USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Memorial record of distinguished men of Indianapolis and Indiana > Part 20
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In conclusion of this brief memoir is entered epitomized record concerning the children of Dr. and Mrs. Braden: Norman Short Braden resides at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and is Canadian sales manager for the Westinghouse Manufactur- ing Company. He married Miss Mabel Greening, a member of one of Hamilton's representative families, and they have one daughter, Eleanore. Stella Braden be- came the wife of Jesse Lincoln Brady, and they reside at Rensselaer, Jasper county, Indiana, where Mr. Brady conducts an extensive grain and coal business. Miss Romaine Braden resides with her widowed mother in their beautiful suburban home, at 56 Downey avenue, in Irvington, one of the most attractive residence sub- urbs of Indianapolis. Laura, the youngest child died at the age of ten years.
Dr. Braden, warmly seconded by his wife, was an exponent of education and liberally educated his children. The son was a student at Whitman College at Walla Walla, Washington, and a business college of Indianapolis, until he became identified with electrical interests, which have since claimed his attention. The
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daughters are hoth graduates of Butler College, Indianapolis. Mrs. Braden is also an accomplished musician. Miss Romaine Braden is a graduate of the Uni- versity of California, with the degree of Master of Arts, in addition to being a graduate of Butler College.
Mrs. Braden and her daughters are members of the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and take deep interest in the affairs of this noble and patriotic order, besides which they are popular and representative factors in the social life of Indiana's beautiful capital city.
Edward G. Cornelius
STRONG and noble character was that of the late Edward Graves Cornelius, who died at his home, 1005 North Meridian street, in A the city of Indianapolis on the 1st day of March, 1901, as the result of a second stroke of paralysis. He maintained his home in Indiana's capital city for nearly forty years and exerted an emphatic and benignant influence in connection with its business and civic affairs. Though he was significantly quiet and re- served, the elements of strength in his nature were matured and symmetrical, as represented in sterling manhood and in large and worthy achievement. He gained success through his individual ability and application, and he ever stood exemplar of that integrity of purpose which figures as the plumb of character and makes for objective appreciation in connection with the varied relations of life. He won a large and definite success as one of the world's great army of workers, and this suc- cess was gained through industry and honest means. He acquired wealth without fraud or deceit and the results of his life are full of inspiration. He was long num- bered among the essentially representative business men of Indianapolis and every interest of the city lay close to his heart. No shadow rests on any portion of his career and he was essentially the architect of his own fortune. He never courted or desired public notice and evaded the same by every legitimate and courteous means, but such a man could not obscure himself, nor could his character and labors fail of distinct and valuable influence in both a general and specific way. Now that a per- spective view of his career may be gained, it is but consistent that at least a brief record of his life history be entered in a publication of the province assigned to the one here presented.
Edward Graves Cornelius was born at Petersburg, Boone county, Kentucky, on the 29th of September, 1832, and was a scion of a family founded in America in the early colonial epoch. His father, George Cornelius, was born in Virginia in 1787, and was a grandson of the founder of the American branch of the family. This original progenitor immigrated from Wales and settled in Virginia in the seven- teenth century. Elizabeth Willis, the wife of George Cornelius, was a member of the distinguished Willis family of Virginia, and they continued to reside in the Old Dominion commonwealth until their removal to Boone county, Kentucky, where they were pioneer settlers, and where George Cornelius followed his trade of tanner in connection with agricultural pursuits. There he continued to maintain his home until 1834, when he came with his family to Indiana and settled on a farm in Dear- born county, where he became a citizen of prominence and influence in that pioneer community. In 1844 he was elected to represent his county in the state legislature, and as candidate on the Whig ticket he received a large majority. In 1865 he re- moved to Shelbyville, this state, and two years later he established his home in Fair- mount, Vermillion county, Illinois, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred in the village of Fairmount, that county, in 1868, his devoted
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wife surviving him by several years. Of their large family of children Edward G., subject of this memoir, was the tenth in order of birth.
Edward Graves Cornelius gained his early experience in connection with the work of the farm, and he attended the district schools of Shelby county, Indiana, where he made good use of the advantages thus afforded him. In 1853, shortly after attaining his legal majority, he entered Franklin College, at Franklin, this state, where he pursued higher academic studies for two years. After leaving this institution he was employed for four years as salesman in a general store at Shelby- ville, and he then became associated with his brother-in-law, Henry T. Gaines, in the dry-goods business in the same town. He devoted himself to his business in- terests with characteristic vigor and circumspection, and the success of the enter- prise was of unequivocal order. Through this medium Mr. Cornelius finally found his capitalistic resources sufficiently secure to justify his seeking a broader field of business activity, and in 1865 he came to Indianapolis, where he purchased an in- terest in the retail dry-goods business of Tousey & Bryam, in which his associates were Oliver Tousey and Norman S. Bryam, both now deceased. Concerning the business enterprise with which Mr. Cornelius thus identified himself, the following record appeared in the Indianapolis News at the time of his death, and the same is worthy of reproduction in this article, as it gives adequate description concerning his progress and success in his chosen sphere of endeavors. Speaking in an initia- tory way of the original establishment in which Mr. Cornelius was concerned, the article mentioned thus proceeds: "This store was in its time one of the foremost dry- goods houses in the city. It was located in East Washington street, on the site of the present house of the Vonnegut Hardware Company. It enjoyed a specially large country trade and was noted for its integrity and straightforward business methods. In 1867 the firm quit the retail trade and opened a wholesale dry-goods house at the southwest corner of Meridan and Georgia streets, later removing to the opposite corner, now occupied by the Keifer Drug Company, in a building especially erected to meet their needs. After the death of Mr. Tousey the firm was re-organized and the business was thereafter successfully continued under the title of Bryam, Cornelius & Company until 1888, when the business was sold to D. P. Irwin & Company, which was succeeded by the present Haven-Geddes Company. Mr. Cornelius and Mr. Bryam continued their business relations, finding investment for their capital in real estate, business properties and various commercial interests. In 1888 Mr. Cornelius bought a large interest in the Indianapolis Chair Company, which increased largely in the ca- pacity of its output under his management, and he was president of this corporation at the time of his death, besides which he was first vice-president of the Indiana Trust Company, which he assisted in organizing. During his long residence in this city he was a prominent and active member of the Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal church, and by his fine business methods he aided greatly in the final obliteration of the great debt of forty thousand dollars which had hung over that church."
It may consistently be said that Mr. Cornelius was the dominating force in the up- building of the splendid enterprise now controlled by the Indianapolis Chair Company, which represents one of the most important of the many fine manufacturing industries of the capital city. The concern gives employment to a large force of operatives and its trade extends into all sections of the Union. Mr. Cornelius' interest in this exten- sive business is retained by his widow, and the other and varied interests of the estate make it one of wide and substantial scope. It has already been stated that Mr. Cor-
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nelius had no desire for publicity of any order, but as a citizen he was essentially loyal, progressive and public-spirited, taking a lively interest in all that touched the moral, social and material welfare of his home city, and being aligned as a staunch supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican party. His religious faith was a very part of his character and shone forth in all the associations of his life, though never with intolerance or ostentation. His abiding human sympathy was one of helpfulness and of him it may well be said that "he remembered those who were forgotten." His interests centered in his home, whose every association was ideal, but he found ample time to devote to church work and to maintain kindly solicitude for those in affliction and distress. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and held membership in the Indianapolis Commercial Club. No citizen had a more secure place in the confidence and esteem of the leading business men of Indianapolis, and all who knew Mr. Cornelius were necessarily impressed with his quiet dignity, his sincerity and his noble attributes of character. There can be no impropriety in making at this point somewhat liberal quotation from the apprecia- tive estimate given by Rev. E. C. Bacon, D. D., then pastor of the Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal church, on the occasion of the funeral of Mr. Cornelius. In offering this reproduction it is not deemed necessary to indicate eliminations or other slight modifications :
"Edward G. Cornelius was a man who lived in deeds, not in words. He was of few words, but he has left the marks of his activity all about us. His life recalls the statement of Christ, 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' In commercial life, in church life, in his home life, his strong personality was felt, and in all these lines of activity his life was successful. Some lives cannot be properly measured until you gather all the results together. The proper proportions of the life of Mr. Cor- nelius are not realized until you consider it from all the lines of activity, and it grows before you into grandly worthy proportions. Mr. Cornelius was not a one sided man. He who would consider him from the commercial side alone would not know him. He who would consider him from even the sacred precincts of the home- side alone would not know him. He must be seen from the viewpoint of all.
"Mr. Cornelius was a man of persistent purpose, and his childhood, like that of many others who have been successful and illustrious, was passed on the farm. The persistency of purpose was marked from the clerk in the country store to the later years of his business life. Those most intimately associated with Mr. Cornelius comment on the system of his business methods. He was very systematic and in- dustrious. He kept his counsels to himself, and his success must be largely at- tributed to his own ideas and efforts. He had a clear business head. His judg- ment was good. His commercial life stands as an illustration of persistence, in- dustry and that clear financial perception which is difficult to define. His life illus- trated that men may be successful in business and yet be truly devoted to his church, the contrary of which some vainly assert.
"Mr. Cornelius' life was not all taken up with his business career. He was a church man from his early manhood, and was one of the most loyal and helpful mem- bers of the congregation of his chosen church. His church career has been char- acterized by quiet and reliable devotion to its interests. He was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal church at Shelbyville, Indiana, under Rev. Asbury Wilkinson. He became a member of Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal church in July, 1865, and has occupied different official positions on its board. At
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the time of his death, and for four years previously, he had been a trustee of this church. He had under the load of its great debt during all the years of its exis- tence, and during all this period he gave to every subscription for its liquidation. He has bravely borne a share of this burden. His contributions during all this period probably sum up more than those of any other one man of the church now living,-possibly more than any one living or dead,-and there has been a noble company of givers to this grand old church. But this was not the sum total of Mr. Cornelius' religious life. His place in the church on Sunday morning and also evening, until his recent illnesses, was seldom vacant. Also he, with his good wife or daughter, was a regular attendant at the mid-week prayer meeting, and while a man upon who rested many heavy and burdensome financial interests, yet an official meeting of the church board usually found him in his place. He was a man upon whom the church might lean, knowing that in the critical moment he would not fail them."
After speaking of the religious phase of the home life of Mr. Cornelius, Dr. Bacon continued with the following statements:
"Brother and Sister Cornelius were much together. In their travel, at their home, in the church they were together. They understood each other. He lived in his quiet, undemonstrative way, knowing his wife would help him. He bore his business interests alone. He did not bring his business home. It might have been well had he done so, but he knew that home had its cares; the family knew he- was perfectly capable of conducting his business. His interest in his children and grandchildren was intense. He was solicitious for their welfare and interest and expressed it more by deeds than by words. He was of emphatic purity of char- acter and abhorred everything vile,-it was revolting to him. Thus has passed away one whose energy and ability have enabled him to fill a large place in the com- munity. There has passed away one whose devotion to the church will leave a large and vacant place in our hearts. As his wife said yesterday, life's joys are not measured by possessions. When one dies, men ask what he has left behind him, but angels as they bend over his tomb ask what he has sent before him. The place to lay up treasures is where 'moth and rust do not corrupt, nor thieves break in and steal.' Heaven seems nearer to us today. Heaven not only truly gives definition to the best of earth, but offers reunions, companionship, bliss, and the final word of approval spoken by our Lord, which is better than all other words,-'Well done, good and faithful servant.'"
In viewing the life of Mr. Cornelius it may well be said that it realized the ful- fillment of its consecration to lofty ideals, and it offers both lesson and incentive, while to those nearest and dearest to him must come and remain the greatest meas- ure of reconciliation and compensation in the thought that it was permitted them to be thus closely associated with one who measured up to the full stature of strong and noble manhood, and who well exemplified the truth of the statement: "The bravest are the tenderest; the loving are the daring."
In the close comunion of love, sympathy and interests was defined the ideal domestic life of Mr. Cornelius, and there can be no desire to invade the home sanct- uary in offering further words concerning its intimate relations. Therefore, the concluding paragraph of this memoir will touch only upon the esoteric phases of this chapter in the career of the honored subject to whom tribute is paid.
On the 7th of February, 1860, at Shelbyville, Indiana, was solemnized the mar-
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riage of Mr. Cornelius to Miss Melissa Jeffras, who survives him and who now re- sides at 2028 North Meridian street, the stately and hospitable old family homestead having been sold to Charles Williams, editor of the Indianapolis News.
Mrs. Cornelius was born at Tylersville, Butler county, Ohio, on the 13th of September, 1838, and is a daughter of Asbury and Sarah (Thompson) Jeffras, the former of whom was born in Butler county, Ohio, and the latter near the city of Dublin, Ireland, their marriage having been solemnized at Piqua, Ohio, in the home of the bride's parents, on March 6, 1834. Mrs. Jeffras' parents came to America when she was a child of ten years, and she was but twenty-eight years of age at the time of her husband's death, which occurred in his thirty-second year of life. The young widow was left almost penniless and upon her devolved the care and mainte- nance of her four little children. She bravely faced the problems confronting her and her maternal devotion was of the most intense order. She engaged in the mil- linery business and was successful in her earnest endeavors, as is evidenced by the fact that she was able to give to each of her children the advantages of college education. A gentle, noble and gracious character was hers, and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her influence, her death having oc- curred in 1883. Mrs. Cornelius gained her early educational discipline in the schools of Ohio, where she was for two years a student at Ohio Female College at College Hill, Hamilton county. She left this institution in her sixteenth year and accompanied her mother on her removal to Shelbyville, Indiana, in 1855. She was reared to maturity in this state and continued her residence at Shelbyville until she came to Indianapolis with her husband in 1865. In that year both she and her husband united with Roberts' Park Methodist Episcopal church and she likewise has been earnest and zealous in the work of this church, the while she has given co- operation in the various benevolent and philanthropic undertakings in her home city and has been a gracious factor in the social life of the community. She has the affectionate regard of all who knew her and her home and the city itself are endeared to her through the hallowed memories and associations of many years.
Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius, the following brief data is here incorporated: Jessie Dell is the wife of Judge Quincy Alden-Myers, one of the associate judges of the supreme court of Indiana, and they reside in the capital city of the state. Their marriage was solemnized on the 3d of March, 1886, and they became the parents of two children,-Marie Rosanna, who died on the 6th of March, 1910, at the age of twenty-one years, after having been graduated in Belmont Col- lege, and Melissa Jeffras, who is the wife of Dr. Joel Whitaker, a representative physician and surgeon of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Sarah Willis Cornelius is the wife of James A. Allison, of Indianapolis, presi- dent of the Prest-O-Lite Company, and they reside in the attractive suburb of River- side. They have one daughter, Cornelia Willis Allison.
Mary C. Cornelius, the third of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius, is de- ceased. She married Frank Edward Helwig, of Indianapolis, who is a representa- tive of the prominent German family of that name in Indianapolis, his father being the founder of the Indianapolis Chair Factory. Edward Cornelius Helwig, the only child of this union, was united in marriage on the 16th of October, 1911, to Miss Hester Thompson, of Indianapolis.
One son of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius died in early infancy, as did also Francis Asbury Cornelius, while George Edward Cornelius died at the age of two years.
John Mc Fadpen
3BOUT five years represented the period during which Mr. Mc- A Fadyen maintained his home in Indianapolis, but this interval was sufficient to enable him to make a deep and favorable impression upon the industrial activities of the city and state and for him to show forth those high qualities of loyal and progressive citizenship which indicates his strong and loyal character. He was a man of marked ability and resourceful- ness, made good account of himself in all the relations of life and at the time of his death he held prestige as one of the representative business men of Indiana's capital city. Concerning him the writer of this article had previously given the following estimate, which is reproduced without conventional marks of quotation.
In enlisting the efforts and energies of men of distinctive initiative and exe- cutive ability has Indianapolis made so great advancement along industrial and commercial lines within the last decade, and a typical representative of this class was John McFadyen, who at the time of his death was vice-president and general manager of the Vandalia Coal Company, one of the most important concerns oper- ating in the Indiana coal fields. He was one of the prominent factors in effecting the organization of this corporation, and its advancement to its present status was largely due to his untiring and discriminating efforts. He was sum- moned to the life eternal on the 7th of May, 1910, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, and was at the time in the very prime of his strong and useful manhood. In Feb- ruary, 1910, he suffered an attack of quinsy, and resultant septicaemia was the immediate cause of his death.
Depending upon his own energies and powers for his advancement, Mr. Mc- Fadyen had been prominently identified with the coal, iron and steel industries, and in connection therewith he won his way from positions of obscurity to those of high executive and administrative order, so that he merited consideration not only as the architect of his own fortunes but also as a veritable "captain of industry."
A scion of the staunchest of Scottish stock in both the paternal and maternal lines, John McFadyen was born at Kilburnie, Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 18th of October, 1849. He was the youngest child of Michael and Margaret (Craig) McFadyen, the former of whom was a skilled and successful mining engineer and who devoted his attention to the work of his profession in his native land until his death. John McFadyen gained his rudimentary education in Scotland and was about seven years of age at the time when his widowed mother came with her five children to America. The family settled in Maryland, where they remained until after the close of the Civil war, when removal was made to Pennsylvania, where the noble and devoted mother passed the remainder of her life. She passed away at the age of sixty-five years and her memory was ever revered by her son John, who accorded to her the utmost filial solicitude, as did also the other chil-
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dren, of whom only two are now living,-James, who is a resident of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Kate Duckworth, of Connellsville, that state.
The public schools of Maryland afforded John McFadyen proper educational advantages after the family removal to the United States, and at the age of eighteen years he entered Johns Hopkins University, in which celebrated insti- tution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science. His father had been a mining engineer, as has already been noted, and this fact undoubtedly had much to do in influencing the son when he formulated plans for his future career. After leaving the university Mr. McFadyen identified himself with practical opera- tions in connection with the coal and coke industry in Pennsylvania, where he begun at the foot of the ladder and worked himself up through the various grades of promotion. He thus gained a thorough knowledge of all technical and practical details of the industry, and his keen business acumen soon marked him as eligible for positions of distinctive trust and responsibility.
In 1875, when twenty-five years of age, Mr. McFadyen became manager of the fuel department of the business of the Cambria Iron Company, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and later he was promoted to the office of general agent for this company, with which he continued to be identified about fourteen years. He then assumed the position of general manager of the Keystone Manganese Iron Com- pany, an incumbency which he retained for two years, during which he maintained his residence in Pittsburgh. At the expiration of the period noted he became one of the organizers and incorporators of the Hostetter Coke Company and the Puritan Coke Company, both of which were incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania and in connection with which he did a large amount of important development work in Westmoreland county, that state, where the great coke plants of Hostetter, Whitney, Baggaley & Dorothy stand as evidence of his business sagacity and energy. Later Mr. McFadyen became an influential factor in connection with the organization of the American Steel & Wire Company, which gained control of large and important interests, and he was vice-president of three of the subsidiary com- panies represented in this syndicate, which eventually became a part of the great United Steel Company, with which latter he continued in a responsible executive ca- pacity until his impaired health rendered it practically imperative for him to make a change, as his incidental responsibilities placed exacting demands upon his time and attention. He was also instrumental in the building of the Ligonier Coal Company's plant in Derry township, Westmoreland county, which is regarded today as one of the best in that district. In 1904 Mr. McFadyen removed from Latrobe, Penn- sylvania, to Pittsburgh, where he effected the organization of the Fort Pitt Coke & Coal Company, of which he served as president until the following year and of which his second son, Rush, is now secretary and treasurer. In 1905 Mr. Mc- Fadyen removed from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis, where he organized the Van- dalia Coal Company, and where he continued to be prominently identified with industrial and civic interests until the close of his life. He was interested also in the development of several coal fields in Ohio, and few men have had a broader and more intimate knowledge of and connection with the important coal-mining developments and operations of the country.
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