USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Pictorial and biographical memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, together with biographies of many prominent men of other portions of the state, both living and dead > Part 12
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NAPOLEON B. TAYLOR. The flippant tone of many writers and the tendency of the age to cast into ridicule. if not into downright contempt, so much of what was formerly regarded as sacred, has had its effect upon opinion as to the merits of those holding offices of honor and trust. In fact, the highest servant of the people, the president of the United States, even, is not protected from the sneers of the scorner and the witling. In this age of ridi- cule, much of which is thoughtless and unmeaning and unmeant, it is true. it is peculiarly gratifying that the judiciary has escaped the shafts of envy and the darts of the silly. This speaks volumes in praise of those into whose hands is given such great power, the issues of life and death and the determination of the rights of property-the judges of the land. And this is true-and every good citizen should rejoice greatly that it is so-that while corruption has often found its way into high places, and many officials have been recreant to their trusts, the ermine has remained unspotted. Nowhere under God's footstool can there be found a
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class of men who, under all circumstances and conditions, have remained so true to them- selves and so true to the sacred and important trusts given into their hands as the judges in the several States in the Union. Worthy a place in the distinguished ranks where he is found is the subject of this sketch, the Hon. Napoleon B. Taylor, judge of the Superior Court, No. 1, of Indianapolis. He comes of a good old English stock, having been born in Campbell County, Ky., in October, 1820, being the son of Robert A. and Mary (Vyze) Tay- lor, natives of Mason County, Ky., and of Virginia, respectively. The family is of English origin and can show a worthy and honest succession for several generations. The paternal grandfather, Robert Taylor, was orderly sergeant in Capt. Bell's company, under Gen. Stevens at Yorktown, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. This patriotic man was also in the Indian wars in Kentucky and with Gen. Wayne in his Indian campaigns. A man of superior education and of great good sense, he was very popular and widely known. To his avocation as a farmer he added school teaching and was an educator of de- cided repute. As soon as peace was declared, in 1783, he removed to Mason County, Ky., subsequently going to Pendleton County, in the same State, where he died in 1851. The father of our subject was a mechanic and a native of Mason County, Ky .; was reared in Pendleton County until he was seventeen years old, when he enlisted in the army in the War of 1812, serving in Capt. Childress' company of mounted riflemen, in the command of Gen. William Henry Harrison. After peace was declared he learned the trade of a bricklayer in Mason County, Ky., and followed the same all his life. When he came to Indianapolis, as he did January 26, 1826, he found it a small village of 300 inhabitants. The journey was made from Kentucky in wagons aud was a slow and somewhat inconvenient mode of locomo- tion. He first rented a little house at what is now the corner of Washington and Alabama Streets, Judge Wick, then secretary of State, occupying the opposite corner. The father of our subject became a prominent contractor and built a large number of houses in the then fast growing city. A pioneer of the county and a man of ripe intelligence, with deep con- victions upon every subject of general interest, he could not fail of being widely known, and all who knew respected him. His convictions in politics and religion were especially earnest, and he had the courage to express his views when the occasion seemed to require it, he being a Democrat of the Jackson school and a devout member of the Christian Church. This fine type of open and honorable manhood died February 7, 1866, his wife having pre- ceded him, she passing away July 3, 1863. Their married life was one of peace and happi- ness and they were the parents of six children, four of whom are living. The subject of our sketch is the eldest of the family and was in his fifth year when his parents came to Indian- apolis. Here he grew to manhood, receiving his education first in private schools and then in Marion County Seminary, taking a full literary and scientific course and becoming a very good Latin and French scholar. Judge Taylor was brought up to work, being taught that idleness was something worse than a vice and that it might be a crime. He acquired a me- chanical trade, pursuing the same diligently when he was not at school and when the duties of the farm would permit. At the age of twenty-two he began the study of the law, to which he had long felt a strong drawing, under the well-known firms of Fletcher & Butler, and Quarles & Bradley, at the same time burning the midnight oil in the privacy of his own chamber, while grappling with the knotty problems laid down in the text-books. He passed his examination before the Supreme Court and was licensed to practice in 1843. After securing his license he continued to read law until 1848 without attempting to prac- tice before that time, being resolved to thoroughly inform himself before accepting cases from clients. From the date last named until he was elected judge of the Superior Court, he pursued the practice with conscientious and painstaking care, giving to every case the best energies of his nature and seeking the vindication of his clients as though the issues of life and death were involved in it. And to this earnest and able service is due much of the fame that so properly attaches to his name. He was first elected to his present high and honorable position in November, 1882. and has held it continuously ever since. In the year 1849 he formed a law partnership with John L. Ketcham, which lasted two years. and in 1853 Gen. John Coburn became his associate, this partnership continuing until 1856. From this date until 1869 he practiced alone, but in that year his son, Edwin Taylor, was taken into partnership with him, and this continued until 1872, when the firm name be-
MOSS-ENG.CO
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came Taylor, Rand & Taylor, this last remaining until the elevation of the subject of our sketch to the bench. Judge Taylor was elected city attorney in 1853 and held that re- sponsible position until 1856, discharging its duties with distinguished ability and with a conscientious regard for the interests of the city and of the community. While practicing law, Judge Taylor enjoyed a large and very lucrative practice and stood confessedly at the head of the bar of Indianapolis, where were, as now, a most able body of lawyers. He was a most able and forcible speaker, and whether addressing the court or a jury, delivered con- vincing arguments that rarely failed of winning his case. So carefully was every case pre- pared that he appeared to make no effort at all, but to reach results by a sort of spontaneous and extempore coups. This is the very climax of genius, to do great things without seem- ing to put forth any strength. Among the various duties he has been called upon to per- form was that of school trustee, along in the fifties, and this he discharged with the same painstaking care that has marked him in all things. He fills the office of judge with great dignity and with an ability that stamps him the peer of the ablest in the country. His sense of justice is acute, he possessing in a remarkable degree what the lawyers term the judicial mind. Inflexibly honest and no respecter of persons, his decisions are character- ized by fairness that is never questioned, and with such strict regard for the facts, the evi- dence and the law and precedents, that it is rarely known for one of them to be overruled. For a period of several years he has served as president of the Marion County Library, and, in fact, he is frequently called upon to discharge some duty for the well-being of the com- munity, his kind and generous nature preventing him from declining, and his known ability and fairness causing the citizens to call upon him, their desire for his services causing them to overlook the fact that they may overtax his strength. But if they were to do so he would be the last one to make complaint. The community has no citizen more useful and neces- sary to it than Judge Taylor, and while he is a devoted member of the Democratic party, his friends are of all shades of political conviction. The Judge occupies a beautiful home on North Illinois Street and his dwelling place is one of peace and happiness. He has reared a family of six children, namely: Edwin, a lawyer of Evansville, Ind. ; Agnes, Mary, Catherine, Harold and Josephine. Happy in his home and in his most interesting family, the years of Judge Taylor pass along undisturbed, and, besides a conscience that is void of offense toward any of his fellow creatures, he is sustained by a firm and unfaltering faith in the religion of the Bible. He is a member of the Christian Church. Since the above was written Judge Taylor has passed from earth, his death being greatly lamented.
WILLIAM HAYDEN ENGLISH. This distinguished son and representative of Indiana was born at Lexington, Scott County, Angust 27, 1822, a son of Elisha G. English, a pioneer of the State, and for forty years the incumbent of various positions of trust and official importance. Philip Eastin, his maternal grandfather, was a gallant officer in the war of the Revolution. On the maternal side, his mother was descended from Jost Hite, that his- toric character who was the head and guide of the German colony which in 1732 settled the Virginia Valley. Major Joseph and lieutenant Isaac Bowman, both identified with Indiana in her pioneer days as officers under Colonel George Rogers Clark, at the time of his cam- paign through this part of the country, were also descendants of Jost Hite. The former, who was second in command of the expedition, died in the fort at Vincennes during the year following its capture from the British. For his military services, Lieutenant Bowman was granted a large tract of land on the Ohio, opposite Louisville, and he gave a part of it as the original town site of Jeffersonville, which he named in honor of President Jefferson, who was his warm personal friend and who drew the town plat. After acquiring such edu- cation as the common schools of his time and locality afforded, the subject of this sketch attended Hanover College several years, and, studying law, very early in life assumed
important responsibilities. When the Democratic State convention of 1840 was held at Indianapolis, Mr. English was one of the two delegates from Scott County in that body, though he was but eighteen years old at the time. The other delegate from that county was his father, a member of the Legislature then in session, and the two cast their influence for the nomination of Tilghman A. Howard for governor. In going to the State capital Mr. English traveled on horseback, there being then no railroads in the State, and it took him three days to make the journey. The weather was extremely cold at the time (the conven-
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vention was held January 8) but the young Democrat thought little of that. In 1843, when James Whitcomb was nominated for governor, Mr. English was principal secretary of the convention. To follow his history in this connection down to the present time would be to write very largely the history of every Democratic State convention in Indiana during the past fifty years, for he has been prominent in very nearly all of them. Before he had attained bis majority he had been deputy clerk of his county and postmaster of his town, and was duly licensed to practice law, and within the succeeding two years he was licensed to practice in the Indiana Supreme Court, and that too under the old rigid system of thorough examinations. He was the principal clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives in in 1843-44, and in 1850 was principal secretary of the State convention which framed the constitution of Indiana. and he was a member and speaker of the first House of Representa- tives elected under that constitution. During the administration of President Polk he held a clerkship in the Treasury Department at Washington, and about 1850 he was the incum- bent of a clerkship in the United States Senate. He was four times elected to Congress and served during the eight years of intense excitement immediately preceding the Civil War, a period of most important national legislation, with which he was closely aud influen- tially identified. He was the author of a compromise measure relating to the admission of Kansas as a State which became a law and excited much acrimonious discussion, known as "the English bill." He was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington from 1853 to 1861. During all this period of political prominence and activity in connection with the momentous events preceding the War of the States, Mr. English bore himself as a statesman and patriot and has ever borne the reputation of an uncompromising foe to dis- union. In 1861 he declined a nomination to Congress in order to engage in bauking. In 1880 he was unanimously nominated for Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Gen. Hancock. This ticket received a greater number of votes in Indiana than the Democratic State ticket had received a few weeks previously, despite the fact that the result of that and other State elections had pretty clearly foreshadowed a Republican victory in the Presidential contest. More than thirty years ago Mr. English, in connection with J. F. D. Lanier, then a great banker of New York, but before that time a citizen of Indiana, and George W. Riggs, of the celebrated banking house of Corcoran & Riggs, of Washing- ton, D. C., and others, established the first "First National Bank of Indianapolis," and he was for fourteen years its president. During that long period it was one of the most ably conducted and prosperous banks in the country, and through his administration as its chief executive office Mr. English won a reputation as a financier no less brilliant than that which he had acquired as a statesman. Mr. English's connection with the convention which in 1850 framed the constitution of the State and his membership of the first Legislature elected there- after, have been mentioned. In 1885 there was a reunion at Indianapolis of the survivors of that convention and assembly and of all previous Legislatures. It was an event of the utmost
public interest and was participated in by such men as Thomas A. Hendricks, Richard W. Thompson, William S. Holman, William E. Niblack, Alvin P. Hovey and other political celebrities of the earlier days, and during the session it was determined that some action should be taken to insure the perpetuation of the early history of the State and its public men, and in view of his well known literary ability and his intimate knowledge of and enthusiasm for the subject, Mr. English was selected to perform this patriotic but onerous task, and he has since devoted much of his time to gathering the materials for and writing this work, the progress of which is of so much interest to all intelligent citizens of the State and the appearance of which is most anxiously awaited. His interest in everything pertaining to the history of the State of his nativity and life-long residence is very great, and for several years he has been president of the Indiana Historical Society. Mr. Eug. lish for ten years held the controlling interest in all the street railway lines in Indianapolis and for a long period was largely identified with the business of that prosperous city. He was one of the originators of the Indianapolis Clearing House, and its president as long as he remained in the banking business. He was also the author of the first resolutions adopted in favor of building the great Indiana State soldiers monument, now far advanced towards completion, and of which he is one of the commissioners. Mr. English was married in 1847 to Miss Emma M. Jackson, of Virginia, who died in 1877, leaving two children,
Fig. Mack
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Will E. English, a popular and influential citizen of Indianapolis, and Rose English, now the wife of Doctor Willoughby Walling, of Chicago.
FRED J. MACK. One of those business men whose probity is well known and whose career has been distinguished for enterprise is Fred J. Mack, house and fresco painting con- tractor, who has followed this line of work from the time he was seventeen years of age. His birth occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 5, 1854. Fred J. Mack, Sr., his father, was born in the German Empire and came to this country when a young man of twenty-six years, and up to 1867 was a resident of the city of Cleveland, then moved to New Haven, Ind., and for many years was quite extensively engaged in the boot and shoe business, but for some time past he has been retired from active life. Before coming to this country he served for some time in the German army, according to the laws of that country, and several years after his arrival in Cleveland was married in that city. The subject of this sketch re- ceived his early training in the public schools of Cleveland, Ohio, which were exceptionally good, but it only continued until his thirteenth year at which time he began working in a factory in Cleveland and later in New Haven. At the age of eighteen years he came to In- dianapolis, and here served an apprenticeship with Henry Range, the fresco painter, and to this occupation his attention has been given ever since, but much of his attention is given to house and sign painting, in which he is an expert. In 1877 Mr. Mack began business for himself and has continued ever since in his present business. He has a great deal of extensive and difficult work, but has ever vindicated his reputation as a skillful sign painter, and now has all the contracts that he can possibly fill. His capital on starting out for himself was almost nothing, but through honest, business-like methods he has worked up an extensive trade, and although it was at first very hard to gain a foothold on the ladder of success, he finally accomplished this and has accumulated a competency. Mr. Mack has been a member of the city council twice, from 1882 to 1886, and served on the first commit- tee on public light and the committee on public property, being chairman of the latter. In 1891 he was chosen a member of the State Legislature from Marion County, and while a member of that body was on the public building committee, in fact was a wide-awake in- telligent and active legislator whose reputation was incorruptable and unassailable. He has always taken a deep and active interest in the political affairs of the day and the success of the Democrat party, of which be is a member, has always been near to his heart. He is a member of the Hendricks Club and has held the position of marshall, and is chairman of the American Democratic Club. Socially he is a member of the A. F. & A. M., the K. of P., the Elks, the Druids and the Commercial Club. He also belongs to the Builders' Exchange, the Master Painters' Association, and was chosen president at the time of the organization of the latter society. In addition to these orders he belongs to the Castle Hall Association, is a member of the German Orphan Society, the Maennerchor Singing Society, the Independent Turners' Society, and the Manual Training Society, and also assisted in the organization of other societies of note. In 1876 he was nnited in marriage to Miss Josephine Beck, a native of Germany who was brought to this country by her parents, and their union has been blessed in the birth of four sons and two daughters. Mr. Mack is universally respected in business and social, as well as in political circles, and has become noted as a generous pro- moter of humane objects and a careful adherence to those details that aid in building up a man's name in connection with good citizenship. His standing in business circles is of the highest, and he is held in great esteem as a man of equitable and conservative principles.
JOHN HARTJE. Were it possible to get at the antecedents of the men who have suc- ceeded and who have failed in this country, it would be clearly demonstrated that the unsuccessful are they, mainly, who embarked in a business of which they knew nothing believing themselves that they could prosper because somebody else had. John Hartje, florist, with place of business on Illinois Street, between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Streets, Indianapolis, was brought up to the business which he now follows, and therefore could hardly fail to succeed. He has had thirteen years of practical experience, for at that period he started in the business as an employe of Henry Hilker, on St. Joseph Street. Born in Covington, Ky., January 3, 1865, the son of Frederick Hartje, who was born in Germany, in 1823, he came to the United States after reaching manhood. He resided in Covington, Ky., for a number of years, where he worked at his trade of cabinet making, in
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which business he was remarkably successful. He was a Union sympathizer during the great Civil War, but in after life never took any active part in politics. He was for many years an active worker and member of the German Methodist Episcopal Church and frequently served as superintendent of the Sunday-school. His widow still lives in Covington, Ky. John Hartje is the youngest of four children and obtained his early education in the public schools of Covington. When about thirteen years of age he entered the establish- ment of Henry Hilker, as above stated. Although he has only been established in busi- ness on his own account for the past two years, he has made many valuable improve- ments in his conservatories, and being enterprising and ambitious to try all new methods in his line of work, although he at all times uses discretion in this, he will without doubt go on making many more notable improvements. He has 5,000 square feet under glass and makes a specialty of raising carnations and has some magnificent new varieties, which he produced by careful crossing. He is a member of the Indianapolis Florist's Club, and of this organization was secretary for three years. He is also a member of the Society of Indiana Florists, was assistant secretary five years; is a member of the American Car- nation Society of the Society of American Florists and of the American Chrysanthemum Society. In addition to growing carnations, hie devotes some of his time to the raising of violets and fine chrysanthemums, all of which are sold at wholesale to the florists who have stores in the city. He has always been an active worker in the interests of floriculture, and has rendered valuable services during the chrysanthemum shows held in Indianapolis.
WILLIAM H. WISHARD, M. D. Only four of the charter members of the Indiana State Medical Society are living, and one of them is Dr. William H. Wishard, who delivered the address at the fortieth anniversary of that body. Dr. Wishard was born in Nicholas County, Ky., Jannary 17, 1816, and is of Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfather, William Wishard, was a native of county Tyrone, Ireland, who there married Susan Lyttle, and who, in 1775, emigrated to America, being six months making the voyage on an old-time sailing vessel. This emigrant settled in Delaware and served the cause of the colonies in the war of the Revolution, participating in numerous important engagements. After Amer- ican independence was assured he removed with his family to Red Stone Fort, in western Pennsylvania, and there John Wishard, father of Dr. William H. Wishard, a grandfather of Dr. William N. Wishard, was born in 1792, the seventh son and eleventh child of his parents in order of nativity. Late in the year 1793 Mr. Wishard, the emigrant pioneer and patriot, improvised a rude flatboat, which he launched upon the Monongahela River, and with his family and portable effects floated down to Kentucky and located on Licking River in Nicholas County, in the midst of a dense wilderness, thus becoming one of the very earliest pioneers of that section of the country. Here the paternal grandparents of our sub- ject passed the remainder of their lives, his maternal grandparents, John and Martha Oliver, who were natives of Virginia, being also pioneers of Kentucky. They located at Lexington about 1780, and John Oliver assisted in the erection of the old fort at that place. They afterward lived and their remains lie buried in Nicholas County, Ky .. where John Wish- ard was reared and devoted his life to agricultural pursuits until his removal to Indiana. He married Agnes H. Oliver and reared a family of eleven children, six of whom are living. Upon emigrating to Indiana he located on the Bluff road in Johnson County, nine miles and a half south of Indianapolis, where he encamped on the evening of October 26, 1825, hav- ing purchased land there the year before. On the night after their arrival, and on many nights thereafter during succeeding years the family heard the wolves howling in the wilderness all about them. During the Blackhawk and Indian Wars John Wishard com- manded a company of mounted riflemen and was later colonel of a regiment organized in Johnson County. He died at Greenwood, Ind., September 8, 1878, his wife having died in August, 1849. Dr. William H. Wishard was in his tenth year when the family came to Indiana. Being the eldest of the family he was obliged to busy himself constantly in assist- ing his parents in various ways, and many were the exciting scenes in which he participated or of which he was a witness. Late one night in the fall of 1826, when returning from mill alone in the darkness of dense forest, aud considerably more than a mile from the cabin of any settler, he unexpectedly came upon a pack of wolves disputing the possession of a wounded deer they had captured. It was an unpleasant situation, to say the least, for a
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