USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 52
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JAMES YORK WELBORN, M. D., who has earned special distinction as a surgeon, has for twenty years been associated with Dr. Edwin Walker of Evansville in the Walker Hospital, and is now the head surgeon of that noted institution.
Doctor Welborn represents one of the oldest familes of Southern Indiana, and also an American ancestry that goes back to the founding of Virginia. He was born at Stewartsville in Posey County. He is a lineal descendant in the tenth generation from John Welborn, who settled at James- town May 24, 1610. The heads of the suc- cessive generations in the American an- cestry are as follows : John, Jonathan, Cap- tain Thomas, Samuel, John, Jesse York, William Wallace, Dr. George Walker and James York.
Doctor Welborn's great - grandfather, Jesse York Welborn, a native of North Carolina, moved to Kentucky and thence to the Territory of Indiana prior to 1810. He had lived here half a dozen years before Indiana became a state. Locating at Mount Vernon, he was a man of prominence in that locality for many years, serving as postmaster. He wore the tall silk hat then the fashion, and the story goes that he car- ried the few letters constituting the mail for Mount Vernon in this headgear and handed them out to the addressees as he met them. He was also a member of the first State Legislature.
The medical profession is a tradition in the Welborn family. Doctor Welborn's grandfather, Dr. William W. Welborn, who was born at Mount Vernon, Indiana, grad- uated from the Evansville Medical College and after a brief practice in that city re- moved to Stewartsville in Posey County and continued his professional work until his death at the age of fifty-six. He mar- ried Hannah Walker, a sister of Dr. George B. Walker, of Evansville, dean of the Evansville Medical College. She survived her husband several years and died at Evansville at the age of seventy-eight.
Dr. George W. Welborn, father of James York Welborn, was born at Mount Vernon in 1843, attended old Asbury College, at Greencastle, Indiana, and soon after the
James Y. Welborn
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breaking out of the Civil war entered the Union army, and on account of his medical knowledge was assigned to hospital duty. He was in the army until the close of hos- tilities, and returning home soon engaged in the mercantile business at Evansville. Later he took the full course of the Evans- ville Medical College, graduating in 1877, and began practice in his father's home town, Stewartsville, and continued his la- bors until his death at the age of sixty-one. He married Martha Stinnette, who was born in Elkton, Kentucky, daughter of Whiting and Nettie (Britton) Stinnette. They had four children, named William, Annie, James York and Helen.
James York Welborn acquired his early education in the public schools of Stewarts- ville, also attended his father's alma mater, DePauw University, and from there en- tered the Marion Simms Medical School in St. Louis, from which he graduated in 1899. In the same year he came to Evans- ville and became associated with his cousin, Dr. Edwin Walker in the Walker Hos- pital. Doctor Welborn has always been a close student of his profession, has taken numerous post-graduate courses and is a member of the American College of Sur- geons as well as of the County and State Medical societies and the Ohio Valley Med- ical Association.
In 1902 he married Mamie Begley, daughter of Dr. Baxter Begley of Ingle- field, Indiana. They have three children, Susanna Jane, James York, Jr., and Mary Aline. Doctor and Mrs. Welborn are mem- bers of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a member of the official board. He has served as city health officer of Evansville, and during the war ac- cepted an appointment as consulting sur- geon of the Marine Hospital at Evansville, serving without pay. Fraternally he is af- filiated with Evansville Lodge No. 64, Free and Accepted Masons; Evansville Consis- tory of the Temple of the Mystic Shrine, Evansville Lodge No. 143, Knights of Pythias ; Lodge No. 214, Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows, and Evansville Lodge of Elks. He is also a member of the Coun- try Club.
Doctor Welborn is an enthusiastic hunter and has visited the canebrakes of Louis- iana, the tangled jungles of Missouri and the forest fastnesses of the State of Maine in search of big game. He humorously
states that most of the big game was alive at last accounts, and while this is no dis- credit to his marksmanship, it is evident that Doctor Welborn is more a hunter for the sake of outdoor life than for the trophies of the chase. At home he has evinced a fondness for the pursuit of hor- ticulture, particularly the growing of peaches. He developed an orchard of 100 acres in Georgia, and now has seventy-five acres of fine fruit in Vanderburg County.
The patriotic services rendered during the war by Dr. J. Y. Welborn of the Walker Hospital as consulting surgeon at the Ma- rine Hospital, serving without pay, have brought him recognition and honor. He has been issued a commission as surgeon in the United States Public Health Service, carrying the rank of major. His term will be for five years.
Doctor. Welborn offered the Walker Hos- pital and the services of its staff of physi- cians and nurses to the government wheu the amended physical qualification ruling was adopted, placing registrants with minor defects in a remedial group to be . accepted when cured. The Walker staff assisted in examining registrants of the First Division and tendered their services in caring for the families of soldiers.
WILLIAM CALVERT WELBORN, one of the able members of the Evansville bar, was born on a farm near Cynthiana in Posey county, son of Joseph R. and Rebecca (Cal- vert) Welborn, a grandson of Samuel Wel- born and lineally descended in the ninth generation from John Welborn, who ar- rived in Jamestown, Virginia, in May, 1610. Of the family James Welborn, represent- ing the fifth generation in America, served as a Revolutionary soldier. His son, Moses Welborn, emigrated from North Carolina and settled in Posey County, In- diana, improving a farm there. Samuel Welborn, grandfather of William C. Wel- born, was born near Guilford Court House, in North Carolina, and as young man went to Gibson County, Indiana, and while working on a farm met his future wife, Mary Waters. He remained in Gibson County and became a successful farmer and quite active in public affairs, serving four years as county treasurer.
Joseph R. Welborn was reared and edu- cated in Gibson County, later moved to Posey County, and for many years has been
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devoted to farming and stock raising, spe- cializing in pure-bred Shorthorn cattle and Poland-China hogs. He still occupies his old farm. His wife, Rebecca Calvert, who died in 1897, the mother of three children, was born on a farm in Posey County, a daughter of William and Martha (Endi- cott) Calvert and a granddaughter of Pat- rick Calvert, a pioneer of Vanderburg County.
William C. Welborn received his early education in the Cynthiana schools, gradu- ated Bachelor of Arts from the University of Indiana in 1899, and from the law de- partment of the University in 1903. He was admitted to the bar in 1902 and for eleven years practiced at Greenfield, In- diana. Since July 15, 1913, his home has been at Evansville, where he has practiced in partnership with Hon. A. J. Veneman. He is a member of the Vanderburg County Bar Association, and of the Greenfield Bap- tist Church, while his wife is a member of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. He married November 26, 1903, Edith Gauntt. She was born at Marion, Indiana, a daughter of Jasper and Addie (Evans) Gauntt. Mr. and Mrs. Welborn have four daughters named Marion, Ruth, Dorothy and Frances.
JOHN ROBERTS was a pioneer Indiana business man, one of the comparatively few who in the middle years of the last century had interests that extended beyond the immediate locality of his residence.
His home for many years was at Brook- ville, where he located as a boy from his native State of Kentucky. He was born near Georgetown, Kentucky, April 10, 1813, son of Billingsley and Nancey (Jew- ell) Roberts. His father was a modest planter in Kentucky, had a few slaves, but freed them many years before the war and in fact before abolition had become a prominent force or influence in the coun- try. He died in Kentucky and soon after- ward his widow in 1828 brought her little family to Brookville, Indiana, settling a short distance above that town. John Rob- erts, who was fifteen years of age when he came to Indiana, was second in a family of ten children. He had a very limited education, thoughi his own intellect and his constant habit of observation and industry well made up for this early deficiency. The schooling he did receive was obtained
in a log schoolhouse of pioneer times, com- forts and facilities.
At Brookville his first regular business was pork packing, and he built one of the leading establishments of its kind in that town. Later he engaged in milling and operated a warehouse. He also acquired and operated a line of canal boats between Cambridge City and Cincinnati. His busi- ness enterprises seemed to prosper almost without exception, and as his wealth ac- cumulated he invested in real estate, and owned large tracts of land in different parts of Indiana. . In character he was quiet and unobtrusive, though these quali- ties did not interfere with the exhibition of executive ability of the highest type. In whatever he undertook he was forceful and persistent and seldom undertook any- thing which he did not see through to suc- cess. During the Civil war he became en- deared to the families of soldiers by large contributions to their support and com- fort. After the organization of that party he acted with the republicans, though probably his name was never connected with a public office as an aspirant or can- didate.
In November, 1834, at the home of the bride three miles north of Brookville, Mr. Roberts married Mary M. Templeton, daughter of Robert Templeton, a promi- nent citizen and pioneer of the Brookville region who had come to Indiana from South Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. John Rob- erts had a large family of children, but only four reached maturity, and three are now living : Mrs. Caroline Peck; Mrs. Helen M. Heron; Mrs. Nannie R. Shirk, wife of Elbert H. Shirk of Tipton, In- diana ; and James E. Roberts.
Mr. John Roberts died January 14, 1891, and his widow survived him until Decem- ber 18, 1900.
James E. Roberts, their only living son, has for many years been a resident of In- dianapolis. He was born at Brookville, October 27, 1849, attended college at Brookville, and his first business experience was as clerk in a store in his native town. Later he removed to Lafayette and from there to Connersville, where for three years he was in the hardware business. Later he became a furniture manufacturer as mem- ber of the firm Munk & Roberts Furniture Company. In 1893 Mr. Roberts moved to Indianapolis and has since lived retired.
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November 23, 1881, he married Mary Claypool, daughter of Benjamin F. Clay- pool. She died October 16, 1894. On Jan- uary 4, 1905, Mr. Roberts married Hen- rietta West Stevens, daughter of John West of Reading, Pennsylvania, and widow of George E. Stevens.
ALEXANDER HERON. The services by which Alexander Heron became a figure in Indiana affairs were rendered during his many years of incumbency as secretary of the Board of Agriculture. He was a sterling figure among Indiana farmers, a leader and educator in the best sense of the term, and he did much that may properly be remembered and given a place in these records.
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, May 2, 1827, and died in Indianapolis May 29, 1900. His parents were James and Barbara Heron. James Heron with his family came in early days from Baltimore to Connersville, Indiana. Both he and his wife died in Fayette County, and of their six children two are living.
Alexander Heron received most of his education in Connersville, and after his father's death he remained at home tend- ing the farm for his mother. In 1873 he came to Indianapolis as secretary of the Board of Agriculture, and he held that office continuously until a few months be- for his death.
In politics he was a democrat, but had strong independent leanings. January 14, 1864, he married at Brookville, Indiana, Miss Helen Roberts, daughter of John and Mary M. (Templeton) Roberts. Mrs. Heron survives her honored husband, re- siding at 1827 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis. She is the mother of two children : Mary R., Mrs. J. J. Garver; and Charles A., who is a farmer in Tipton County.
Mrs. Heron's parents spent practically all their lives in Indiana. Her father was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and came to Brookville, Indiana, at the age of nineteen. He acquired several farms and various business interests, and both he and his wife died at Indianapolis. In politics he was a republican. Mrs. Heron was one of eight children, and three are still living, her sis- ter being Mrs. Nannie R. Shirk of Tipton, and her brother, James E. Roberts of In- dianapolis.
WILLIAM C. OSBORNE is president of the First National Bank of Danville and sec- retary of the Danville Trust Company. Hendricks County's financial history largely revolves around the First National Bank of Danville. It was founded in 1863, the same year that the National Bank Act was passed, and one of the men inter- ested in its establishment was the grand- father of the present president. It is an institution reflecting credit upon the per- sonnel of its officers and directors and of unequestionable resources and strength. The bank has resources of over $900,000, while its affiliated organization, the Dan- ville Trust Company, has resources of $120,000.
Mr. Osborne was born in Howard County, Indiana, June 16, 1865, about two years after the First National Bank of Danville was founded. His parents were Edmund and Martha (Cook) Osborne, and he is of an English Quaker family. His great-great-grandfather, Matthew Osborne, settled in North Carolina at an early day. Mr. Osborne's grandfather, Henry Os- borne, came from North Carolina to In- diana in 1820 and located on a farm in the southern part of the state, near Paoli, where for a time he engaged in wagon making. In 1835 he again pioneered, this time locating on a farm in Howard County. He was a devout Quaker and a man of ex- emplary life and principles. In 1875 he moved to Hendricks County, having pre- viously been interested in the establishment of the bank at Danville. His family con- sisted of three sons and one daughter.
Edmund Osborne was the oldest child. He spent most of his life in Howard County, where he became an extensive land owner, and much of that property is still held by his descendants. He died in 1907.
William C. Osborne is the oldest of the three living children of his parents. He had a common school education, also at- tended West Town Academy in Pennsyl- vania, and for several years taught school, his teaching experience being in the states of Pennsylvania, Florida and Iowa. Until about thirty years of age he spent most of his time on his father's farm and had an active share in the farm management. In 1895 he located at Danville, becoming book- keeper in a local bank and serving as cash- ier four years. Since 1906 he has been
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president of the First National Bank. Mr. Osborne is also one of the wealthy farmers of Hendricks County, having three well im- proved farms in that county and 220 acres in Howard County. He is a republican voter and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He retains the faith of his forefathers, that of the Quaker Church, and for a number of years has been a trustee of Earlham College at Rich- mond. His wife has served several years on the Educational Committee of that college.
Mr. Osborne married, October 24, 1899, Miss Christina Rogers, of Georgia. They have five children : Annie Martha, Florence, Elizabeth, Miriam and Edmund R.
STERLING R. HOLT came to Indianapolis in 1869. He was then nineteen years of age, and several years passed before his work and abilities attracted attention be- yond his immediate employers. Through sheer force of will and the exercise of good common sense and industry Mr. Holt has come to attain a prominent position in business affairs, and twenty years ago was a recognized leader in the democratic party of the State of Indiana.
Mr. Holt was born in Graham, Alamance County, North Carolina, March 26, 1850, son of Seymour P. and Nancy A. Holt. His parents were both natives of North Carolina and spent their lives there. Like other Southern families they suffered from the ravages of the Civil war, and as Ster- ling R. Holt was at that time of school age he was deprived of many of the advantages which in a peaceful condition of the coun- try he might have secured.
He had beeu on his own resources and making his own way for several years be- fore he came to Indianapolis. Here he worked at whatever employment was of- fered, and at the same time he prepared himself for a business career by completing a course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College.
In 1872 he began work as a clerk in the retail dry goods firm of Muir & Foley, with whom he remained three years. He practiced the strictest economy while there, and on leaving the house used his limited capital to establish a drug store at 164 West Washington Street, having as a partner a practical pharmacist. This busi-
ness grew and prospered for seven years, until Mr. Holt sold his interests.
In the meantime for four years he had been in the ice business and in 1880, after selling his drug store, he became associated with other parties in the organization of the Indianapolis Ice Company. In 1888 a division was made of this business, Mr. Holt retaining the wholesale department. For many years his fundamental interests in a business way at Indianapolis have been as an ice manufacturer and dealer. He acquired interests in ice companies and firms in various cities and towns of the state, and the Indianapolis enterprise con- ducted under his own name is the largest . of the kind in the city.
Mr. Holt in poilties has been a steadfast but broadminded and when occasion re- quires an independent worker in the demo- cratic party. Under Mayor Sullivan he was president of the Board of Public Safety for Indianapolis, in 1890 was elected chairman of the Marion County Demo- cratic Central Committee, and in 1892 was elected to the office of county treasurer. He filled that office one term, not being a candidate for re-election. In 1895 Mr. Holt became chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee of Indiana. After the National Convention of 1896 he resigned, since he was unable to support the free silver candidacy of William J. Bryan.
Mr. Holt is an active member of the In- dianapolis Board of Trade and the Com- mercial Club, is a Knight of Pythias and prominent in both the York and Scottish Rites of Masonry. He is affiliated with the Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and Knight Templar Commandery, with the Indiana Consistory of the Scottish Rite, and with Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Sep- tember 18, 1874, five years after he came to Indianapolis, Mr. Holt married Miss Mary Gregg. She is a native of Indiana, and her father, Martin Gregg, was at one time a successful business man of Danville. -
ALVAH C. STEELE represents one of the old and substantial families of St. Joseph County, was himself a successful teacher for a number of years, but since 1910 has concentrated his duties as cashier of the . North Liberty State Bank. Mr. Steele was one of the organizers of that bank and de- serves some of the credit for its growth and
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flourishing condition today. The bank has a capital of $25,000, surplus and undivided profits of $15,000, and its deposits are more than $200,000, reflecting the prosperity of that rich and attractive country surround- ing the Town of North Liberty. The presi- dent of the bank, Isaac Reamer, died re- cently, and at this writing the vice presi- dent, J. L. Weaver, is acting president, while most of the executive administration of the bank and its affairs devolves upon the cashier, Mr. Steele.
Mr. Steele was born at North Liberty, Indiana, April 16, 1877. His grandfather, Elias Steele, was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in 1810, and at an early age was thrown upon his own responsibilities by the death of his father. He came to manhood in Ohio, and in 1865 moved with his family to Plymouth, Indiana, and from there in 1867 to Liberty Township of St. Joseph County, where he bought 120 acres of land only partly cleared. He finally be- came proprietor of what has long been known as the old Steele homestead, about 200 acres in Liberty Township. In his time he was undoubtedly one of the largest land owners in St. Joseph County, having about 1,800 acres. He was not only suc- cessful in a business way but gave much of his time to the unremunerated duties as minister of the German Baptist Church. He was a notable figure in the life of St. Joseph County, and died on his farm at North Liberty in 1877. He voted as a whig and later as a republican. He married Elizabeth Bickel, who was born in Holmes County, Ohio, and died at North Liberty, Indiana, in her eighty-second year. They were the parents of a large family of eight children, six sons and two daughters.
John Steele, father of Alvah C., was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, in 1847, was reared and educated there, and was twenty years of age when the family moved to Liberty Township of St. Joseph County. There he became extensively engaged in the buying and shipping of stock, accumu- lated a fine farm of 260 acres, and was long regarded as one of the county's most suh- stantial citizens. He died at his old home in Liberty Township in 1890. He was a member of the Church of the Brethren and a republican in politics. John Steele mar- ried Emeline Houser, who is still living at North Liberty. She was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, December 12, 1844, daughter
of George and Lucy (Long) Houser, being one of eleven children. George Houser was born in Pennsylvania in 1813, and lived to be seventy-one years of age. He grew up in Ohio from the age of eleven and about 1856 brought his family to St. Joseph County, Indiana, where he followed farm- ing for many years. His wife was born in Pennsylvania in 1817 and died at the age of seventy-eight.
John Steele and Emeline Houser were married March 9, 1876, and they were the parents of four children. The oldest is Alvah C. The second is Mande E., who graduated from the Walkerton High School in 1899, taught school for a number of years, part of the time at Mishawaka, and is now the wife of J. F. Price, a hardware merchant at North Liberty. The younger daughter, Beatrice M., finished the com- mon school work in 1896, at the age of twelve years, graduated from the Walker- ton High School in 1902, and later received her degree A. B. from Indiana State Uni- versity, where she made her major study history. She has done much useful work as a teacher and is now principal of the high school of Tyner, Indiana. The fourth and youngest child is John R., who gradu- ated from the North Liberty High School and also from the Walkerton High School. and is now cashier of the Union Bank at Lakeville, Indiana.
Alvah C. Steele grew up on his father's farm in St. Joseph County, finished the course of the rural schools in 1894, and later was a student in Valparaiso Univer- sity. He began teaching in young man- hood, taught in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, and for one year was connected with the schools of Henryetta, Oklahoma. Mr. Steele put in an aggregate of fifteen years in school work, and during that time was superintendent of the city schools at Wakarusa, Indiana, and also of the public schools of Tyner and Larwill. Indiana.
Mr. Steele is treasurer of the Heim Ce- ment Products Company and is a director of the Union Bank of Lakeville, Indiana. He is a republican voter and has always taken a keen interest in everything that affects the welfare of his home community. He owns his residence on Maple Street in North Liberty.
November 26, 1903, at Walkerton, In- diana, he married Miss Mande Rensberger, daughter of Elias and Anna (Inman)
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Rensberger. Her parents reside at Walker- ton, her father being a retired merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Steele have two children : Max E., born May 15, 1909, and Robert A., born July 20, 1912.
WILLIAM OTIS ROCKWOOD. Of the Rock- wood family which for so many years has been prominently identified with the busi- ness and industrial fortunes of Indiana, William Otis Rockwood was head of the first generation in this state. The name to- day is most familiarly associated with a large manufacturing concern at Indian- apolis, but through the three generations of the family it has numerous connections with railroad building, manufacturing, banking and other interests not only in Indiana but in other states.
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