USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Memorial record of distinguished men of Indianapolis and Indiana > Part 42
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On the 28th of October, 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hoffman to Miss Emma Schildmeier, daughter of Anton Schildmeier, who is one of the venera- ble pioneer citizens of Hancock county, Indiana, and who there resides on his old homestead, which is about thirteen miles distant from Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman have no children.
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henry Seberin
ORE enduring than the temporal span of a worthy and fruitful M life is the benignant influence which it exerts, and in publica- tions of this nature it is well to take under review the careers of those who have played well their parts on the stage of human activities and have left to the world the heritage of large and definite achievement, earnest and prolific application and names untarnished by the slightest personal lapse from the highest standards of integrity and honor. The late Henry Severin maintained his home in Indianapolis for nearly a half a century and through his own ability and well directed endeavors attained to marked success and prominence in connection with local business enterprise of broad scope and importance. Coming here as a young man, he became the founder of one of the most prominent and honored German families of the capital city, with whose civic and industrial development and prog- ress the name has been most closely and worthily identified. He was a man of strong and noble character, sincere, generous and kindly in his association with his fellow men, careful and conservative, yet essentially progressive in business and loyal in all that pertains to ideal citizenship. His was a commanding place in the confidence and esteem of the people of Indianapolis, and it is most consistent that in this edition he entered a tribute to his memory and a brief review of his career, as one of the representative citizens and business men of the Indiana metro- polis.
Henry Severin was born in the province of Westphalia, Germany, on the 19th of January, 1827, and was summoned to the life eternal on the 2d of February, 1899, after having reached the psalmist's span of three score years and ten and after having accounted well to the world through sterling character and distinc- tive achievement along normal lines of productive enterprise. He bore the full patronymic of his father, Henry Severin, and was a child at the time of the latter's death, his mother surviving for many years and continuing to reside in Germany until her death. Both families were of representative order in the fine old province of Westphalia, where they had been established for many generations. In the excellent schools of the fatherland Henry Severin gained his early educa- tional discipline, which proved an adequate formation for the broad and exact knowledge that in later years marked him as a man of fine mental ken and mature judgment.
In 1849, at the age of twenty-two years, Mr. Severin severed the gracious ties that bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to win for himself in America such measure of success and prosperity as lay within his powers of ac- complishment. He made the voyage on a sailing vessel of the type common to the period and disembarked in the port of New York city. From the national metropolis, he soon made his way westward, and for two years he was employed in a wholesale grocery establishment in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, a position for
499
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Henry Seberin
which he was qualified through previous experience in this line of enterprise in his native land. At the expiration of the period noted he returned to Germany, where he remained about one year, and he then came again to the United States, of whose advantages and opportunities he had become deeply appreciative. After a brief interval passed in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, he came to Indianapolis, in 1853, and here established his present home.
On Fort Wayne avenue he soon afterward engaged in the retail grocery busi- ness, and it is interesting to recall the fact that his was the only grocery store north of Washington street, North street having then represented the city limits on the north. There he continued operations until 1866, when he placed his business in charge of two trusted and valued friends, William Buschmann and William Broun, and in company with his wife, returned to the old home in Germany, where they remained two years, during which time they renewed the gracious memories and associations of their childhood and youth. Upon his return to Indianapolis, in 1868, Mr. Severin broadened the scope of his business operations and showed his abiding faith in Indianapolis as a distributing center by engaging in the wholesale grocery trade, in which he became associated with Henry Schnull and Bergen Applegate, under the firm name of Severin, Schnull & Company. In 1872 Mr. Schnull retired from this firm and was succeeded by Frederick Ostermeyer. Mr. Severin continued to be identified with the business until his death and the same expanded into an enterprise of broad scope, with a trade extending throughout the wide territory normally tributary to Indianapolis. The firm name was changed to Severin & Company and he was the largest stockholder and the dominating force in the enterprise until his death in 1899. In 1901 the firm discontinued business.
In the retail grocery business Mr. Severin had as his valued and honored asso- ciate for a number of years the late William Buschmann, who likewise became one of the representative figures in the commercial activities of Indianapolis, and in this connection it is gratifying to record that the sons of these honored pioneer business men are now associated in the extensive enterprise now conducted in this city under the title of Lewis Meier & Company,-Henry Severin, Jr., only sur- viving child of the subject of this memoir, being president of the company, and Charles L. Buschmann its vice president and general manager.
Henry Severin was known as a man of impregnable integrity, fine business ability and genial and kindly personality. He filled a large place in the business and civic life of Indianapolis for many years, was loyal and liberal in the support of all measures tending to advance the general welfare of the community and held as his own the unqualified confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, was a charter member of that representative organization, the German House, and also held membership in the original Maennerchor Society organized in Indianapolis.
About the year 1883 Mr. Severin purchased the fine residence property in which his widow still maintains her home, at 1039 North Meridian street, and here he found his greatest happiness in associations that were of ideal order, mu- tual love and sympathy having brightened the entire married life of him and his devoted wife and the gracious ties having been severed by his death, after a period of nearly forty years of companionship. In the death of Henry Severin Indian- apolis lost one of its valued and honored citizens and business men, and his passing was a source of especially deep regret among the German citizens, who loved him
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Henry Seberin
for his sterling character, his unfailing consideration and kindliness and his genial qualities in social intercourse.
On the 6th of June, 1860, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Severin to Miss Augusta Rentsch, who was born and reared in the province of Westphalia, Germany, and who is the daughter of Henry and Charlotte (Albrecht) Rentsch. Mrs. Severin came to the United States when eighteen years of age and joined two of her brothers who had established their home in Indianapolis, where she met and married Mr. Severin. . They became the parents of four children, the first of whom, Otto, died at the age of six years, while the parents were visiting in Germany; Bertha died at the age of ten years and her remains were laid to rest in Crown Hill ceme- tery, where also repose those of her father and her sister Laura, who became the wife of Dr. Carl L. Fletcher of Indianapolis, and who died January 18, 1896, at the age of twenty-eight years; Henry, Jr., the only surviving child, is one of the representative business men of Indianapolis, where he is well upholding the pres- tige of the honored name he bears. From a review of his career previously pre- pared by the writer of this memoir are taken the extracts which follow, slight paraphrase being made in their reproduction.
Henry Severin, Jr., was born in Indianapolis on the 9th of April, 1870, and is indebted to the public schools of his native city for his early educational train- ing, which included the curriculum of the high school. At the age of twenty years he initiated his association with the wholesale grocery business in which his father was an interested principal, and soon afterward he was admitted to partnership in the business, with which he continued to be actively identified until 1901, when he disposed of his interest in the same and purchased the interest of the late Lewis Meier in the firm of Lewis Meier & Company, manufacturers of working men's garments. A reorganization of the business took place under the new regime and the same was incorporated as a stock company and under the original title. Of this corporation Mr. Severin has since been president, and he has proved an aggressive and versatile executive officer. Growth, progress and success have been the con- comitants of the industrial enterprise of which Mr. Severin is the head, and the advanced policies maintained, together with the reliability of the products, insure a consecutive expansion of the business as the goods turned out constitute their own best advertising. The concern manufactures the "Auto Brand" of working men's garments and is one of the largest of the kind in the Union, with a trade extending into thirty different states. At the present time a corps of twelve traveling sales- men is retained and through an agency established in the City of San Francisco the trade of the company has been widely extended through the northwest, the while an excellent trade is also being built up in the Canadian provinces. Mr. Severin is also a stockholder and director of the Fletcher American National Bank of Indianapolis, with which he has been thus identified from the founding of the institution.
Taking a lively interest in all that concerns the advancement and general welfare of his native city, Mr. Severin stands as one of the representative business men of the "Greater Indianapolis," and in the community which has ever been his home he is accorded unqualified popular esteem. He is a staunch Republican in his political allegiance, and is identified with the Columbia and Commercial Clubs and the Ger- man House.
On the 15th of September, 1898, Mr. Severin led to the hymeneal altar Miss Edna Smither, who was born and reared in Indianapolis and who is a daughter of
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Denry Seberin
Theodore and Elizabeth (Weaver) Smither. Mr. Smither became one of the repre- sentative contractors of Indianapolis, where he was also a dealer in building sup- plies; he was a prominent member of local bodies of the Masonic fraternity, in which he received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; he was a stanch Republican in politics, and was one of the honored citizens of the capital city of his native state, in which the family was founded in the early pioneer days. His death occurred in 1908 and his widow still resides in Indianapolis, Mrs. Severin being the younger of their two children, and Ida being the wife of Fred J. Wright, of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Severin have three children,-Henry (III), Theodore and Rudolph.
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G
INDEX
Abbett, Charles H. 439
Abbett, Georgia 441
Allen, Granville G 109
Covert, William T. 355
Cranor, Andrew P.
375
Cranor, Mary.
376
Crawford, Alexander McC.
385
385
Bailey, Emma O. 486
Bailey, Francis P 485
Balke, Bertha
225
Balke, Charles R 223
Bassett, Sarah M.
160
Bassett, Thomas M.
159
Beeler, Fielding
169
Beeler, Ida
171
Bingham, Joseph J.
357
Bingham, Sophia U.
358
Bliss, George W
173
Bliss, Harriet
175
Braden, James 243
Braden, Lydia E.
245
Brandes, Herman F. W
345
Evans, George T.
463
Evans, Joseph R.
63
Bridges, Charles W. 207
Bryan, James W. 307
Burdsal, Alfred 199
Burdsal, Emma
203
Burk, John E
43
Burk, Louisa 44
Campfield, Aaron G. 377
Campfield, Caroline R. 378
Carnahan, James R. 393
Carnahan, Sue E.
Cast, Mrs.
395
398
Fraser, Della M 33
Chandler, Sarah
211
Fraser, Selby P. 33
Frommeyer, Herman 479
Frommeyer, Josephine
480
Clark, Alfred
13
Furgason, John A.
103
Furgason, Rebecca G
105
Comstock, Hannah M. 325
Conlee, Amy E. 361
Conlee, Thomas A. 359
Conner, John C.
387
Cooper, John J. 29
Cornelius, Edward G. 247
Covert, Margaret 356
Anderson, Eleanor H 331
Anderson, Mads P
329
Crawford, Carrie
Darnell, Calvin F. 397
DeMotte, Anna G. 52
DeMotte, William H. 49
Dickinson, Alice E.
135
Dickinson, John C.
133
Dietz, Frank
489
Dietz, Louisa B.
490
Downs, Dennis P. 445
Egan, Mary S 219
Egan, Thomas P 219
Eichrodt, Charles W 87
Fertig, Frank
449
Fertig, Leona.
450
Fishback, William P. 379
Fishback, Mary L. 384
Fletcher, Calvin, Sr 165
Fletcher, Emily 166
Folsom, Edwin S 269
Folsom, Mary E. 271
Chandler, Thomas E. 209
Clark, Sarah E 13
Comstock, Albert S. 323
Garver, John J. 295
Gates, Alfred B. 67
Gates, Elizabeth M. 69
Gray, Isaac P
347
503
Brandes, Lena
346
Faulkner, Charles F. 309
Faulkner, Cora A. 310
504
INDEX
Gray, Pierre S. 351
Griffith, Elnora L. 368
Griffith, William C. 365
Hare, Clinton L 189
Hare, Julie H. 186
Hare, Marcus L. 185
Harkness, John
411
Heinrich, Christian F
477
Heinrich, Elizabeth
478
Henley, Eva
475
Henley, William F 473
Ranger, John H. 145
Ransford, Nettie 470
Ransford, William P. 469
Robbins, Cassandra 338
Robbins, Irwin. 335
Roberts, Benjamin 433
Roberts, Emily E. 21
Roberts, Martha J. 433
Roberts, Robert
19
Root, George R. 403
Sargent, Annie M. 83
Sargent, Leonard S. 81
Schildmeier, Anton 491
Schnull, Henry 451
Schumacher, John A 115
Seaton, Mahala H. 460
Seger, Jonathan M. 317
Severin, Augusta R.
501
Severin, Henry
499
Short, Mattie
24
Short, Willard N. 23
Smith, Alonzo G. 215
Smith, Charles H. 405
Smith, Clara D.
407
Smith, Ida Jane.
218
Tarkington, Helena 140
Tarkington, William S. R. 139
Terrell, William H. H. 235
Test, Charles E. 417
Test, Mary E. 417
Thudium, Harry O. 179
Thudium, Julia
180
Tucker, Hannibal S.
37
McDowell, Charles H. 467
McDowell, Joseph G. 57
McDowell, Lucretia 59
McFadyen, John 255
Merrill, Catharine.
265
Merrill, Samuel 259
Monninger, Daniel 129
Moody, Lorenzo D. 425
Murr, Amalie 420
Murr, Louis
419
Mutchner, Phillip E.
35
Nickum, John R. 343
O'Brian, Amanda M 230
O'Brian, John 229
Osterman, John 153
Osterman, Josephine 155
Pendergast, John G. 93
Power, Carrie S. 97
Power, Jesse T.
95
Heron, Alexander
289
Heron, Helen M.
291
Herriott, Juliaette D. 194
Herriott, William M. 191
Hibben, James S. 195
Hibben, Sarah A. 197
Hobson, Letha J. 334
Hobson, William W 333
Hoffman, George W
495
Holloway, John M. 107
Holstein, Charles L. 339
Howard, Liberty 121
Howard, Mary J
122
Howland, Charles A 457
Hughes, William A.
273
Ittenbach, Frank 127
Kahn, Lee R. 31
Kohmann, Rena E
39
Kothe, Henry 71
Kuhlman, Eleanor M. 373
Kuhlman, Ernest H.
373
Landers, Franklin 5
Landers, Jackson
15
Landers, Laura 17
Landers, Martha E 8
Langbein, Amelia
311
Langbein, Joseph
311
Laughlin, Clara 303
Laughlin, Elmer C. 301
Lieber, Herman
75
Loomis, George
99
Loomis, Sallie B.
100
Wachtstetter, Anna 306
Wachtstetter, Gottlieb 305
Wallace, William 276
Wands, Minnie
483
Wands, William
481
Woerner, Ada C. 388
Woods, Katherine 284
Woods. Marshall C. 283
Wright, Martha
163
Wright, Peter H.
161
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