USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 58
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large library of medical works and an ex- tensive collection of books covering his fa- vorite branches of general science and lit- erature.
Outside of his profession there is abun- dant evidence of his energies and versatile gifts and interests. He is vice president and one of the organizers of the West Side Bank; is vice president of the West Side Building, Loan and Savings Association ; and president of the West Side Real Estate and Insurance Company. He was one of the organizers and first medical director of the American Bankers Life Insurance Company. He is a director of the Evans- ville Pure Milk Company, and for two years president of the West Side Business Men's Association. He was the first to ad- vocate a public city library, and was chair- man of the committee to raise funds for that purpose and secure the liberal dona- tion made by Mr. Carnegie. Now no city in the country is better served by library facilities, there being several branches of the main library, and the circulation of books has reached 50,000 a month.
While so much of his life has been de- voted to work that in the best sense of the term is public service, Doctor Varner has not been in polities beyond casting a vote for republican candidates and serving dur- ing 1893-95 as member at large on the city council. He is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church and of the lodge, chapter and commandery in Masonry and the Mystic Shrine.
June 24, 1891, Doctor Varner married Miss Olive L. Edmond, danghter of John F. Edmond, a well known farmer citizen of Vanderburg County. Their five chil- dren are Olin E., Vietor I., Marguerite O., Earl V. and Norman L. Marguerite is the wife of Samuel Howard and they have a son named George Preston. The son Olin is the soldier representative of the family, serving as supply sergeant with the Na- tional Army in France. Victor is preparing for his father's profession as a student in the University of Indiana.
WILLIAM P. COLLINGS earned his first success as a livestock dealer in Parke County, where he was born and reared, and from there about twenty years ago moved into the field where he had to meet the keenest competition in the Chicago stock-
yards district. There he is today one of the leading livestock commission men.
Mr. Collings was born on a farm in Parke County in 1863, son of John D. and Amanda J. (Moore) Collings. His parents were also natives of the same county, and their respective families were identified with that section from pioneer days. Wil- liam P. Collings grew up on a farm and he gained experience in livestock husban- dry and in dealing when only a boy. He was a well known stock trader in Western Indiana long before he moved to Chicago in 1896. In that year he established his headquarters at the Union stockyards, asso- ciated with the Standard Livestock Com- mission Company. Later he was connected with and vice president of the Bowles Live- stock Commission Company. In 1917 he established his present business under the name W. P. Collings & Son, livestock com- mission merchants. His son Frank J. Col- lings is a member of the firm. For a num- ber of years Mr. Collings has specialized in the handling of sheep. The Chicago mar- ket recognizes him as an authority in this branch of livestock, and as a salesman he probably has as large a volume of business to his individual credit as any other of his competitors. Mr. Collings is a democrat in politics.
He married Miss Mary S. Siler, who was born and reared in Parke County, In- diana. They have three sons, Frank J., a member of the firm with his father, and George Cole and Walter Lee Collings, both of whom are now in the United States Army in France. George Cole Collings is a private in an auto truck organization. Walter Lee is a lieutenant in the regular infantry. He enlisted as a private in Chi- cago, and has been promoted to his pres- ent rank through sheer force of merit and ability.
DEMARCHUS C. BROWN. Nine years after the Indiana State Library was placed under the control of the State Board of Education, with consequent increase of appropriation, Demarchus C. Brown was chosen to the post of librarian, succeeding W. E. Henry. While the State Library is practically as old as Indianapolis itself, it is not too much to claim that the real use- fulness of the collection of books as an adjunct to the state's educational system
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and as a general reference library for all the officials of the state at Indianapolis and for the people in general has been greater within the last ten years than in all the years that preceded.
Mr. Brown, the librarian, is not only versed in library technique and administra- tion, but is himself a classical scholar and a man of broad literary tastes and has some modest achievements of his own in the field of literature.
He was born at Indianapolis June 24, 1857, son of Philip and Julia (Troester) Brown. His grandfather was Andrew Brown of Butler County, Ohio. Philip Brown, while he never enjoyed superior educational advantages, was a real scholar and his library was his chiefest treasure. Mr. Brown undoubtedly inherits his lit- erary tastes from his father. Philip Brown was born in Butler County, Ohio, in 1800, and in 1852 moved to Indianapolis, where he lived until his death in 1864. He was engaged in the lumber business in the northeastern part of the city. His wife, Julia Troester, was a native of Reutlingen, Wuertemberg, Germany, where she was born in 1832. She died in 1874. Of their four children, Amptor, Hilton U., De- marchus C. and Femina, the oldest and youngest died in childhood. Hilton U. is general manager of the Indianapolis News.
Demarchus C. Brown attended the pub- lie schools of Indianapolis and later the Northwestern Christian University, now Butler College, from which he was gradu- ated A. B. in 1879. He especially excelled in the classical languages, and upon the death of the Greek professor was made tutor in that language. In 1880 he re- ceived his Master's degree, and the years 1882-83 he spent abroad in the University of Tuebingen, Germany, and the British Museum at London. He returned to be- come instructor in Greek and secretary of the board of directors of Butler College. In 1884 he was elected to fill the chair of Greek Language, and it was from that position that he was called to his present post as state librarian in September, 1906.
In the meantime he had accepted every opportunity to study abroad. The fall of 1892 he spent in Paris and the winter of 1892-93 in the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. The summer of 1896 he was abroad as a visitor and student at the Berlin Museum, and
during the fall of 1897 he and his wife were engaged in research work at Munich, Athens and Rome. In 1899 they worked together in the museums of Paris and Lon- don. Mr. Brown was translator of "Selec- tions from Lucian," published in 1896, and of "American Criminology," from the work of Freudenthal. This was brought out in 1907 by the State Board of Chari- ties. He is also author of Indiana Legis- lature and State Manual, published in 1907 and 1909.
Since his first appointment in 1893 by Governor Matthews Mr. Brown has been an active member of the State Board of Chari- ties. He served as president of the Indiana Conference of Charities in 1904. He was elected president of the National Associa- tion of State Librarians in 1910-11, served as secretary of the Indiana Centennial Commission, and has membership in vari- ous scholarly bodies, including the Archaeo- logical Institute of America, the American Philological Association, the Classical As- sociation of the Middle West, the American Library Association, the Indianapolis Lit- erary Club, which he served as president, the Contemporary Club and the Athe- naeum, both of which he has also served as president. He is an active member of the Indiana Historical Society and is a mem- ber of the Disciples Church.
In March, 1881, Mr. Brown married Miss S. Anna Rudy of Paris, Illinois. She died in April, 1891. On September 1, 1897, Mr. Brown married Jessie Lanier Christian. Mrs. Brown's great-great- grandfather on the maternal side was Col. Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, father of William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have one son, Philip C., born in 1901.
CLINTON C. COLLIER, M. D. Of the colony of prominent Indiana men in Chi- cago, Dr. Clinton C. Collier has taken high rank as a specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat, and also as a teacher of medicine who has long held important positions with various medical faculties in that city.
Doctor Collier is a native of Sullivan County, Indiana, where he was born in 1876, son of James A. and Glovina (Kes- ter) Collier. The Collier family is men- tioned in all the local histories of Sulli- van County as among the pioneers. When Doctor Collier was a small boy his parents
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moved out to Kansas, and he lived in that state until the age of seventeen. His real career began when he left home at that time, and is the more interesting because he has depended upon himself and his in- dividual exertions, whether as a student or as a professional man. From Kansas he went to Texas, thence to Missouri, and from there to Tennessee. In 1898 he was living in Tennessee, and at Union City vol- unteered his services for the Spanish-Amer- ican war, being assigned to the Second Ten- nessee Infantry and later transferred to the Regular Army in the Second Division Hos- pital, Second Army Corps. For a time he was on detached service and served in sev- eral hospitals.
Doctor Collier came to Chicago in 1899, soon after this army experience. His abili- ties brought him quick promotion, but he was not above earning his living in the early stages of his student life by any honorable vocation. Thus his early career was not without privation and self-sacrifice. While engaged in his preliminary studies for med- icine in 1899 he was employed as a conduc- tor on the Chicago Elevated Railway. He studied in two medical colleges, the Chicago Homeopathic and the Hahnemann. He also gained some of his literary education in Austin College, of which he is a graduate, and attended the Lewis Institute of Chi- eago. Doctor Collier has the type of mind which not only assimilates knowledge read- ily, but is able to impart it equally well. This faculty was recognized while still a student. He was also assigned as an in- structor in the Chicago Homeopathic Col- lege and later became a professor in Hahne- mann College. He combined teaching with studying, and also took his full course of the American College of Osteopathy. Doc- tor Collier graduated from the Chicago Homeopathie College in 1904, from the Hahnemann College in 1906, and subse- quently he received the M. D. degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago of the regular school of medicine.
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In addition to his large private practice Doctor Collier is now associate professor of rhinology and laryngology in Hahnemann College. He was formerly demonstrator of anatomy, rhinology and laryngology in the Chicago Homeopathic College, and has also been a teacher in the American College of Osteopathy.
He took up general practice in 1904, but
of late years has specialized almost entirely in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. In preparation for this work he did post- graduate study in the Chicago University, the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital of New York, and the Metropolitan Hospital of New York. Doctor Collier is a member of practically all the medical societies, in- eluding the American Medical Association. His success in his profession has brought him many honors and a substantial pros- perity. He owns a beautiful country home in Michigan, and spends part of his time there. The satisfaction which he might otherwise enjoy without stint in his pro- fessional advancement has been marred by the tragedy which befell him when he lost his wife. She was a patient convalescing from the birth of a child, which she had always wanted, and whether this joy was too much for her mind will never be known, but one night upon the nurse leaving the room, she fell from the sixth story and was crushed to death. She left that which she wanted most. James Clinton Collier, three weeks old. She had named him after his grandfather, Dr. James A. Collier. Doctor Collier was married to her in 1909. Her death occurred December 30, 1917. Before her marriage she was Nellie Nequest of Whitehall, Michigan.
JOHN ROBERT LENFESTEY. Two of the oldest and best known names in Grant County are those of Lenfestey and Brown- lee. A successful Chicago business man, president of the Advertising Electrotyping Company, John Robert Lenfestey was born at Marion in Grant County in 1874, and is a son of Capt. Edward S. and Laura (Brownlee) Lenfestey. His parents were both born in Marion. She was a daughter of Judge John Brownlee, the first resident judge in Grant County, and a sister of Judge Hiram Brownlee. Both were at one time judges of the United States Court in Indiana. The old Judge Brownlee home at Marion was a scene of old-time hospital- ity and entertainment. Most of the notable characters in the public life of Indiana during the middle period of the last cen- tury were at various times guests under the Brownlee roof.
The late Capt. Edward S. Lenfestey served his country gallantly and with dis- tinction through the Civil war, attaining to the rank of captain and commanding
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his company in many battles. In civil life he became likewise prominent, beginning his career as a lawyer, and serving at one time as a member of the State Legislature. On account of a throat affection he engaged in the real estate business at Marion. His ability was chiefly pronounced in promot- ing and carrying out large business projects. Several years were spent in the West in the late '70s and early '80s, and he was a factor in the upbuilding of a num- ber of new western cities. He built the first street car line at Trinidad, Colorado, also the first gas works and the first large hotel in that town, and his enterprise ex- tended in similar manner to other impor- tant undertakings in Colorado.
John Robert Lenfestey was with his father in the West for several years. He attended school both at Topeka, Kansas, and Trinidad, Colorado. He acquired his early business experience in the West, but since 1901 has been a resident of Chicago. He was for a time with the Santa Fe Rail- way and later was traveling freight and passenger agent for the Frisco System, with headquarters both in Chicago and San Antonio, Texas. From that he became in- terested in the electrotyping business and established the Advertising Electrotyping Company, of which he is president and owner. This is one of the important ad- junets of the great advertising business of America and Mr. Lenfestey has built up an industry that is one of the most complete in facilities and service in the Middle West.
Through many years he has been iden- tified with the big commercial and social life of Chicago. . He is a member of the Forty Club, the Indiana Society of Chi- cago, the Chicago Athletic Club, the South Shore Country Club, the Exmoor Country Club, the Association of Commerce, the Illinois Manufacturers' Association and the Chicago Advertising Association. Mr. Lenfestey is vice president of the Interna- tional Electrotypers' Association. He mar- ried Miss Carrie Jungblut of Chicago, who was born and reared in that city. They have a son, John Robert, Jr.
ALFRED RUFUS BONE. If it is proper to speak of a man growing old in an industry so young as the telephone business, the distinction might well be applied to Alfred Rufus Bone, a native of Indiana, and who spent many years in this state, but for the
past twenty years has been an official of the Chicago Telephone Company and is now general commercial superintendent of that, one of the largest individual groups of the Bell Telephone System.
Mr. Bone acquired something like a prac- tical knowledge of the intricacies of tele- phony at a time when probably not one out of ten persons in the United States had ever seen a telephone instrument, and when a telephone exchange was regarded as al- most a useless innovation by the stand- patters of that day.
Mr. Bone was born in Shelby County, Indiana, June 25, 1871, son of Alfred Plummer and Louisa M. (Deacon) Bone, both now deceased. His father, who was born in 1836 in Shelby County, lived there for many years, and from that county en- listed for service with the One Hundred and Thirty-Third Indiana Infantry during the Civil war. He saw much of the hard and dangerous service of his regiment, was in the great Atlanta campaign and many battles, and was captured and held a pris- oner in Andersonville prison.
The important fact of his career of spe- cial interest in the sketch of his son is that he established at Greensburg, Indiana, in 1884 a telephone exchange that was one of the pioneer plants of the kind in the United States and in Indiana. At that time Alfred Rufus Bone was thirteen years old, and during the next year he acquired knowledge sufficient to qualify him as a telephone op- erator in his father's exchange. Since then for nearly thirty-five years he has been al- most continuously in the telephone business and has witnessed all its remarkable expan- sion and development. After serving as operator he became repair man, collector and general assistant to his father's plant at Greensburg. From 1890 to 1892 he was a student at Bethany College in West Vir- ginia.
After his college career he took up a dif- ferent line of work, and from 1893 to 1895 was business manager of the Anderson Democrat of Indiana. From 1895 to 1898 he was located in the Northwest as a spe- cial agent for the Interior Department of the United States Government. Returning to Greensburg he became business manager of the Greensburg Telephone Company and. from there went to Chicago in 1899. Since that year he has been identified with the Chicago Telephone Company, and one pro-
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motion has followed another until he is now general commercial superintendent.
His pioneer work is recognized by his membership in the society known as the Telephone Pioneers of America. He is one of the prominent men in the Chicago Asso- ciation of Commerce. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Mr. Bone is a republican, a Pres- byterian, a Mason and Elk, and a Beta Theta Pi. He is a member of the Chicago Athletic Club, Traffic Club, Electric Club, of which he was president in 1915, Busi- ness Men's Prosperity Club, of which he was president in 1916, and the Ridge Coun- try Club. His chief recreation is golf. September 7, 1892, Mr. Bone married Miss Estelle Kennedy Aldrich of Greensburg. Their three children are Hester Louisa, Julia Walker and Alfred Rufus, Jr.
CAPT. OTHO H. MORGAN. A native of Indiana, and one of the gallant young men who served as officers in the Union Army from this state, Capt. Otho H. Morgan for over fifty years has been a resident of Chi- cago and one of the leaders in business and industrial affairs of that city. Captain Morgan is president of the Chicago Var- nish Company, one of the oldest corpora- tions of its kind in the Middle West.
He was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, August 11, 1838, son of Doctor Elisha and Catherine (Coit) Morgan. The parents were both born in Connecticut and repre- sent old New England families. Doctor Morgan and wife located at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, about 1836, and for a number of years he practiced medicine in that section of the state. Later he removed to Cincin- nati, where he enjoyed the highest standing in his profession for many years. He was in fact one of the men of large influence and usefulness in the city. In the maternal line Captain Morgan is a nephew of the late P. L. Spooner, of Indiana, and cousin of Senator John C. Spooner of Wisconsin, whose uncle, Col. Ben Spooner, was a dis- tingnished citizen of Indiana during the first half of the nineteenth century.
From childhood Captain Morgan was reared in Cincinnati, where he attended public schools. He finished his education in Williston Seminary at East Hampton, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1861 on his own initiative he went to Indianapolis and called upon the adjutant general of the
state who authorized him to recruit for the Seventh Indiana Battery. Governor Mor- ton commissioned young Morgan second lieutenant in the Seventh Indiana Light Battery which was recruited at Columbus, Vincennes and Terre Haute for the Army of the Cumberland. With this command he was soon engaged in active service, leav- ing for the battlefield from Louisville, his first stop being at Mumfordsville, Ken- tucky. The march continued then to the battle of Shiloh, and later Lieutenant Morgan was in the siege of Corinth, and after a return march to Louisville went with his command to the war center in Southeastern Tennessee and participated in the battles of Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga and the Atlanta Campaign. In April, 1864, he was promoted to the rank of cap- tain and commanded his battery until De- cember of that year, after the close of the Atlanta campaign. His three years' serv- ice having expired he returned to Cincin- nati, with a splendid record for bravery and efficiency as a Union officer.
Captain Morgan came to Chicago in 1866. In association with his father-in- law, the late Anson C. Potwin, he founded the Chicago Varnish Company. This was at first a partnership, later became a cor- poration, and now has a capital of a mil- lion and a half dollars and is one of the big industrial establishments of the Great Lakes metropolis. It is in fact as well as in inspiration "a business built on honor." Captain Morgan has been president of the Chicago Varnish Company since 1888, and with a record as officer in the company for over half a century he is one of the veteran business men of Chicago.
Captain Morgan is a member of the Presbyterian Church, the Union League Club, the York and Scottish Rite Masons, a member of the John A. Logan Post, G. A. R., and a companion in the Illinois Commandery of the Loyal Legion.
On January 19, 1864, he married at Terre Haute, Indiana, Miss Julia Potwin. Her father, Anson C. Potwin, was a hard- ware merchant in Terre Haute before coming to Chicago. Captain and Mrs. Morgan reside at Highland Park. Their five living children are Anson C .; Elisha ; Catharine C., wife of Robert C. Day ; Helen V .. wife of Tom W. Bellhouse; and Julia, wife of Frank S. North. Captain Morgan's
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oldest son was William P. Morgan, now deceased. Through this deceased son Cap- tain Morgan has a grandson, Lieut. Wil- liam O. Morgan, now with the American Army in France.
WILLIS S. PRITCHETT, M. D. In the many years he has practiced medicine at Evans- ville Dr. Pritchett has been satisfied to serve his increased clientage in the capac- ity of a skillful and conscientious general practitioner, and he is one of the most suc- cessful of the good family doctors who have been so justly admired and have proved themselves the tried and faithful in time of need.
Dr. Pritchett was born in a log house on a farm in Montgomery Township of Gib- son County, Indiana, and his father, Wil- liam Henderson Pritchett, was born on the same farm, in 1828. His grandfather, Elisha Pritchett, a native of Pennsylvania, moved from there to Virginia, later to Ken- tucky, and finally became a pioneer in the wilderness of Gibson County, Indiana, where he had to clear away great trees be- fore he could build his log cabin, the first home of the family in this state. In course of time he converted his tract of govern- ment land into a good farm, and lived there with the esteem of his neighbors until his death about 1861. He married Elizabeth Rutledge, a native of Tennessee.
William H. Pritchett, after getting his education in the common schools and com- ing to man's estate, bought the interests of the other heirs in the home farm, and in- dustriously cultivated it for many years. He was a resident of that one locality for over eighty years, and died there Septem- ber 6, 1913. His wife, who died in 1907, was also a native of Montgomery Township, where her parents, William and Lucy Gudgel, were early settlers. The seven children of William H. and Martha (Gud- gel) Pritchett were: George, Elvira, Wil- lis, Mary Ellen, Florence, Perry and Es- telle. These children have never divided their interests in the old home farm.
Willis S. Pritchett grew up in the whole- some environment where he was born, at- tended rural schools and at Oakland City, and hy his earnings as a teacher largely paid for his higher education until he was fitted for his profession. After teaching a year, he spent two years in the Danville Normal, again taught a couple of years,
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