Memorial record of northeastern Indiana, Part 35

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 932

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In the same year of his return from the army Mr. Schrader was married, on the 2 1 st of September, to Miss Mary C. Compton, a native of Coshocton county, Ohio, born March 1, 1841, and a daughter of James and Orpha (Mossman) Compton, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Ohio. Their marriage was celebrated in the Buck- eye State and they made their home in Co- shocton county until 1842, when they came to Indiana, settling in Richland township, Whitley county, in the midst of the forest, surrounded by Indians and wild animals. In 1849 they removed to Columbia township, locating on section 24, where E. B. Beeson now makes his home. He cleared and im- proved that farm, transforming the wild land

into rich and fertile fields. He died in 1866, and his wife passed away in 1850, in her thirty-first year. Their family numbered six children, but only two are now living, Mrs. E. B. Beeson and Mrs. Mary A. Schra- der. In his political views James Compton was a stalwart Republican. His business transactions were crowned with success, and as the result of his well directed efforts he became the possessor of 900 acres of land. After the death of his first wife he married Miss Cordelia Ormsby, who still survives him. They became the parents of three children, but all are now deceased. He was an active and consistent member of the Church of God.

Mrs. Schrader grew to womanhood in Whitley county and acquired her education in a little log schoolhouse. She well re- members the Indians in this locality during her girlhood, and can relate many interest- ing incidents of frontier life, when this community was a pioneer region. Upon their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Schrader located upon a farm in Union township, Whitley county, where they lived for eighteen years, when in 1885 they went to the pleasant home which is now the resi- dence of the lady. It is a beautiful place, situated near Oak Grove Church, and here the life labors of Isaac Schrader were ended on the 9th of May, 1894. He made farm- ing his life work and prospered in his under- takings, leaving at his death 434 acres of valuable land, 200 in Columbia township and 234 in Union township, all of which is now held intact by his widow.

The character of Mr. Schrader and the high regard in which he was held by those who knew him is best shown in the words of his life-long friend, John Mowrey: "Isaac Schrader is sadly missed by his

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neighbors; no other man can fill his place in the community." W. W. Lovett, who had also known him long and intimately, wrote of him:

".When sixteen years of age Isaac Schrader became religions under the labors of Elder Fredrick Komp, and from that time until his probation ended maintained an earnest and conscientiously religious life, realized and seen in his guarded words and careful life, coupled with scrupulously honest and upright dealing. All this led to his being honored by his neighbors and the church. Indeed, such was his life that honors were heaped upon him in a general way. Few men filled so wide a field of useful- ness as Brother Schrader. For twenty- eight years he was an Elder in the Church of God at Oak Grove, close by which he resided, and from which house we carried his mortal remains to their earthly resting place. He was largely efficient in helping to organize and sustain Spring Run Grange of Patrons of Husbandry, and was for many years its presiding officer, he with his esti- mable wife owning several farms in the neighborhood.

"He was elected Trustee of Findlay College, Findlay, Ohio, and thus served un- til called to his final rest. For four con- secutive terms of three years each he was elected Treasurer of the General Eldership, thus having received and fulfilled the confi- dence of the general brotherhood. He was several times presiding officer of the Indiana Eldership, a position he was eminently able to fill, a good parliamentarian, good judg- ment, just and firm in his rulings. Few men would excel him as a presiding officer. He and his wife have pleasantly and pros- perously journeyed along life's pathway. Very many ministers, local and general, can

testify to their hospitality. It was truly a preachers' home. The partner of his youth is now left to finish the journey alone, and yet not alone. The Lord of Heaven has spoken concerning such : he is the widow's God.

"The funeral was held at Oak Grove Bethel, into which not half those present could crowd. The religious services were conducted by the writer, assisted by Rev. C. King, of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Columbia City. His comrades of G. W. Stough Post, G. A. R., of Colum- bia City, bore him away to the place of in- terment near by, where they laid him to rest, according to their ritual, some fifty of his comrades in arms being present. The neighborhood has lost a good neighbor; the church and Sunday-school will miss the counsel and help of a worthy leader; the chair to which all looked for advice and counsel in the Grange is vacant, and the oc- cupant is roaming the green fields of the great place of gathering. The Indiana Eldership will very sorely feel the loss of a member so useful and helpful; the Trustees of Findlay College will realize the loss of a worthy man from among them. The Gen- eral Eldership will no more see him among the Indiana delegates at its sessions. He sits among the general eldership of the ' church of the first-born,' above. His words of advice and counsel are with us, but most keenly will the loss be felt in the home of Sister Schrader, where all that is seen of former pleasures and comfort will bring him to remembrance. God has trans- planted him from among the flowers of the lawn to his place by the river of life in the beautiful garden of God, there to bloom forever.

"Sister, the waiting will not belong.

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You, with him, may walk the streets of that city; only be faithful. Brother Schrader died as he had lived, in the triumphs of a living faith in Him who said, 'Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' While we shall miss him here, we shall meet him again in the morning of the great day. Brother Schrader was one of sixteen chil- dren born to Martin and Fannie (Koons) Schrader, and leaves a wife, six brothers and three sisters, with many near and dear relatives, to mourn his loss. We weep not as those who have no hope. It is the Father placing another light in the window of Heaven for us. Let us heed the beckon- ing and steadily move onward and upward until the Master shall say, 'It is enough, come up higher.'"

ILLIAM P. BREEN .-- In the last half of the present century the lawyer has been pre-eminently po- tent in all affairs of private con- cern and national importance. The man versed in the laws of the country, as dis- tinguished from professional politicians or business men, has been a recognized power. He has been depended upon to conserve the best and permanent interests of the whole people, and without him and the approval of his practical judgment the effort of the statesman and the industry of the business man and mechanic would have proved fu- tile. The reason is not far to seek. The professional lawyer is never the creature of circumstance. The profession is open to talent, and eminence or success can not be obtained except by indomitable energy, per- severance, patience and intelligence. The subject of this review is one of the younger members of the bar of Allen county and has

attained distinctive rank among the leading attorneys of Fort Wayne, having a minute and comprehensive knowledge of jurispru- dence and having retained a representative clientage by reason of his fidelity and unmis- takable ability.

A native son of Indiana, Mr. Breen was born in the city of Terre Haute on the 13th of February, 1859, coming of sturdy old Irish stock, his father, James Breen, having been born on the Emerald Isle, in the year 1820, emigrating thence to the United States in 1840. Arriving in America he re- mained for five years in the East, after which he came to Indiana and located in Terre Haute, where he continued to reside until 1863, when he came to Fort Wayne, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and suc- ceeded in building up a prosperous business. He was a man of marked intellectuality and force of character and attained a position of prominence and influence in the community. He served for many years as a member of the City Council, and at the time of his death was a member of the Board of Water Works Trustees, and lent aid to all measures having as their object the welfare and ad- vancement of the city. His death occurred here in the year 1883. His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Dunne, was born in Ireland, in 1818, and her death occurred five years subsequent to that of her honored husband. Their only child is the immedi- ate subject of this review.

William P. Breen acquired his prelimin- ary education in the school maintained in this city by the Brothers of the Roman Catholic Church, and he supplemented this training by entering as a student that noble educational institution, the University of Notre Dame, near South Bend, this State, where he graduated in 1877. He had in the

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meantime determined upon the vocation which he should follow as his life work-the profession of law-and in order to fit himself for this calling he entered, in the fall of the same year, the office of Coombs, Morris & Bell, at that time one of the leading law firms in Fort Wayne. Under such effective preceptorage he continued his studies with so much discernment and assiduity that in May, 1879, he secured admission to the bar. In September of the same year he entered vigorously upon the practice of his profes- sion, being only twenty years of age at the time. From the start he was associated with Judge Warren H. Withers and this partnership continued without interruption until the death of the latter, on the 15th of November, 1882. Thus identified in their practice the two were mutually helpful, and they retained a clientage which was of sin- gularly representative order. After the death of his able associate, Judge Withers, Mr. Breen continued an individual practice until 1893, when the present copartnership was formed between himself and John Morris, Jr., an able young attorney and the son of Hon. Judge John Morris, one of the most venerable and most distinguished members of the Indiana bar, and one who has for many years been an honored resident of Fort Wayne.

In active practice our subject is emi- nently a man of resources. Always a student, careful in the preparation of cases, and al- ways quick to see and to anticipate difficul- ties which are or may be encountered, he has been enabled to so shape his cause as to avoid them. Strong and forceful in his presentation of his cases, he has gained the good will and commendation of both his confreres and the public, retaining his repu- tation among men for integrity and high

character and never losing that true dignity which is the birthright of a gentleman.

In his political adherency Mr. Breen is actively identified with the Democratic party, of whose principles and policies he is an earnest advocate, though never a seeker for political preferment. In religion he clings to the faith of his fathers and is a devoted member and communicant of the Roman Catholic Church, as is also his estimable wife. The marriage of our subject was solemnized on the 27th of May, 1884, when he was united to Miss Odelia Phillips, of this city. She was born March 13, 1859, the daughter of Bernard Phillips, who was long a respected resident of Fort Wayne.

J OHN W. HAYDEN, who is intimate- ly concerned in a line of industry which has important bearing upon the progress and stable prosperity of any section or community, -that agency which implies operations in the way of real- estate transactions and the negotiating of financial loans,-occupies a distinctively representative position among the enterpris- ing and progressive business men of the city of Fort Wayne, and for this reason, as well as that of the wide range of his operations, it is eminently befitting that he be accorded due recognition within the pages of a vol- ume whose province is the consideration of the lives of the representative citizens of the section with whose interests he is closely identified.

Reverting in brief to the more salient points in his ancestral and early personal history, we find that John W. Hayden was born May 18, 1837, in Brown township, Franklin county, Ohio. His father, Isaac Hayden, was of English extraction and a

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native of the old Keystone State, having been born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of March, 1809. In his early life he became a resident of Ohio, being one of the pioneer settlers in that State. No- vember 28, 1833, was consummated his marriage to Elizabeth Grabb, who was born in Franklin county, Ohio, August 23, 1815, of sturdy Scotch lineage. Each the paternal and maternal grandfather of our subject was a soldier in the war of 1812, the former having been an active participant in the battle of the River Raisin. In the year 1848 Isaac Hayden, with his wife and their two children, removed from Ohio to Kos- ciusko county, Indiana, settling on a farm of 160 acres and taking up their abode in a primitive log cabin on the place, which had been but partially reclaimed. Here the father remained until the fall of 1856, when he removed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, his death occurring in that city on May 14, 1862. He was a man of honest worth of character and was highly esteemed in the community where he had lived and labored to goodly ends. His wife survives him, and is still enjoying vigorous health at the ripe age of eighty years. Their two children were: Emeline, who was born December 10, 1834, and who died March 19, 1857; and John W., the immediate subject of this review.

At the time of the removal of his parents to Indiana John W. was a boy of eleven years, and during the years of his associa- tion with the work of the frontier farm his educational advantages were of necessity limited in scope, being confined to the priv- ileges afforded by the subscription or dis- trict schools. At the age of nineteen, how- ever, he was sent to the Fort Wayne Col- lege in order that he might prepare himself for that broader field of usefulness and

effort which his ambition craved. In 1860 he completed the prescribed course of study in the institution named, and immediately afterward entered the office of Hon. Isaac Jenkinson, of this city, and under such effect- ive preceptorage prosecuted the study of law, devoting himself to the work so persistently and discerningly that on April 22d of the following year he was admitted to practice at the bar.

This period was one which represented the most crucial epoch in the history of our nation, for the war of the Rebellion had been inaugurated, and, recognizing that there was a duty paramount to that defined in the labors of his profession, young Hayden was among the first of the loyal sons of the republic to respond to his country's call for volunteers. He enlisted as a member of Company G, of the Twelfth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for the three- months service, and was appointed Second Sergeant, which position he retained until the expiration of his term of enlistment. He then re-enlisted for a year, but by rea- son of physical disability was incapacitated for service on the field, and he was honor- ably discharged, at Poolesville, Maryland, on the last day of August, 1861. Return- ing to Indiana, he was for some years there- after employed in the pension office at Fort Wayne, and later engaged in the practice of his profession in this city. In 1875 he received the appointment as Register in Bankruptcy, the preferment having been ac- corded him by the late lamented Judge Walter Q. Gresham. This office he retained until the repeal of the law providing for the same, in 1878. When the United States District Court at Fort Wayne was organized Mr. Hayden was appointed, by W. W. Dudley, as Deputy United States Marshal, which

JohnSaimin.

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important office he held until the change of administration, in 1884. In the meanwhile our subject had established in this city a real-estate and loan agency, and upon re- tiring from office he devoted his entire time and attention to this enterprise, which is one of the most extensive of the sort in the city and one whose operations are of wide ex- tent. The business has been managed with signal regard to the principles of highest honor and integrity, and correct methods have gained to it and its projector the confi- dence and esteem of the public and a result- ing support of representative order.

In his religious adherency Mr. Hayden is identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his honored parents were devoted members. He has been an enthu- siastic Republican ever since the party was organized, and his political motto is one which has been endorsed by many of our wisest statesman, and is one to which he has clung tenaciously from the days long past: "Colonization and qualified suf- frage " -- a doctrine which he still believes could have averted the great sacrifice of brave men which the Union endured in its efforts to forever settle the question of slavery. In his fraternal relations Mr. Hay- den is prominently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Masonic order, in the latter of which he has advanced to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.

On May 18, 1866, were celebrated the nuptials of Mr. Hayden and Miss Sarah M. Green, daughter of Dr. Samuel J. Green, for many years one of the leading medical practitioners of Waynetown, Montgomery county, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Hayden became the parents of five children, of whom only two are now living, namely: Grace H. and Donald J.

J OHN S. IRWIN, M. D., LL. D .- The record of a busy life, a success- ful life, must ever prove fecund in in- terest and profit as scanned by the student who would learn of the intrinsic es- sence of individuality; who would attempt an analysis of character and trace back to the fountain head the widely diverging chan- nels which mark the onward flow, consecu- tively augmentive progress, if we may be permitted to use the phrase, of such indi- viduality. All human advancement, all human weal or woe-in short, all things within the mental ken-are but mirrored back from the composite individuality of those who have lived. "The proper study of mankind is man," says Pope; and aside from this, in its broader sense, what base of study and information have we ?

Genealogical research, then, has its value, be it in the tracing of an obscure and broken line or the following back of the course of a noble and illustrious lineage whose men have been valorous, whose women of gentle re- finement. We of this end-of-the-century, democratic type can not afford to scoff at or to hold in light esteem the bearing up of a 'scutcheon upon whose fair face appears no sign of blot; and he should thus be the more honored who honors a noble man and the memory of noble deeds.

The lineage of the subject of this review is one of the most distinguished and interest- ing order, and no apology need be made in reverting to this in connection with the in- dividual accomplishments of the subject himself. John S. Irwin, who stands forth as one of the most able and honored citi- zens of Fort Wayne, comes from a dis- tinguished Scotch family, concerning whom we are able to offer certain genealogical rec- ord as follows: Some time in the twelfth

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century the family of De Irwin, of Norman descent, obtained possession of the lands of Bonshaw in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and were known as the Irwins of Bonshaw. At the time that Robert Bruce was fighting for the freedom of Scotland he had occasion to stop at Bonshaw and he there found Will- iam De Irwin, a bright, energetic man, took a fancy to him and made him his armor- bearer, a position of distinction. In this ca- pacity De Irwin proved a faithful servant and at the battle of Bannockburn was instru- mental in saving the life of Bruce. For this valiant and devoted act he was publicly thank- ed and was authorized to assume as his own the Bruce coat-of-arms -- the triple holly leaves with the motto, Sub sole, sub umbra virens, which has ever since been retained as the motto of the Irwin family. He also pre- sented to him the barony of Drum, in Aberdeenshire, which has ever since been the seat of that branch of the family, the castle of Drum being the oldest inhabited dwelling in Scotland. During the rebellion of 1680 several members of the family went over to Ireland to assist in raising the siege of Lon- donderry. Remaining there after the re- bellion was quelled they were made the re- cipients of grants of land in the counties of Tyrone, Londonderry and Antrim, that branch of the family from which our subject is descended having settled in county Ty- rone. There occurred in 1745 the birth of John Irwin, who remained in his native land until he had attained to man's estate. Early in the Revolutionary period of the United States he emigrated to America and became Assistant Commissary General at Fort Pitt, serving in that important capacity from 1781 until about 1791, after which he set- tled in the village of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where for many years he was engaged in

merchandising, becoming one of the most prominent and influential men of that section. His was the strong mentality and the prag- matic acumen of the Scotch type and he was a man of sturdy virtue and inflexible integrity. His death occurred in Pittsburg in the year 1831. His eldest son, John S. Irwin, was born in Pittsburg in the year 1798, and upon attaining maturity engaged in the practice of medicine, having graduated with the honorable degree of Doctor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1819. His career was terminated at an untimely age, for he became a victim of con- sumption and his death occurred in 1832.

John S. Irwin, the immediate subject of this review, was the first-born son of Dr. Irwin, the date of his nativity having been April 4, 1825, and the place having been Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was afforded ex- ceptional educational advantages, his prelimi- nary discipline being received in the private schools of his native city, and then supple- mented by the completion of the course of study in the Western University of Pennsylva- nia, where he graduated in August, 1842, with the degree of A. B. He had determined to adopt the profession of medicine and for the purpose of preparing himself for this line of endeavor he took up the study of medicine and pharmacy under the effective perceptor- age of Doctor Joseph P. Gazzam, of Pitts- burg, subsequently entering the medical de- partment of the University of Pennsylvania, froin which on the 3d of April, 1847, he was graduated with the degree of M. D. Immediately after his graduation he entered upon the active practice of his profession, becoming junior member of the medical and surgical board of the Mercy Hospital in Pittsburg. He continued the practice of his profession until 1853, when, on account

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of impaired health, he was compelled to abandon his efforts in this line. In Decem- ber of that year, having partially recovered, he accepted the position of bookkeeper for the private banking house of Allen Hamilton & Co., of Fort Wayne, with whom he re- mained eleven years, after which he became teller in the Fort Wayne branch of The Bank of the State of Indiana, retaining this incumbency for the period of two years; after this he was elected cashier of the Merchants' National Bank, which position he filled until 1874. At this time, being threatened with serious disease of the brain, he was compelled to resign his executive of- fice in the bank and thereafter passed a year in traveling as general manager for In- diana of the United States Life Insurance Company. In the practical affairs of life Dr. Irwin has shown a marvelous capacity for the conduct of affairs of great breadth, and within the time of his identification with the banking interests of this State he proved himself to be an able financier and a man of great sagacity and discernment.

During the long period of his residence at Fort Wayne, Dr. Irwin has maintained a lively interest in the welfare and substan- tial upbuilding of the city and furthering her development in all legitimate channels, tak- ing a broadminded view of matters of pub- lic polity and ever maintaining a progressive attitude. In April, 1865, our subject was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the city schools, and when the board effected organization he was elected secretary and treasurer. This latter position he retained until June, 1875, when the superintendent of schools, Dr. James H. Smart, was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Dr. Irwin was chosen to succeed him as Superintendent of the city schools, in which

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Memorial record of northeastern Indiana, Part 35

Author: Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 932

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 932