USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 57
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litigation have a similar effect on the law- yer's income.
The outstanding feature of his work is fraternal education and the promotion of the spirit of fraternity. Mr. Burtt is a widely known orator, and among his nu- merous addresses in public the one which he believes has accomplished the most good is entitled "Side Lights on American Sen- timent," in which he emphasizes "that the greatest need of the world today is the ap- plication of the principles of fraternity to all the issues of life and for men who are true fraternalists in their heart, who have learned the lesson of self-control, men who have become self-reliant, men who are in- spired by the spirit of service in their re- lations with other men." Mr. Burtt found the chief source of his inspiration on this subject in the great character of Lincoln, whose life and works are today vital in the world's affairs because they are so thor- oughly impregnated with the spirit of fra- ternity.
At the National Convention of the Re- ligious Education Association at Washing- ton in 1908 Mr. Burtt delivered an address on Fraternal Education, which later was published by the Association in the book entitled "Education and National Char- acter." At the second national peace con- gress held at Chicago in 1909, under the auspices of the Chicago Association of Commerce, Mr. Burtt's address on "Fra- ternal Orders and Peace" was published as part of the proceedings of the congress.
Mr. Burtt was one of the incorporators of the Fraternal Education Association in 1910, and was its president for eight years.
He has freely given his time and influ- ence to all fraternal education movements, community building, community welfare work, and in all movements organized to bring about the application of moral laws to the affairs of everyday life he has con- tributed his active co-operation.
His general and particular interest in crime prevention has been only a corollary of his other interests. In 1915 Mr. Burtt was chairman of the Crime Prevention Committee of the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of Illinois. Associated with him were John L. Whitman, of the House of Correction, and other practical sociologists. This committee made a crime prevention survey of lodge room environments in the City of Chicago. In 1912 he was chair-
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man of the Crime Prevention Committee of the Chicago Bar Association. This committee undertook a crime prevention survey of the illegal practices of lawyers, especially among those who encouraged lit- igation. Much more startling were the findings of the Committee of College Men, of which Mr. Burtt was chairman in 1910, undertaking a crime prevention survey of
the colleges and universities of the United States. This survey, it should be noted, was undertaken long before the present great war. It showed among other things that a large number of our colleges and universities were producing criminals and sending them out in the world to exploit society; that many of these institutions were turning out mental prostitutes as professors who had "finished off in Ger- many;" and that these men who had come under the German influence had lost all sight of moral values in life and were em- phasizing the necessity for merely physi- cal and mental efficiency, ignoring entirely man's spiritual nature.
It will serve a good purpose to note some of his other activities in this direc- tion. Mr. Burtt inaugurated and directed the Crime Prevention Movement among the lodges which helped to close 7.146 saloons in Chicago on October 10, 1915, without . on the converse should strive to make the the necessity of punishing anyone. This world unsafe for every element that is op- posing such progress. To that ultimate end of fraternal co-operation and good will Mr. Burtt is freely devoting his time and talents. movement was started in the Thomas J. Turner Masonic Lodge of Chicago, Janu- ary 10, 1907. In 1912 he directed the Crime Prevention Survey for the Chicago Law and Order League. He inaugurated In politics he has been more or less iden- tified with the democratic party, and served as a precinct committeeman of that party from 1910 to 1912. He is a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight of Pythias, an Odd Fellow, and a member of the University Congregational Church. He was one of the organizers of the Sane Fourth Association, and was one of its original twenty-one trustees. and directed the Crime Prevention Move- ment against landlords who tolerate law- less saloons in lodge buildings, a movement which started in Chicago January 11, 1915, and resulted in the Masonic Temple going dry on April 30, 1916. Mr. Burtt is now directing the movement to make every school, lodge, and church a preventorium, and for a long time has advocated co-oper- ation among the churches, schools and lodges in the Crime Prevention Movement.
In recent years Mr. Burtt has been drawn into many crime prevention move- ments, including the Sunday closing of sa- loons and law observance generally. He lends freely of his time and means in all matters of conciliation, arbitration and such measures as will prevent discord and hatred among men. He is intensely inter- ested in the prevention of injustice and
oppression, and again and again has of- fered his services in cases that came to his observation where poor or ignorant people are subjected to persecution. A case of this kind occurred recently involving the Damer family at Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The Damers were Russian Poles, who were made the victims of persecution and as- sault on the part of ill-advised patriots who alleged that they were pro-German. The Damers being unable to secure counsel in DuPage County Mr. Burtt's services were engaged and he not only defended the accused in court but went to the Glen Ellyn community and by bringing mem- bers of the two factions into a calm and dispassionate discussion secured a closer approximation to justice than could have been obtained from the most lengthy pro- cess of formal litigation.
In these feverish times when men are falling over themselves in the accomplish- ment of definite and practical tasks, and too often lacking a spirit of fraternity and the breadth of vision that comes therefrom, Mr. Burtt is undoubtedly a man with a message. That message in brief is that everyone should strive to make the world safe for everything and every person that makes for the betterment of mankind, and
Mr. and Mrs. Burtt have two children : John Gurney Burtt and Helen Katheryn Burtt. John Gurney Burtt married Miss Louise S. Avery, and they have a son, John Gurney Burtt, Jr.
J. DORSEY FORREST, corporation execu- tive and farmer, was formerly a professor in Butler College, at Indianapolis, but for the past ten years has been actively iden-
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tified with the organization, and general management of the Citizens Gas Company. of that city. Mr. Forrest has become widely known both in the field of seholar- ship and in business and technical affairs, and is one of the few practical business men of Indianapolis who may write the de- gree Doctor of Philosophy after his name.
Mr. Forrest was born at, Baltimore, Maryland, July 21, 1866, son of Andrew J. aud Emily Louise (Dorsey) Forrest. IIe, has an interesting ancestry. He is a direct descendant of that Thomas Forrest who, as a member of the London Company, which colonized Virginia, migrated to that colony in 1608 with his entire family and. was the first settler at Jamestown to bring, his family with him. After Bacon's Re- bellion, in which the Forrests sided, with Bacon, one branch of the family migrated to, Maryland and the other to Gloucester County, Virginia, in order to avoid perse- cution from Governor Berkeley .. It is from the Gloucester County branch of the family that the Baltimore Forrests are descended. Mr. Forrest's grandfather, Jacob Forrest, was a native of Baltimore, but of Virginia parentage.
Andrew J. Forrest who was born in Bal- timore in 1839, was a mechanical engineer. He died at Baltimore late in 1918. At the outbreak of the war between the states he went to Virginia to enter the Confederate Army, but on account of shortage of muni- tion plants and workers in the Sonth, was early withdrawn from army duty and as- signed to the mannfacture of cannon at the Tredegar Iron Works and later to the manufacture of rifles at an arsenal in Wil- mington, North Carolina. For a short time he was in the Confederate Navy, and he did a great deal of that hazardous work known as blockade running. He operated from Wilmington, Charleston and Galves- ton to Nassau, Bermuda and England. Three times he was captured by Federal cruisers but exchanged or released through efforts of the British ambassador after short periods in prison. After the war he re- turned to Baltimore and was in the sugar refining business until 1877, after which he was connected with numerous enter- prises as an engineer, including the city water department. He died late in 1918.
His wife, Emily Louise Dorsey, was born at Baltimore in 1838. Her father, Wil- liam Dorsey, was born in England, being
brought to Baltimore by his parents when a small boy. He was a builder in Balti- more until the war of 1861-65, when he entered the Confederate Army and rose to the rank of colonel. Following the war he settled in Western Virginia, where he lived until his death. Emily Lonise. Dorsey's mother died when she was a child, and her girlhood was spent with an aunt at Provi- dence, Rhode Island. She returned to Bal- timore about 1858, was married there in 1864, and left immediately for Nassau, Bahama Islands, which had become her hus- band's headquarters while in the blockade running service. At the close of the war she returned to Baltimore and is still living in that, .city.
J. Dorsey Forrest secured his early edu- cation in the common schools of Baltimore and the Baltimore City College. From 1881, when he was fifteen years of age, until 1888, he was connected with the brick manufacturing business at Baltimore, but left that, to enter Hiram College, near Cleveland, Ohio, and remained to complete the course, and receive his A. B. degree in 1892. During 1893 he was a graduate stu- dent in the Ohio State University, and from, 1894 to 1897 was a graduate student. and fellow in sociology at the University of Chicago. His degree, of Doctor of Philosophy was awarded him by the Uni- versity of Chicago in 1899. One of the products of his, scholarship is his work en- titled "The Development of Western Civi- lization," published in 1905 by the Uni- versity of Chicago Press and Cambridge (England). University Press.
On leaving the University of Chicago Mr. Forrest became Professor of Sociology and Economics in Butler College, Indian- apolis, holding that chair from 1897 to 1907. In the latter year he obtained a leave of absence in order to take charge of the organization of the Citizens Gas Com- pany. He soon found it necessary to de- vote his entire attention to the Gas Com- pany and resigned from the college faculty in 1909. He has since been secretary and general manager of the Gas Company, and its responsible executive from the time of its organization. The Citizens Gas Com- pany operates by-product coke ovens as the chief source of gas supply, and its business in eoke and by-products is much greater than its gas business. Early in 1916 Mr. Forrest undertook to expand the business
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by recovering and refining benzol products in order to supply the Allies with explo- sives. The company supplied materials for high explosives to Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy, and later to the United States. Its activities thus extended to all the battle fronts long before the United States entered the war. Through the man- agement of that important public utility he has rendered perhaps his chief public service to the city. In 1918 the Milburn By-Products Coal Company was incorpo- rated in West Virginia, to provide a por- tion of the coal required by the Citizens Gas Company of Indianapolis, and Mr. Forrest became president of that company. Mr. Forrest also owns and operates a large farm near Warrenton, Virginia.
Mr. Forrest has never been in politics and has never held an elective office. He was active in many movements for the pur- pose of bringing the United States to sup- port the Allies in the European war and was a member of the coke committee of the Council of National Defense until the council was superceded by various .gov- ernmental agencies. Mr. Forrest has been an independent in politics.
He is a member of the American Economic Association, American Socio- logical Society, American Gas Institute, By-Product Coke Producers' Association, American Saddle-Horse Breeders' Associa- tion, American Aberdeen-Angus Breeders' Association, Indianapolis Literary Club, University Club, Woodstock Club, Con- temporary Club and of the Disciples of Christ Church. These various organiza- tions indicate some rather unusual inter- ests and activities.
Mr. Forrest married Cordelia Kautz, daughter of J. A. and Inez (Gillen) Kautz of Kokomo, Indiana. Her father is pub- lisher of the Kokomo Tribune. They have one child, a daughter.
J. A. CONREY. For over half a century the name Conrey has been prominently identified with the business of furniture manufacture in Indiana. The pioneer i) this industry at Shelbyville was the late David L. Conrey, whose son J. A. Conrey is now head of the Conrey-Davis Manu- facturing Company, who have a plant that is one of the largest industrial assets of Shelbyville, and whose products are dis- tributed throughout the United States and Vol. V-21
in foreign countries. The firm is largely a specialty concern in the furniture line, manufacturing various types of tables and also such specialty articles as smokers' stands and cabinets, umbrella stands, lamps, etc.
J. A. Conrey was born July 1, 1854, in Franklin County, Indiana, son of David L. and Hannah S. (Jemison) Conrey. His father was born in Franklin County in 1830, spent the early part of his career there in the furniture manufacturing busi- ness, and finally in 1866 moved his plant to Shelbyville, where he had the first in- dustry of that kind in the city. His busi- ness grew, and from sales aggregating only a few thousand dollars a year the volume of business transacted finally reached more than a half million dollars annually. The business was operated under his own name and is still continued. He was a man of fine business and civic character and his death in July, 1916, was widely mourned. He was an active member of the Methodist Church, of Shelbyville Lodge No. 28 of Masons, and was a stanch republican. He and his wife had two sons and two daugh- ters, all of whom are still living.
J. A. Conrey, the oldest of the family, was educated in the public schools of Shel- byville, in Moorehill College, and after leaving school was for several years a gen- eral merchant in Shelbyville and Fayette counties. He then became connected with the furniture business as a traveling sales- man, and represented the output of several large firms. He was on the road altogether for twenty-five years, and in that time made his goods known to retailers and job- bers in every important city between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In the meantime, in 1885, he had also entered the manu- facturing end of the business, with Charles Beiley and Company, and was president of this business until 1902. In that year he organized the present Conrey-Davis Manu- facturing Company.
Mr. Conrey is a republican in politics, a member of the Methodist Church and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. In 1878 he married Miss Della Hecker of Shelbyville. Mr. Conrey owns a beautiful summer home in Northern Michigan, and spends some portion of every year in that delightful district, where his chief recrea- tions are fishing and golf.
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FRANK M. DILLING. It cannot be too frequently emphasized that character and enterprise mean more as vital factors in the success and development of a business than mere capital. A better illustration of the truth would be difficult to find than in the career of Frank M. Dilling, the great In- dianapolis manufacturing confectioner, head of an establishment that is easily reckoned as one of the big industries of the capital city.
From this industrial plant, employing in normal times a large force of people in the various departments, and from the handsome executive offices of Mr. Dilling it seems a far cry to that time about thirty- five years ago when Mr. Dilling with only $2.50 in cash assets made his first batch of candy designed for the commercial trade.
Mr. Dilling was born at Hagerstown, Indiana, March 31, 1867, and thus he is another of Indiana native sons who at- tained prominence in the business affairs of this state. His parents were Daniel and Sarah (Bowers) Dilling of Hagerstown. His father, who died in 1888, was for many years a druggist at Hagerstown. Frank M. Dilling spent his early years in his native town, attending common schools, and as he was possessed of the spirit of independence and his people were by no means wealthy, he accepted every opportunity even while a school boy to earn his own spending money. He sawed wood many days at a meager wage, and he also worked in his father's store and practically served an apprentice- ship at the drug business. When he was sixteen years of age he entered into an agreement to become an apprentice of Mr. Charles Legg at Hagerstown. Mr. Legg had a baking shop, and young Dilling spent three months learning that trade. From there he went to Richmond, then to Con- nersville and Hartford City. From Hart- ford City he went back to Hagerstown and about that time he determined to engage in that business which has since proved his life's work, manufacturing confectionery.
Having only $2.50, as above stated, and with no trade in prospect and nothing to encourage him or keep up his courage ex- cept his own determination and ambition, he encountered further opposition from his father, who did all he could to keep his son out of this venture. It is significant that two weeks after the beginning of the Dilling candy factory the father was so
interested and so thoroughly convinced as to form a partnership with his son. Frank M. Dilling after manufacturing his candy presented it to the retail trade, hiring out his horse and rig to take traveling men to the various villages in that section of the state. Thus by manufacturing a high class product and by using good business meth- ods to exploit its sale, Mr. Dilling soon found himself at the head of a prosperous business, conducted under the firm name of Dilling & Son. This continued until after the death of his father, and Mr. Dilling found himself handicapped for lack of a partner and from Hagerstown, moved to Marion, Indiana, in 1889, and organized a new business with Mr. Claude Fowler under the name of Dilling & Fowler. These men had a capital of only $60 to embark in the business and they secured the base- ment of a house in that town and cooked, slept, ate and made candy in those re- stricted quarters. Nevertheless the firm showed signs of prosperity and it did pros- per. After a year Fowler sold his interest to John Huber and Huber in turn sold the next year to J. M. Fowler of Camden, Ohio. Under this new organization the business continued and prospered for ten years.
In 1897 Mr. Dilling sold his interest in the business to J. M. Fowler, who there- after continued it under the name J. M. Fowler Company. From Marion, Mr. Dill- ing removed to Indianapolis and here en- tered business as a manufacturing confec- tioner on a large scale, organizing and in- corporating the firm of Dilling & Company with a capital stock of $40,000. Mr. Dilling is president, Mr. J. M. Cox is vice presi- dent, Guy Conkrite, treasurer, and Charles Cox, secretary. The business has grown by leaps and bounds and now occupies an imposing three story structure on North Senate Avenue. While its possibilities of expansion and increase have been seriously interfered with by present war conditions, it is an industry with resources and sta- bility more than sufficient to tide it over the critical times. Before the war the company had about 275 people on the pay roll and among other facilities has a fleet of fourteen automobile trucks. The confec- tionery of Dilling & Company has almost a nation wide distribution, and the standard and quality have always been maintained. As a special line of confec-
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tionery they specialize in chocolates and the manufacture of chocolate direct from the cocoa bean. Dilling & Company besides being a successful business corporation is to those intimate with its workings a large family of loyal and co-operating units, the firm having always shown a keen interest in the welfare of the employes, and the lat- ter responding with complete loyalty to the good of the business as a whole. It is cus- tomary for Dilling & Company to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the business every year on the 8th of February, and for a number of years this occasion has been made significant by a banquet at- tended by all the officers, directors and em- ployes of the company.
In 1893 Mr. Dilling married Rachael Frell. Two daughters were born to their marriage, Mildred and Charline. Mildred is a graduate of Knickerbocker Hall, and is a talented musician and harpist, con- ducting her own studios in New York City. She was a student of music in France until the outbreak of the war. The daughter Charline is the wife of N. C. Brewer of the Star Gum Company of Chicago, and they have two children, Charles and Mildred. In 1914 Mr. Dilling married Mary D. Whipple of Portland, Indiana, daughter of John and Mary (Foltz) Whipple.
GEORGE W. VARNER, M. D. In the thirty odd years of his residence at Evansville, Doctor Varner has earned above the best distinctions of the physician and surgeon the esteem paid a man of well rounded and balanced character and faculties en- gaged in many praiseworthy movements that insure and improve the welfare of an entire community.
He was born July 7, 1862, five miles south of Lincoln City in Clay Township of Spencer County, not far from where Abra- ham Lincoln spent part of his boyhood. His great-grandfather was a Kentucky pioneer. His grandfather, Jacob Varner, a native of Pennsylvania, came from that state to Indiana and was one of the earliest settlers of Spencer County, where he ac- quired and improved a tract of Govern- ment land and lived out his years as a farmer.
Doctor Varner is a son of Isaac and Ida M. ( Alley) Varner. His father was born in. Spencer County in 1825, and after he was grown took up a Government claim a
mile from the old homestead. The log cabin he built was the home to which he took his bride, and in following years his industry put much of the land under cul- tivation, he set out fruit trees, erected good frame buildings and for many years was one of the most substantial citizens of the community. He died in 1900. His wife, who died at the age of eighty-one, was also a native of Clay Township, where her father, Samuel Alley, had established a pio- neer home. These worthy parents had five children : Jacob N., deceased; George W .; Charlotte Ann, now occupying the old homestead; William T., who also followed a medical career and is deceased ; and Alice, Mrs. Lewis Hutchinson.
George W. Varner has always been in- elined to studious ways and scientific tastes. From the common schools of his home neighborhood he entered the National Nor- mal University at Lebanon, Ohio, when Alfred Holbrook was at the head of the school, and was there well fitted for the task of teaching, which he followed while studying medicine. In 1886 he graduated from the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, with the highest honors of his class and was recipient of two gold medals, one for general proficiency, the other for best examinations in anatomy. For a year he served as interne or house physician at the Louisville City Hospital, and then ac- cepted a further opportunity for experi- ence under the direction of men high in the profession as interne in the New York Hos- pital for the Relief of Ruptured and Crip- pled Children. In 1895 he left his growing practice at Evansville to take post-gradu- ate courses in New York and at Vienna, Austria, where he came in touch with some of the master surgeons of the world, giving special attention to that branch and to gynecology.
Doctor Varner located at Evansville in 1888, establishing his office on the west side. His work as a skilful surgeon early attracted attention, and for years his prac- tice came from practically every county in Southern Indiana. He has been surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital and the Vanderburg County Orphans Home, has been examin- ing physician for many fraternal orders and insurance companies, and the heaviest demands were made upon him as a cousult- ant. He is a member of the Indiana and American Medical Associations, and has a
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