the Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, Scottish Rite and the Mystic Shrine.
RICHARD HENRY MISENER is a retired engineer of the Michigan Central Railway Company and has long been a resident of Michigan City. He was born on a farm
1
1936
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
six miles from Niagara Falls, Ontario, March 26, 1849. His grandfather, Nicholas Misener, was a native of Germany, a pioneer farmer in Welland County, Can- ada, and lived there until his death at the age of ninety. He married a Scotch- woman named Mclain, and they had a family of eight sons and four daughters, most of whom lived to be over ninety years of age, and one son to the age of 104.
John Misener, father of Richard H., suc- ceeded to the ownership of the old Canada farm and spent his life there. The farm is now owned by one of his sons. He died at the age of ninety and his wife at eighty. Her maiden name was Jane Davis. Her father, David Davis, was a native of Ver- mont. John Misener and wife had a fam- ily of eleven children.
Richard Henry Misener grew up on the Canada farm and at the age of seventeen went to Joliet, Illinois, and for two years worked at farm labor. He then became a fireman with the Michigan Central Rail- road Company, and in 1872 established his home at Michigan City. He was promoted to engineer in 1875, and continued faith- ful in the service until 1902, when he re- tired and was pensioned. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi- neers and is also a Mason.
In 1876 he married Sarah A. Eastwood, who was born in Cook County, Illinois, daughter of Cyrus and Sarah (Hunter) Eastwood. Her grandfather, Cornelius Eastwood, was a native of Holland and for a number of years was a farmer in Lake County, Indiana. Mrs. Misener's father was a carpenter and later a farmer near the present site of Erie, Indiana, and finally engaged in the mercantile business.
Mr. and Mrs. Misener have one son, Her- bert R., who is member of the firm Robb & Misener, publishers of the Michigan City Evening News. Herbert R. Misener mar- ried Zeola Hershey, and their two children are Dorothy and Richard.
1
STANLEY COULTER. In May, 1917, hun- dreds of alumni and students of Purdue University and many distinguished scien- tists from all parts of the world gathered to participate in and lend the honor of their presence to the dedication of the Stanley Coulter Hall of Biology at Pur- due. Seldom does a man still in the full tide of life and energy receive such an
impressive tribute. Stanley Coulter, whose name the Hall of Biology bears in recog- nition of his twenty years of valued serv- ice to the university, has been an Indiana teacher and educator for over forty years, and while personally best known to the student and alumni body of Purdue Uni- versity, his achievements and attainments as a scientist are known among scholarly men in every state of the Union. The Stanley Coulter Hall of Biology was erect- ed upon the site of the old Science Hall on the Purdue Campus, where it is at once one of the latest and most distinctive of the university buildings, constructed at a cost of $100,000.
Stanley Coulter was born at Ningpo, China, June 2, 1853, son of Moses Stanley and Caroline F. (Crowe) Conlter. His older brother, John Merle Coulter, was also born in this far off missionary sta- tion, and has achieved distinction and scholarship along similar lines to his brother at Lafayette. John M. Coulter was formerly president of Lake Forest Univer- sity, but for over twenty years has been professor and head of the Department of Botany of the University of Chicago.
Stanley Coulter acquired his early edu- cation in the schools of Madison, Indiana, and when quite young entered Hanover College, from which he received the fol- lowing degrees: A. B. in 1871, A. M. in 1874, Ph. D. in 1879, and LL. D. in 1908. He began teaching soon after leaving Hano- ver, one year at Franklin, Indiana, and then in the Logansport High School, where he remained eight years as principal. Dur- ing a temporary absence from the teach- ing profession he practiced law, beginning in 1882, but after three years in that pro- fession he resumed the work for which un- doubtedly his talents and experience have best fitted him. He then became a pro- fessor in Coates College for Women at Terre Haute, but in 1887 came to Purdue University as Professor Biology and di- rector of the Biological Laboratory. In 1907 he became Dean of the School of Science, so that his full title is now Dean of the School of Science, Professor of Biology and Director of the Biological La- boratory.
Professor Conlter is a member of many scholarly organizations and educational as- sociations. Ile is a member of the Sigma Xi, Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Delta Chi,
1937
INDIANA AND INDIANANS
is a Fellow of the Indiana Academy of Science, which he served as president in 1897, a member of the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, of the State Board of Forestry, was the first president of the Science Teachers Associa- tion, is a member of the Western Society of Naturalists and a member of the Botani- cal Society of America. Professor Coulter was Lecturer of Botany in the Summer Schools of Wisconsin in 1893 and at Cor- nell University from 1903 to 1907, and has been Lecturer on Science Teaching at the Indianapolis Teachers Training School since 1900 and Lecturer to Seniors in Physiology at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Lafayette, since 1895.
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.