USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Memorial record of distinguished men of Indianapolis and Indiana > Part 34
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Calbin F. Darnell
the present capitol, the land having originally been a low and marshy piece of ground.
In the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 23d of February, 1855, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Darnell to Miss Catherine Wilcox, who was born in Virginia, on the 27th of February, 1838, and who was a daughter of Timothy Wilcox, the family having removed to Indianapolis when she was a child. The performance of the marriage in Cincinnati was incidental to the elopement previously mentioned in this sketch. Mrs. Darnell survived her honored husband by about eight years and was summoned to the life eternal on the 27th of June, 1910. She had been a resident of Indianapolis for sixty-five years and had occupied the home in which she died for more than half a century. She was a charter member of the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal church and continued to be identified with the same until her death,-a period of forty years. She was a gentle and gracious woman and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her influence. Mr. and Mrs. Darnell had one child, a daughter Emma C., who married William H. Har- rison. She died at the age of twenty-four years. In their home was also reared, from the age of three years, Bessie E. Wilcox, daughter of John C. Wilcox, a brother of Mrs. Darnell. This foster daughter was accorded the utmost love and devotion by Mr. and Mrs. Darnell, and for them her filial solicitude was ever of the deepest order. She was taken into their home upon the death of her mother and it is pleasing to record that she now, as the only representative of the family, owns and occupies the pleasant old homestead, which is endeared to her by the gracious memories and associations of many years. She is the wife of Wilmer H. Cast, who is engaged in the wholesale vending machine business in Indianapolis. Mrs. Cast is the mother of one daughter, Catharine Elizabeth, named for Mrs. Dar- nell, born April 22, 1912.
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George R. Root
RUE success means more than the mere making of money ; it means also spiritual success and the fulfillment of duty to the world T which affords a stage of action. The late George Randolph Root may well be said to have achieved success in the true sense of the term, for he accounted well in the various relations of life, was resourceful and won advancement along normal lines of productive industry; was stalwart in personal integrity and honor, was loyal and broad-minded as a citizen, and through his worthy character and services merited and received the confidence and esteem of his fellow men. Mr. Root was prominntly concerned in representative industrial enterprises in Indian- apolis, where he maintained his home for many years, and a point of special sig- nificance is that he was the prime factor in introducing the use of natural gas in Indianapolis. His success as one of the world's workers was of no equivocal order and represented the tangible results of the application of his own energies and abil- ity. As one of the representative business men and honored citizens of the Indiana capital he is well entitled to recognition and a tribute of respect in this publi- cation.
George Randolph Root was born at Mercer, the judicial center of the county of the same name in the fine old state of Pennsylvania, and the date of his nativity was January 28, 1844. He was a son of Renselaer and Anna Root, who removed to Pennsylvania from the state of New York, in which latter commonwealth the respec- tive families were founded in an early day. Renselaer Root engaged in the coal business at Mercer, Pennsylvania, where he also conducted a general store. He was one of the influential citizens of the community and ever commanded a secure place in popular esteem. Both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in Indianapolis. He whose name initiates this review was afforded the advantages of the common schools of his native place and his initial business experience was ob- tained in the mercantile establishment of his father. As a young man he came to Indiana and assumed the position of bookkeeper in the iron works at Brazil, the county seat of Clay county, the plant having been established by his cousin, Deloss Root, and his father also having an interest in the same. George R. Root finally became secretary of the Brazil Iron Company, a position which he retained until 1872, when he resigned the same and came to Indianapolis, where he became senior member of the firm of Root & McCoy and engaged in the retail coal business, at the corner of Market and Delaware streets. His valued coadjutor, Hamilton McCoy, died a few years later and he then admitted to partnership his younger brother, Oliver H. Root. The enterprise, under their energetic and progressive management, be- came one of most prosperous order and was conducted under the firm name of Root Brothers until the subject of this memoir retired from this line of business to give his time and attention to the introducing of natural gas in Indianapolis, he having been the leading promoter of this important enterprise, with which he continued
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to be identified in an active way for some time after he and his brother had dis- posed of their coal business.
About 1897 Mr. Root went to Buckingham county, Virginia, where he became prominently and successfully concerned in the slate-quarrying industry, through which he realized large financial returns and to which he gave the major part of his time until the close of his life. His health became much impaired and he sought re- lief in College Hill Sanitarium, in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where his death oc- curred in September, 1894, his remains being brought to Indianapolis and interred in beautiful Crown Hill cemetery. He ever retained a deep affection for Indiana's capital city and was active in support of measures and enterprises tending to ad- vance its material and civic progress. He continued to look upon this city as his home until he was summoned to the life eternal, and here he is remembered with honor as a man of fine attributes of character and as a citizen of the utmost liber- ality and loyalty. Though he never had aught of predilection for public office, he was aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and while his interests centered in his home and his business, he found a due measure of satisfaction in his affiliation with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Royal Arcanum. He attended and gave consistent support to the Methodist Episco- pal church.
On the 30th of April, 1872, Mr. Root gave patent evidence of the consistency of the statement that in the gracious spring "a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love," and offered further assurance of the abiding nature of his appre- ciation of this sentiment by his marriage to Miss Amelia Richardson, who was born at York, Clark county, Illinois, and who is a daughter of John B. and Mary (Parker) Richardson, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Maine. The parents of Mrs. Root were early settlers in the village of York, Illinois, where the father became a leading merchant and honored and influential citizen. Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Root the following brief record is entered in conclusion of this memoir: William Renselaer, who was born on the 28th of August, 1873, in Indianapolis, is at the head of the slate industry developed by his father in Virginia and maintains his home at Penlan. He married Miss Erna Eiler, of Munsey and they have one daughter, Margaret A. Humphrey Parker, who was born in Indianapolis on the 11th of July, 1875, died in this city in June, 1906. John Richardson, who was born here on the 8th of February, 1878, is now engaged in the Vitrified Brick Works at Terre Haute, Indiana, and is secretary of the works. Ralph Chandler, who was born on the 11th of July, 1882, is associated with his eldest brother in the management of the extensive slate-quarrying enterprise in Virginia. He married Miss Maude Graves, of Indianapolis, and they reside at Penlan, Virginia. Harry Evans, who was born in Indiana's capital city, on the 5th of July, 1884, remains here with his widowed mother and is engaged at the Stock yards. Mrs. Root has been a resident of Indianapolis from the year of her marriage, 1872, and has here found her social and other relations of the most pleasing order, the while she has a wide circle of friends in the community. In 1909 she sold the old family homestead in North Meridian street and purchased her present modern and attractive residence property, at 137 West Nineteenth street.
Mes John Harkness.
John Harkness -
John Darkness
OMING to Indianapolis in 1838, the late John Harkness was C for a number of years prominently identified with the news- paper business in this city and at the time of his death he was one of the veteran representatives of the journalistic profes- sion in the state. He accumulated a competency and for many years lived a retired life,-a man of singular reserve and con- centration and one whose intellectual attainments were of high order. He was lacking in those superficial qualities which make for social popular- ity, but those who knew him as he was found abundant reason to accord to him un- qualified respect and much admiration. He attained to the patriarchal age of eighty- seven years and was summoned to the life eternal on the 19th of March, 1901. He was well known to the younger generation in the capital city, for he was a great lover of children. During the many years of his retirement he veritably made his home his castle, having withdrawn from active association with the affairs of the day, but those of the older generation honored him as a man who had been a factor in the business and public life of the city and who, notwithstanding certain eccentricities, was a sterling character and a man of distinctive ability. In his attractive home, at 2018 North Illinois street, he lived in generous comfort and com- placent ease for many years, and kept himself far aloof from "the madding crowd's ignoble strife," content to occupy his time in reading and study and finding solace in the devoted companionship of his wife, who, venerable in years, still resides in the old homestead. As one of the pioneer newspaper men of the state and as a citizen who filled at one time a prominent place in the civic and business life of Indianapolis, there is all of consistency in according in this memorial volume a tribute to Mr. Harkness.
John Harkness was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of October, 1815, and was the son of William and Ann (Niblock) Harkness, who came to this country in 1821 from County Monaghan, Ireland, where all their chil- dren were born. These children were as follows: Elizabeth, born August 2, 1803; Jane, December 27, 1804; James, October 7, 1806; William, January 25, 1808; Agnes, in April, 1810; Thomas, May 13, 1812; John, October 13, 1815; Samuel, October 13, 1817; and Rachel, in March, 1820. All of the children lived to be over eighty, with the exception of Rachel, who died young from the effects of a fall.
Mr. Harkness was afforded good educational advantages in his native city and there served a most thorough apprenticeship to the printer's trade, in which he be- came a specially skilled workman. He continued to be employed at his trade in the Pennsylvania metropolis until 1838, when he came to Indianapolis, his age at the time having been twenty-three years. Concerning his career in connection with business activities in this city an article published in a local paper at the time of his death spoke substantially as follows: "He had gained a reputation for excel-
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lent work as a printer and got employment at once with Chamberlain & Morris, printers. The quality of his work as a pressman was such that Judge Blackford and Judge Porter would permit no one but him to handle their law reports. They requested particularly that Mr. Harkness and no other be put in charge of the print- ing of their reports. In 1849 he went into partnership with John R. Elder, of this city, and the firm published a little paper called the Locomotive, very popular at that time and until the beginning of the Civil war. The Locomotive was a paper of general local news, and Mr. Harkness attended to its mechanical department while Mr. Elder presided over its editorial department. In 1861, the partnership having prospered, the firm of Elder & Harkness bought the Indianapolis Sentinel, the publication of which they continued during the Civil war." Another newspaper ar- ticle gives further data apropos of the newspaper career of Mr. Harkness, and ex- tracts from the same are here interpolated: "In 1861 the Locomotive was consoli- dated with the Sentinel, under the ownership of Elder, Harkness & Bingham, who published the latter paper until October, 1865, when they sold the property and business to Tilford & Locke, who purposed to make the paper a Republican organ. This idea was given over and the paper reverted to Democratic hands in a few days, being published by an organization of politicians. During the war the attitude of the Sentinel gave rise to considerable bitter feeling toward it, and this hostility Mr. Harkness shared with his partners, Messrs. Bingham and Elder, though his author- ity and responsibility were confined to the mechanical department.
"Mr. Harkness had amassed some property and soon after the sale of the paper he retired from active business life. For many years he had lived in his comfort- able home on Illinois street, with his devoted wife as his companion. He seldom conversed with his neighbors and was seldom seen on the streets. To the outer world he was a man of reserve and brevity of speech. He was widely read, and to the end of his life retained a lively interest in current topics. His children are dead and in this city there are no surviving relatives except his wife. A brother, Samuel Harkness, of Philadelphia, eighty-three years of age, was in the city to at- tend the funeral, which was conducted from the family residence, by the Rev. Lewis Brown, rector of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal church, of which Mr. Harkness was one of the oldest members and communicants."
Though to the world in general Mr. Harkness may have seemed a man of much austerity, it was given to those who knew him to realize that underneath his reserve lay a heart that was attuned to sympathy, a mind that maintained high ideals. One of his dominant characteristics was his love for animals, and in view of this fact there is certain irony in the circumstance that his death was superinduced by the shock of an injury inflicted by the kick of his pet horse. Mr. Harkness was a man of broad and well fortified opinions and was ever a staunch supporter of the basic principles of the Democratic party, though he never manifested any desire for political office of any description. As a churchman he was earnest, sincere and faithful, and he was a devout communicant of St. Paul's church, Protestant Epis- copal, for many years prior to his demise, his venerable widow still being an active communicant of this church and having been closely identified with all the various departments of parochial work, with abiding and patient sympathy for "all those in any ways afflicted, or distressed, in mind, body or estate." Mr. Harkness was twice married, but all the children of the first marriage are deceased. One daugh- ter married a brother of former Governor Durbin, of Indiana, and George Hark-
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ness Durbin, the son of this marriage, is the only surviving grandchild of Mr. Harkness. This grandson resides at Anderson, Indiana.
On the 8th of September, 1881, at Hoopstown, Illinois, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Harkness to Miss Mariana Clarke, who proved his devoted com- panion and helpmeet and upon whom he lavished the affection of his reserved nature during the long years of their wedded life. Mrs. Harkness still resides in the old homestead, as has been already stated, and though she is nearly eighty years of age her years rest lightly upon her and she is known and loved as one of the gracious gentlewomen of the city in which she has so long maintained her home. She was born on the 18th of October, 1833, and is the only child of James and Lydia Clarke, the former a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Allentown, New Jersey. Both families are of distinguished lineage and both were founded in Amer- ica in the colonial days. Edward C. Clarke, uncle of Mrs. Harkness, gained dis- tinction as an architect and was prominently identified with the designing and con- struction of the national capitol. He was a resident of the city of Washington at the time of his death. Of the second marriage of Mr. Harkness no children were born.
Chat E. Jest
Charles Coward Test
I N THE fierce competition which involves every large business undertaking of the day, the men who succeed in overcoming this handicap and successfully establish enterprises of volume and importance are those who possess courage, together with the power of concentrating their energies, and far-seeing judg- ment that can see the end from the beginning. Such a man was the late Charles Edward Test, president of the National Motor Vehicle Company, of Indianapolis, Indiana, of which city he had been a resident for thirty years.
Charles Edward Test was born at Richmond, Indiana, December 25, 1856, and was a son of Alpheas and Elizabeth (Moffett) Test, natives of New Jersey, both of whom came to Richmond, Indiana, with their parents. His parents, from prominent families in the Society of Friends, both came from New Jersey at an early age, bringing with them that strict Quaker idea of right and wrong which was manifest not only in the home but in all business dealings. Alpheus Test was a man who early engaged in manufacturing and followed branches of the same throughout his life, in the latter part of his life acquiring extensive interests in the flour milling business. Alpheus Test ruled his home according to the Quaker idea of that time.
Among these excellent home surroundings Charles Edward was born and reared. At an early age he manifested a great love for outdoor life and animals and it seemed as if the happiest moments of his youth were spent in roaming through the woods in the neighborhood of Richmond. He completed his early education under private tutors and in private schools. He at that time manifested no more interest in books that the average boy, although he always seemed to possess a natural in- clination and love for mathematics. In later life Mr. Test often said that he must have inherited his love for machinery and shops from his father. As a young man he became an employe of the Pennsylvania Railroad as a telegraph operator at Knightstown, Henry county, Indiana. In 1880 he became buyer or purchasing agent for the Nordyke Marmon Company, mill manufacturers, at Indianapolis, where he continued until 1891, when he associated himself with A. C. Newby and Edward Fletcher in the organization of the Indianapolis Chain Works, becoming president of the company. In 1900 he sold his interest in the above enterprise and in the same year assisted in forming the National Motor Vehicle Company, of which he was president at the time of his death, June 22, 1910. He had been in ill health for several months and death occurred at a sanitarium at Waukesha, Wis- consin, where he had been a patient for several weeks, suffering from a form of Bright's disease.
On November 7, 1888, Mr. Test was married to Mary Elizabeth Skiles, who was born at Richmond, Indiana, and is a daughter of Thomas and Mary Adaline (Strickland) Skiles. The father of Mrs. Test died when she was one year old He
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Charles Coward Test
came to Richmond from Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the banking business. At Dayton, Ohio, he was married to Mary Adaline Strickland, who was born in Maine. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Test: Skiles Edward, Donald Newby and Dorothy Elizabeth. The family home is a beautiful mansion, situated at No. 795 Middle Drive, Woodruff Place, Indianapolis, which Mr. Test erected in 1892. Mr. Test was widely known, not alone in business circles but also in a number of organizations of a more or less social character. He belonged to the Commercial club, where he was regarded as a man of well poised character and finely balanced judgment, also to the Columbia, Canoe and Woodruff clubs. In his political views he was in no way bigoted, ever being willing to accord freedom of thought to others while he cast his vote with the Republican party. The mem- bers of his family attend the Presbyterian church, but he always claimed connection with the Society of Friends, in which he had a birthright membership. Person- ally he was a man of unselfish nature, of hearty and genial manner and the circle of his friends spread far. On the occasion of his death press notices appeared in all the leading journals of the country and many of those near home testified to his ability as a business man and his superiority as a citizen. He was not a man who preferred social recognition, but rather loved the quietness of his own home. His first and greatest thought was always for his family, although he was a man widely known in business circles and to a lesser extent in some social organizations.
Louis Mlurr
T HE German element of citizenship has played a large and im- portant part in the development and upbuilding of the beautiful capital city of Indiana, for those of German birth or extraction have been forceful factors in the industrial, commercial and civic advancement of the city, the while they have, from an early day, constituted a valued and honored contribution to the representa- tive citizenship of the state's metropolis. Among the best known and most popular active sons of Indianapolis who have claimed German lineage was Louis Murr, who passed the major part of his life in this city, who was actively iden- tified with business interests of wide scope and importance, and who stood exponent of the most loyal and appreciative citizenship, with an unfailing love and admiration for the city of his birth. Here he died on the 29th of July, 1905, and many there were in the community to mourn his loss with a sense of deep personal bereavement. His friends could be counted by the number of his acquaintances and he was specially prominent in the social activities of the German-American citizens of Indianapolis, as is indicated by the fact that he was president of the Indianapolis Maennerchor at the time of his death. His life and services in this community well entitle him to a tribute in this publication.
Louis Murr was born in Indianapolis on the 18th of August, 1856, and was a son of August and Amalie Murr, both of whom were natives of Germany. He gained his preliminary educational training in the schools of his native city and as a boy he accompanied his mother to Germany, where he continued to attend school under most favorable auspices until he had attained to the age of sixteen years. He then returned to Indianapolis, where he secured employment in the toy store of Charles Mayer, who was one of the well known German merchants of the city. Through earnest application, ability and faithful service Mr. Murr won advance- ment through the various grades of promotion until he became buyer and had charge of the wholesale department of the business, in which he eventually secured an interest, the concern being one of extensive order. He continued to be iden- tified with this enterprise until the wholesale department of the same was abol- ished, when he sold his interest and associated himself with the Byram Foundry Company, in which he became a 'large stockholder and of which he served as secretary and treasurer until his death. He was a man of fine business ability and made for himself a secure place as one of the representative factors in the com- mercial activities of his native city. He commanded unqualified popular esteem in the community, where his circle of friends was coincident with that of his ac- quaintances and where he was a valued factor in social affairs, both in a general way and especially in the German circles. He was one of the most zealous and active members of the Indianapolis Maennerchor and did much to promote the interests of this fine organization. He also held membership in the German House, another of the representative social organizations of the city, and was identified with other
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leading German societies. As a member of the Indianapolis Commercial Club, as well as through exerting his influence in other channels, he manifested his con- stant interest in all that tended to enhance the progress and prosperity of the Indiana capital, and he was known as an advocate of municipal progress along all normal and legitimate lines. He was specially zealous in his efforts to secure the establishing of public bath houses in Indianapolis. He traveled extensively in the United States and Europe, having made several trips abroad as buyer for the Meyer establishment, in which he secured a partnership interest about the year 1885. Though he was well fortified in his opinions as to matters of civic and economic import, he never had aught of predilection for public office. His political allegiance was given to the Republican party and he took a lively interest in the furtherance of its principles and policies. He was a man of distinct culture and of refined tastes and manners,-a gentleman in all that the term implies and one whose kindliness, deep human sympathies and sterling character commended him to and gained for him the unequivocal confidence and high regard of those with whom he came in contact in the various relations in life. His death consti- tuted a definite loss in the business and social activities of Indianapolis, and his memory is revered by all who had come within the sphere of his influence.
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