USA > Indiana > Memorial and genealogical record of Representative Citizens of Indiana > Part 11
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Mrs. Hanna was in many respects a remarkable woman, possessing nobility of character, great personal courage, and the ability to handle the affairs of home and society with ease. Though she already had the care and responsibility of rearing her own eight sons, she also took into her home Samuel Chute, the son of the first pastor of the First Presbyterian church here, an act which the beneficiary has always remembered with affection and gratitude. Mrs. Hanna's long life was spent in deeds of kindness to others and she was beloved by a large circle of relatives and friends. Although delicate in appearance, she possessed a strong constitution and was very active all her life. She lived twenty- one years after the death of her husband, passing away in the sacred old Hanna homestead on East Lewis street, January 13, 1888. She left the picturesque old family residence to her daugh- ter, Mrs. Fred Hayden, who now presides with rare grace and
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dignity over the stately old mansion. Mrs. Ilanna was a lovable and strong character, in every respect a fit helpmeet for her dis- tinguished husband, and her encouragement and judicious coun- sel contributed in no small manner to his success in the various walks of life. She was one of the most benevolent and generous of the early women of Fort Wayne. A woman of rare personal beauty and magnetism, high-minded and charitable, she mum- bered her friends only by the limits of her acquaintance. Al- though of somewhat frail figure, she withstood in a marvel- ous manner the hardships and deprivations incident to pioneer life, in the days of Indians, wolves and other wild beasts of the great woods that covered this locality during her early residence here. She was not only a favorite in her own family but was also much adored by the entire Hanna family, in fact, she was so gen- tle and noble a character that everybody loved her. During the frequent necessary absences of her husband in his earlier career, she bravely and uncomplainingly managed the affairs of the household. While away on his extensive business matters or some public service, she knew hours of privation, hours of dis- couragement, but this grand character passed through all these frontier experiences with rare fortitude. She left a record worthy of imitation by her descendants, worthy of the emulation of all. She was quiet, unobtrusive, retiring in disposition, never seeking publicity, but when there was need for her services they were readily and gladly forthcoming. She was much loved by those who knew her best in all circles. She was a very active member and one of the founders of the First Presbyterian church of Fort Wayne, of which her husband was for many years a pillar. In her departure on the mysterious journey of which Plato wrote, the world lost a lady whose compeer could not be readily found. In her earlier years she devoted much time to charitable work, although always a great home woman, and the grand old home- stead was the scene of gracious hospitality during her lifetime. She was frequently hostess to some of the leading people of the land. That she was a woman of remarkable vitality was shown by her length of years, she having reached her eighty-fifth mile- stone when the summons came.
Thirteen children blessed the union of Judge Samuel Hanna and wife, only two of whom now survive, the only daughter, Eliza, who married Fred J. Hayden, a well known citizen of Fort Wayne, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work, and Ingh
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Taylor Hanna, who resides with his sister in the old homestead; James Bayless Hanna, the eldest son, was a member of the firm of S. Hanna & Sons, engaged in the general merchandising busi- ness for many years in Fort Wayne; Amos Thomas Hanna was also connected with the above named firm; Henry Clay Hanna was at one time in the grocery business in Fort Wayne and was also a partner in the firm of N. G. & Il. G. Olds & Company; Charles Hanna was a partner in the firm of French, Hanna & Company, manufacturers of woolen goods; Samuel Telford Hanna was as- sociated with his father in the railroad business, being the latter's private secretary while he was president of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Company, to which position he was elected only three months prior to his death; Horace Hovey Hanna was a mem- ber of the firm of Bass & IIanna; William Willis Hanna was a partner in the firm of French, Hanna & Company, woolen manu- facturers.
The following resolutions, passed by the common council of Fort Wayne at the time of Judge Hanna's death, are expressive of the universal bereavement that pervaded the whole community:
"Resolved, that the mayor and common council of the city of Fort Wayne have received, with the deepest sensibility, the an- nouncement of the death of our great and good fellow citizen, Hon. Samuel Hanna.
"Resolved, that, as a mark of our respect and esteem to the memory of him we mourn, the mayor, common council and officers of the city attend in a body the funeral obsequies, and that the municipal offices be closed for business during the funeral.
"Resolved, that to the widow and family now borne down by the weight of this affliction, we tender our heartfelt sympathies and condolence, together with the assurance that we share with them their sorrow and their tears.
"Resolved, that these proceedings be spread upon the minutes of the common council; that a copy of the same be furnished the daily papers of the city for publication, that the city clerk be directed to transmit to the bereaved family a certified copy there- of, and that the citizens, in accordance with the proclamation of the mayor, be requested to close all places of business between the hours of two and four o'clock on the day of the funeral.
"Resolved, that as a further mark of respect to the memory of the lamented dead, the council do now adjourn for one week."
On June 12, 1866, the day following the death of this distin-
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guished citizen, a meeting of condolence was held in the court house by the citizens of Fort Wayne, and addressed by Hon. Joseph K. Edgerton, a few brief extracts from which we herewith append:
"One of the marked features of Judge Hanna's character was his untiring energy. It was not in his nature to cease to work, until he ceased to live, and, like other greatly useful public men, it was his fate, under the will of God, to die ere he seemed to have rounded the full sphere of his usefulness. His teacher was the experience of an active and eventful life. He was eminently a man of affairs, a practical man, one of large, clear mind, and of indomitable purpose, grasping with great power the salient points and bearing and end of a public question, and moving toward it strongly and surely. He belonged to the higher type of the pio- neer class of men. He was a planter and builder, more than a legislator. He had the hope, the courage, the forethought, the fertility of resource, the unfaltering purpose and will that char- acterize the planters of colonies and founders of cities. With high elements of statesmanship in his nature, he was not a politieian; he moved in a higher sphere of life. He was more than a states- man-he was the founder of a state. With all his mental strength and publie usefulness, it was perhaps in his domestic life and social relations that Judge Hanna appeared to the best advantage. He was a moral, temperate, well controlled man, the idol of his family. His was a genial, social nature; he loved his children and his grandchildren, and young folks generally. When such men die, not only the public heart is filled with sadness and abiding sense of loss, but there is within the sanctuary of his own house- hold a depth of sorrow that cannot be fathomed. His temper was ealm and equitable; his manners were those of the old-school gen- tleman-plain, simple, dignified-despising sham and pretense of all kinds. His devotion to every duty was intense, while his per- ception of truth and worth was almost intuitive. His opinions were positive and strong. His mental endowments and reasoning powers were of a high order, and he had cultivated them through many years of close observation and intense thought. His far- seeing sagacity and prescience in the solution of great financial problems were remarkable. He stood among the great railroad managers of the country, and the great financiers of Wall street. the acknowledged peer of the ablest, and he was always listened to with deference."
JAMES SUMMERS.
The late James Summers, one of the pioneer business men of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was a man who lived a helpful and un- selfish life and did an incalculable amount of good. He was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, August 8, 1833. Ile was a son of Michael Summers, a native of Ireland, who spent his carlier years there, finally coming to America and establishing his home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he spent the rest of his life, dying there on June 12, 1877.
James Summers spent his early boyhood in his native land, and, about 1851, when sixteen years of age, he crossed the great Atlantic to our shores, making the long voyage alone. He lo- cated first in Vermont, where, in order to get a start, he worked for fifty cents a day, remaining there a year, then came to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here he secured a position at the Rockhill House, which is now the St. Joseph hospital, and he remained there many years. His early education was meager and while at the Rockhill House he secured a year's leave of absence and de- voted the time to study. In those early days he was also employed for a short time by the Wabash Railroad Company. In 1860, hav- ing saved his earnings, he launched out in business for himself, opening a grocery on South Calhoun street, and in this venture was successful from the first, his place being near the Wabash depot, and in a busy part of the city. Later he built a store at the north- west corner of Calhoun and Baker streets, and this constituted his principal life work. Earlier in his career he retired from ae- tive business and devoted his attention to speculation and real estate deals, and at the time of his death he had amassed, solely through his individual efforts, considerable valuable property. Ile left a family home at No. 219 Douglas avenue, which has been the home of the Sunnerses for forty years, and is one of the pictur- esque old homesteads of Fort Wayne, and here the many friends of the family have been wont to gather, from time to time, sharing the hospitality and good cheer which has ever prevailed here.
James Summers was a fine type of the self-made man, and he was a man of quiet and social tendencies, and liked to meet his friends, of whom he had an unnumbered host. His home was al-
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ways hospitably open, and whether the guests were young people or some of his old associates; there was always a warm welcome. In fact, he was an exceptional man as a citizen and as a family man. He was devotedly religious and for more than twenty years never missed attending divine service every morning at the Cathe- dral, being a devout member of the Catholic faith, as are also the members of the family. Ile was a member of all the Catholic societies of Fort Wayne and was quite active in the same, in- cluding the Catholic Knights of America, the Catholic Benevolent Legion, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Married Men's Sodality of the Cathedral. Politically, he was a Democrat, but was never ambitious for office, though he took an active part in local political affairs and was for years very influential in the ranks of the party.
Mr. Summers was a great home man, and very ambitious for his children, and gave them all the benefits of higher education. His home life was ideal, always taking a great deal of interest in his family, and they constituted a mutually happy household. He was also a model business man, being ever law-abiding in business as he was serupulously honest and upright in private life.
On September 18, 1862, Mr. Summers was united in marriage to Catherine Nelligan, the ceremony being performed in the then new Cathedral, Fort Wayne, by the pioneer missionary, Father Julian Benoit. She is the daughter of John and Johanna (Cordan) Nelligan, natives of Ireland, who grew up and were married in that country, March 4, 1840. To them were born six children, named as follows: Catherine, widow of James Summers; Ella, Mary, Michael, Frank and John.
John Nelligan, father of Mrs. Summers, was born in Abbey- fail, county Kerry, Ireland, June 24, 1812. After coming to Ameri- ca in 1851, he lived in the East a short time, then came to Indiana, settling at Columbia City, where he continued to reside until shortly after the death of his wife in 1873, when he removed to Fort Wayne, and continued to make that city his home until his death, which occurred on October 4, 1897. Besides his children he was survived by thirteen grandchildren and six great-grand- children. Mr. Nelligan was a member of the Cathedral parish, and clung to his religion with all the ardor of a devoted nature, his faith being a part of his very life. To those who knew him his sterling qualities were known and admired, and his kindly, cheerful disposition endeared him in bonds of love to those who
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came in contact with him during life. His long illness was borne with Christian patience, and to his last moments he was cheered by the hope of the promised reward of suffering borne during the earthly pilgrimage. He was a member of the Men's Sodality, the Rosary Society, and the Sacred Heart League. He was very kind of heart, and his many kind deeds will cause his memory to be revered for many years. He had resided in Fort Wayne for a period of twenty-four years, having previously been a prosperous farmer. He had a commodious home at No. 23 West Lewis street, Fort Wayne, where his death occurred.
To James Summers and wife were born twelve children, of whom seven are deceased. Those who, with the mother, survive are Mary, who married Thomas Butler, lives in Indianapolis, he being a master mechanic of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company there; they have these children, Thomas, William, Eleanor, Cath- erine, Raymond, Gertrude and Maurice. Ella Summers married Clement J. Weber, of Fort Wayne. Anna, of the Order of Provi- dence, St. Mary's-of-the-Woods, near Terre Haute, Indiana; Eliza- beth, an accomplished vocalist, is soloist in the Plymouth Congre- gational church in Chicago; Frank lives in Indianapolis. Those deceased are Catherine, John, Agnes, Anna (the first), Frank (the first), John (the first), and William, the last named, being the seventh in order of birth.
The death of James Summers occurred Sunday, April 19, 1903, after an illness of some six months' duration, at the age of sixty-seven years. His funeral was very largely attended at the Cathedral. Solemn high mass was celebrated, in which Father Roche was celebrant, and was assisted by Father Delaney as deacon, Father John R. Quinlan, of Huntington, subdeacon, and Father Sullivan, master of ceremonies. Father Quinlan, for many years a close personal friend of Mr. Summers, delivered the funeral sermon and testified to Mr. Summers' sterling qualities. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Men's Sodality, and the St. Bernard branch, Catholic Knights of America, attended in a body.
DANDRIDGE H. OLIVER, M. D.
The biographies of the representative men of a country, either of a past or present generation, bring to light many hidden treasures of mind, character and courage, well calculated to aronse the price of their descendants and of the community and it is a source of regret that the people are not more familiar with the personal history of such men, in the ranks of whom may be found tillers of the soil, mechanics, teachers, as well as lawyers, physi- cians, bankers and members of other vocations and professions. Marion county, Indiana, has been the home and scene of labor of many men who have not only led lives which should serve as a les- son and inspiration to those who follow them onto the stage of life's activities, but who have also been of commendable service in important avenues of usefulness in various lines. The well remembered pioneer physician whose name forms the caption of this brief memoir was one of the useful workers in the world's work, a man of well rounded character, sincere, devoted and loyal, so that there are many salient points which render consonant a tribute to his memory in this compilation. Standing as he did for many years at the head of one of the most important and exacting of professions, his labors were long dirceted for the physical amelioration of the people of his community with such gratifying results. Personally, Doctor Oliver was affable and popular with all classes and stood ready at all times to encourage and aid all laudable measures and enterprises for the general good. By a life consistent in motive and because of his many fine qualities of head and heart he earned the sincere regard of a vast acquaint- ance, and his success in his chosen field of endeavor bespoke for him the possession of superior attributes. Yet he was a plain, unassuming gentleman, straightforward in all his relations with his fellow men.
Dr. Dandridge H. Oliver was born in Henry county, Ken- tueky. in 1826, the scion of a sterling old Southern family, and in 1836. when ten years of age, he moved with his parents, John H. Oliver and wife, to Marion county, Indiana, and there the family
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became well established, having located in Perry township. There they engaged in general agricultural pursuits and developed a good farm, through close application, from the virgin soil, and there the family home was maintained until 1848, when the father of the subject of this review moved to Montgomery county, this state, and there spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1859.
Dr. Dandridge H. Oliver grew to manhood on the home farm in Perry township and there assisted with the general work dur- ing the crop season. He received such education as the carly schools of his day afforded, and early in life he decided to enter the medical profession; with this end in view, he entered the Louisville Medical College, from which institution he was gradu- ated in 1857, and he at once located for practice at the village of Clermont, Marion county, Indiana, where he soon built up a very satisfactory practice and where he remained until 1866, when he moved to Indianapolis and established an office where he spent the rest of his life, taking his place in the front rank of the physi- cians of the capital city of that day and generation, enjoying a lucrative and ever-increasing practice and establishing a reputa- tion as a successful general practitioner that far transcended the bounds of Marion county. He was ever a profound student and therefore kept well abreast of the times in all that pertained to his profession and also the current issues of the day, thus becom- ing a broad-minded, skilled and progressive man of affairs who in every respect merited the great success which he achieved and the high esteem in which he was held.
Gov. Oliver P. Morton, Indiana's great war governor, recog- nized his ability and sent him to various sections of the South, during the Civil war, on special work among the hospitals and camps of Indiana troops, and in this capacity he discharged his every duty most faithfully and acceptably.
Politically, Doctor Oliver was a loyal Republican and was more or less active in the ranks, but he preferred to give his atten- tion exclusively to his profession and was not a seeker of the emoluments of public office; however, in 1872 his party nominated him for the state Senate and he was duly elected. He served the people in the Legislature with such fidelity and ability that he was re-elected and he served two regular and two extra sessions, dur- ing which he made his influence felt for the good of his city and
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county and won the lasting gratitude of all concerned, irrespective of party alignment.
Fraternally, the Doctor was a prominent Mason, attained the thirty-second degree in that time-honored body, holding member- ship in the Scottish Rite and York Rite bodies, including the Knights Templar. In his religious life he was a consistent mem- ber of the Christian church and a liberal supporter of the same. He belonged to the County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, and he frequently contributed articles to various medical journals which always found a very appreciative audience and were widely commented on.
Dr. Dandridge H. Oliver was twice married, first, in 1857 to Martha Harding, daughter of Judge Eliakim Harding, a prom- inent attorney and jurist of central Indiana in the early part of the last century. Judge Harding was born in Virginia in 1800 and his death occurred in 1840. The Harding family originally came from Scotland and located in Virginia, finally removing from the Old Dominion to Kentucky, locating in Henry county. They subsequently removed to Wayne county, Indiana, on the Whitewater, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, and were thus among the earliest settlers in that section of the state. Eliakim Harding was the eldest of six brothers, and when the county courts of old Marion were organized he was the first associ- ate judge. He was a farmer and assisted in the clearing of the land where the state house now stands. Together with his brothers, he was one of the first families. He had but one child, Martha Ann Harding, who was born in Marion county, Indiana, in 1839, and became the wife of the subject of this memoir. Here she grew to womanhood and married Doctor Oliver, which union resulted in the birth of one child, Dr. John H. Oliver, one of the best known surgeons of Indianapolis.
The first wife of Dr. Dandridge H. Oliver having passed away two years after their marriage, he was united in marriage, in 1868, with Theresa Hedderly, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and to this union three children were born, namely: Dr. Robert T. Oliver, who for a number of years has been head of the dental department of the United States army, and whio for the past three year's has been stationed at Manila, Philippine Islands; Dr. D. H. Oliver, a practicing dentist in Indianapolis; and Mrs. Anna Pix- ley, who resides in San Jose, California.
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Doctor Oliver was a man of fine personal appearance, massive physique and imposing presence, yet courteons and gentlemanly in manner, a big-hearted, obliging, hospitable old-time family doc- tor who did many aets of kindness and charity, but never with a thought of applause from his fellow men, and when the final sum- mons came, on February 3, 1895, when nearly seventy years of age, his influence for good did not cease among his host of friends and acquaintances who will long revere his memory.
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LEWIS N. HOWARD, M. D.
LEWIS NATHANIEL HOWARD, M. D.
Success in what are popularly termed the learned professions is the legitimate result of merit and painstaking endeavor. In commercial life one may come into possession of a lucrative busi- ness through inheritance or gift, but professional advancement is gained only by critical study and consecutive research long con- tinued. Proper intellectual discipline, thorough professional knowledge and the possession and utilization of the qualities and attributes essential to success made the late Lewis Nathaniel Howard, of Indianapolis, eminent in his chosen calling and for many years he stood among the scholarly and enterprising phy- sicians and surgeons in a community long distinguished for the high order of its medical talent. Doctor Howard's name will be held in lasting honor as one of the ablest physicians that ever gave loyal service in behalf of suffering humanity, for his life was chai- acterized not only by the most adroit professional ability but also by the most profound human sympathy which overleaped mere sentiment to become an actuating motive, for when a youth he realized that there is no honor not founded on genuine worth, there is a vital purpose in life and that the best and highest ac- complishment must come from a well trained mind and an altru- istic heart. Those who knew him well were unstinted in their praise of his genial disposition and his superior ability. Older men in the profession here relied upon his judgment and younger ones frequently sought his counsel, all admitting his eminence. The large success which crowned his life work, coupled with his ripe experience and kind heart, enabled him to bring comfort, hope and confidence to the sick room and he brought sunshine into many a home, much of which fled when news of his transition to a higher plane of activity reached them; but his memory will ever be revered by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
Lewis N. Howard was born in Decatur county, Indiana, Aug- ust 16, 1838. He was the son of Edward and Clarissa (Lewis) Howard, the father a native of Ohio and the mother of Kentucky. In his youth Edward Howard learned the harness and saddle- making trade, which he followed in Cincinnati several years, then
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