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 19
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denounced the domination of the Liquor League. A campaign was made strictly upon that issue. Many of Dr. Denny's friends who were " liberally " inclined insisted that he must not stand upon the platform as made, citing to him a long line of party defeats on that issue. But in all his public utterances he declared that he did stand npon the platform squarely and preferred defeat rather than to swerve one inch upon that subject. He was elected and at the end of two years was unanimously renominated by his party and again elected by a largely-increased majority over a very popular young Democrat, Dr. George F. Edenharter. The issue was largely the same as the one two years before. Mr. Denny declined another nomination at the end of that term and engaged in the practice of his profession. The pecu- liar condition of city affairs in 1893 again induced him to become his party's choice for mayor in opposition to Mayor Sullivan. After a remarkable campaign he became mayor of Indianapolis again, the result of the election being a change of about 6,000 votes over the previous election. In 1874 he married Miss Carrie Lowe, the danghter of an old citizen of Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Denny have three children.
C. T. BEDFORD, M. D. There is no man more highly esteemed in the community than the family medical practitioner; and there is not among all the physicians of Indianapolis a physician who is held higher in the public favor than Dr. C. T. Bedford. This gentleman was born in Springboro, Warren County, Ohio, October 7, 1840, a son of Joseph A. and Amy (Collins) Bedford, of English descent but natives of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bedford received his early education in his native State. At the age of fifteen he came to Indianapolis and be- came a student in the public schools of the city. In July, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Eighth Indiana Infantry as a private, and served continuously until discharged September 12, 1864, meantime being promoted to second sergeant. He participated in the battle of Pea Ridge, was at the siege of Vicksburg, took part in the Warfare at Jackson, Miss., in the service from Vicksburg to Texas, in the Red River Campaign, in the fighting in Shenandoah Valley under Gen. Sheridan and in much incidental service. In 1872 Dr. Bedford began the study of medicine and in the spring of 1875 was graduated from the Physio-Medical Col- lege of Indiana. Immediately after he was elected professor of chemistry and toxicology and filled that chair abont five years, when he was elected to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children which he still occupies. He has been secretary of the fac ulty of this institution for the past twelve years, and is a member of the American Medical Society of Physio-Medical Physicians and Surgeons and the Indiana State Physio Medical Association in which he has filled all important positions. He has been for three successive terms a member of the city council and was appointed chairman of the committee on health and president of the city hospital board. He has had a large and increasing general prac- tice since 1875 and is regarded as one of the most successful and reliable physicians and sur-
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geons in the city. In 1885 he established the popular "Physio- Medical Drug Store" at the corner of Indiana Avenue and Ohio Street. This is the only concern of the kind in the United States, and besides its extensive retail trade does a wholesale business which reaches all parts of the Union. Dr. Bedford was married in 1865 to Miss N. P. Fink, a native of Ohio who was reared in Indiana. Her parents were William and Margaret (Toops) Fink, of German descent but natives of Pennsylvania. Dr. and Mrs. Bedford have had born to them four children, of whom only one-Bertie-is living. Dr. Bedford is an enthusiastic "Old Soldier," as the veterans of the late war are called, and is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Union Veteran Legion of that grand organization. He is also iden- tified with the Royal Arcanun, the Chosen Friends and other similar organizations, and, as is also his wife, is a member of Robert's Park Church. While not in any sense of the term, as it is usually applied, a politician, Dr. Bedford takes that interest in the public affairs of his city, State and country which may be expected in one who has risked his life for the maintenance of our national integrity. He affiliates with the Republican party, and is influ- ential in its local councils. As a citizen he is public spirited and helpful toward all public interests, for no man has the prosperity and well being of the great mass of his fellow citi- zens more nearly at heart than he.
HON. ROBERT W. McBRIDE. The family of which Judge McBride is a distinguished member is of Scotch-Irish descent, and came to the United States soon after the Revolution- ary War, and previous to the War of 1812. Augustus, father of Robert W., was born in Ohio, and was there reared and married to Martha A. Barnes, also a native of Ohio, and of English descent. Some of these ancestors served as soldiers in the Revolutionary War. In the war with Mexico in 1846-47 Augustus McBride enlisted in the Seventh United States Infantry, and was in the army of Gen. Scott in its campaign against the City of Mexico, participating in all the assaults on the various citadels guarding the national roads which led to the capital. . After the triumphal occupation of the city by the army of Gen. Scott. and in February, 1848, Augustus McBride unfortunately died, and now lies buried in the land of the Montezumas. He left a widow and family to mourn his untimely death, and also left them a heritage of honor and patriotism. At thetime of his father's death Robert W. McBride was about six years old, his birth having occurred in Richland County, Ohio, January 25, 1842. He was therefore too young to realize his great loss or to be able to forecast the trials, struggles and self denials of the future without a father's guidance and care. But life was real and before him, and he was compelled to rely mainly on his own resources of body and mind. He attended the district school in Ohio and in Iowa, and an academy once main- tained at Kirkville, Iowa. In 1859, when in his eighteenth year, having passed the local examination for teachers, he applied for and was given the task of teaching district. school in Mahaska County, Iowa, and was so successful that he continued to follow this occupation for three years. It was now 1862, and a bloody war was upon the land, and. all was confusion and uncertainty. In the autumn of this year Mr. McBride went to Mansfield, Ohio, where he accepted a position as clerk in the store of B. S. Runyan, and remained there about a year. On November 27, 1863, he enlisted in the "Union Light Guards," an independent squadron of cavalry of picked men organized by Gov. David Tod, and was duly mustered in at Columbus. The men composing this fine squadron had been selected by the county military committees throughout the State, and Mr. McBride had been chosen to represent Richland County. Mr. McBride remained with the "Guards" for about six months, when he met with a severe accident, and was permanently disabled for active service, and has remained lame to this day. Upon his recovery from the accident he served on detached duty as clerk of a military commission, and later at the central guard house at Washington. In January, 1865, he was transferred to the war department and served as clerk under Lieut. - Col. Breck in the adjutant general's office until his company was mustered out of service, and honorably discharged September 14, 1865. Upon his discharge from the army he was promptly appointed to the clerkship in the office of the quartermaster general, but he had a higher ambition than a subordinate position under the Government, and after a service as such for two months he resigned and returned to Mansfield. While yet a boy, aged sixteen, he had taken a fancy to the study of law and had, as opportunity would permit, studied the principal text-books of that profession. This study he continued while teaching and
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while in the service, so that when the war closed he had mastered the elements of law. The winter succeeding his return from the war he taught school in Richland County, but the next spring went to Waterloo, Ind., and engaged as clerk for R. M. & W. C. Lockhart. The next winter he again began teaching in Ohio, but before the term was over he received the appointment of enrolling clerk for the State Senate of Indiana, and served with credit until the Legislature adjourned. In April, 1867, he was admitted to the bar at Auburn, DeKalb County, and the following September formed a partnership for the practice with Hon. J. I. Best, with whom he was associated until July, 1869. He became associated with Joseph L. Morlan in the practice December 15, 1870, and so continued until the death of the latter in 1878, William H. Leas having been associated with them two years. Since 1878 Mr. McBride has carried on the practice alone. As a lawyer he has become distin- guished throughout the State. Absolutely self made, he has left no stone unturned to become a master of his profession. Soon after he began the practice he acquired a high reputation as a practitioner of unusual ability, persistence, force and adroitness, and as a result rose rapidly to the top of his profession and enjoyed a large practice and the unbounded confidence of his fellow lawyers and the people. As an all-round lawyer he has probably no superior among the bar of northern Indiana. He is calm, dispassionate, eloquent, and all his arguments are firmly grounded upon legal and equitable principles, and hence, he always has great weight with the court. In 1882, so prominent had he become and so great was the confidence of his professional brethren in his sound sense, legal knowledge and personal honor, that he was elected judge of the thirty-fifth judicial circuit, comprising the counties of DeKalb, Steuben and Noble. When he entered upon the discharge of his judicial duties the business of the district, owing to the ill health of his predecessor, was two years behind and in a chaotic condition; but in a little more than a year, so hard did he work, the docket was cleared, and so remained until the end of his term. His decisions were noted for their fidelity to just principles and law, and few were ever reversed by the Supreme Court -- never a criminal case. No other circuit judge of the State was more prompt in the discharge of his duties than Judge McBride. In 1890 he removed to Elkhart and the same fall was a candidate on the Republican State ticket for judge of the Supreme Court, but went down with the entire Republican ticket in defeat. On December 17, 1890, he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court by Gov. Hovey, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Mitchell. He is a member of the board of trustees of DePauw University, and assisted in organizing the National Guard of the State, and was the first lieutenant-colonel of the Third Regiment of Infantry and is second colonel. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, past eminent commander of Apollo Commandery, No. 19, at Kendallville, a member of the committee on grievances and appeals in the grand lodge, a member of the State Encampment of the G. A. R., and a member of the grand lodge of I. O. O. F. of K. of P., and the A. O. U. W. He is an enthusiastic student of the natural sciences, and is one of the best, if not the best, ornithologist and botanist in northern Indiana, having pursued these studies as a recreation. He is also, and has been for more than twenty years, an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On September 27, 1868, he was united in marriage to Miss Ida S., danghter of Doctor Chamberlain, of Waterloo, Ind., a lady of rare personal accomplishments, by whom he has four children: Daisy I, born September 25, 1869; Charles H., born November 10, 1871; Herbert W., born October 5, 1873, and Martha C., born February 13, 1876. No family in the State stands higher, socially or neighborly, and no citizen is held in deeper respect than Judge McBride. Mrs. McBride is at this time (1892) Department President of the Woman's Relief Corps Auxiliary to the G. A. R.
JAMES JOHNSTON. The subject of this sketch is a well- known citizen of Indianapolis who has improved every opportunity for gaining knowledge and availed himself of every chance for the betterment of his condition and more than this cannot be said of the most successful man who has ever lived. James Johnston has lived a life of peace with his neighbors and has done unto others as he would have had them do unto him under similar circumstances and he enjoys the confidence and the esteem of all who know him. He was born in Dear- born County, Ind., June 10, 1831, and is the son of George and Catharine (Kearney) Johins- ton, natives of Virginia and Kentucky, respectively. The paternal grandfather of our sub- ject was a soldier of the Revolutionary War and his son, the father of our subject, was a
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civil engineer, but he devoted the greater portion of his time to farming and the milling business. He came to Indiana in 1811 and settled near Vincennes, and in 1812 removed to Hamilton, Ohio, three years later going to Dearborn County, Ind., when it was a howling wil- derness. The Indians used to visit him, remaining about the grounds until his mother could bake them a loaf of bread, being very friendly, but usually quite hungry. He entered a tract of land and with his brothers, David and Joseph, built a log cabin in which the family lived until they were able to put up a substantial one of hewn logs, which in those primitive and simple days was considered somewhat of a sumptuous affair. The father of our subject erected, with his brothers, the first grist-mill that was established in that section of country and had to cover the hopper to keep off the rain. The mill was a great accommodation to people and many of the settlers came long distances to get their grain ground. They ran the mill and the farm until the fall of 1861 and he died soon after, December 29, 1861; the mother of our subject living eighteen years longer passing away in 1879. They had five sons and four daughters, four of the nine now living, namely: Joseph, James, Nora and George W. The father was a well-educated and a well-informed man of sound views and practical good sense and his neighbors would have gladly had him fill offices of honor and trust, but he would not under any circumstances accept a public position of any kind, although he was solicited again and again. The subject of our sketch was reared in Dear- born County and was educated in the common and the high schools of that county. He was reared upon the farm, where he did all manner of work which came to hand and, besides, served a full time at the mill work. The latter was followed by him until the outbreak of the war, when he tried to become a soldier but he was rejected. He then turned his atten- tion to school teaching and taught for seven winters, working on the farm and in the mill during the summer season. In the winter that he was nineteen years old he started in a flat- boat well loaded down the Ohio River, selling to what purchasers could be found and pro- ceeding as far as New Orleans. The trip was so satisfactory that it was repeated for several winters. Mr. Johnston came to Indianapolis on November 18, 1869, and subsequently en- gaged in the real estate business, which he carried on until he was elected a justice of the peace, in April, 1890, an office he will hold for four years. He served one term as member of the city council of Indianapolis from the Twenty-fourth Ward, to the entire satisfaction of his constituents and to the good of the community. Mr. Johnston is a director of the Washington Central Building & Loan Association, a position he fills with an eye single to the good of those who elected him to that position. Our subject was married to Mary J. Russell, by whom he has had four children, namely: Norman R., David, Elizabeth and Allen. He was married a second time to Elizabeth R. Riley, who is an active member of the Sixth Presbyterian Church. Politically Mr. Johnston is a Democrat and a sincere believer in those principles which were so ably advocated by Hendricks and other great men of the party. Our subject is held in great esteem and confidence by his fellow citizens, who regard him as a man of strict integrity and honorable in all his dealings.
WILLIAM FORTUNE was born in Booneville, Ind. on May 27, 1863. He is of Eng- lish-German extraction on his father's side and French on his mother's side. His child- hood, between his third and tenth years was passed in Tennessee, eastern Illinois and southern Indiana. The family returned to Booneville in 1873. In 1874 he became a printer's apprentice in the office of the Booneville Standard. The editor of the paper, M. B. Craw- ford, was a man of scholarly attainments, who interested himself in giving the boy a careful training for newspaper work. He was encouraged to write for the paper while serving as an apprentice. His first independent venture was in his fourteenth year-the publication of a small daily paper during the week of the county fair, the most important event of the year in the town. The limitations of the business made it necessary for him to do all the writing, type-setting, and press work, allowing himself but two hours of sleep each night. At sixteen he was intrusted with both mechanical and editorial charge of the Standard. The duties required much work at night as well as during the day, but he also took upon himself the task of writing the history of his native county, devoting to it two hours, from 10 to 12, each night. Hav- ing completed this work, which had been carried on without even the members of his own family knowing what he was about, hie severed his connection with the Standard, and then devoted himself exclusively to interesting the people of the county in his work. He was then not
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quite eighteen years old and was at the disadvantage of being known as a mere boy, but the difficulties besetting the venture were overcome to such an extent that he made it financially successful. He then started out to find employment which would give him a more thorough training for newspaper work. He was given a position as a reporter on the Indianapolis Journal. He afterward became city editor of the Journal, but after holding the position a few years, retired on account of failing health, due to night work. In 1888 he started the Sunday Press, a paper which took bigh rank, and attracted much attention, but was discon- tinued at the end of three months. During the next year his time was fully occupied with special political correspondence for the New York Tribune, Philadelphia Press, Chicago Tribune, and other newspapers. In the same year he became editorially connected with the Indianapolis News. He was offered the position of Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune but declined it. In January, 1890, he wrote a series of editorial articles for the News, suggesting public spirited work that should be undertaken by citizens of Indianapolis for the promotion of the prosperity and welfare of the city, and urging organization for this purpose. The articles were so timely and so well received that they at once resulted in the organization of the Commercial Club, which, within one month, grew from a nucleus of twenty-seven to a membership of 800. He was elected secretary of the club. His editorial connection with the News terminated some months afterward, when it became apparent that the Commercial Club work would absorb his entire time. In the same year he started a magazine devoted to municipal engineering, the first in the United States devoted exclusively to the improvement of cities, which has become one of the foremost technical publications of the country. It is published by the Municipal Engineering Company, of which he is presi- dent. He was the moving spirit in the organization of the Indianapolis Press Club, in 1891, and was elected the first president of it. He was the president of the Century Club in 1892. He was a friend of Ben D. House, one of the most meritorious of Indiana's poets, and, together with Col. Eli Lilly, Daniel L. Paine and Meredith Nicholson, published a memorial edition of House's poems in 1892, the circulation of which was limited to the friends of the poets. He started the movement to induce the G. A. R. to hold its. twenty- seventh national encampment in Indianapolis, and managed the campaign which brought it to this city. He was elected executive director of the citizens organization in charge of the arrangements for the encampment, a position involving the most trying re- sponsibilities, and he is the first man, not a veteran, upon whom they have been placed. Although born in the third year of the war, he is an honorary member of the "Old Guard." He proposed the Indiana road congress, and as chairman of the committee in charge, con- ducted the arrangements for it. He has done some magazine writing, notable for the Century. In 1884 he was married to Miss May Knubbe, of Michigan City, Ind. They have three children, a son and two daughters.
DR. WILLARD W. GATES. Perhaps no public servant deserves more grateful recognition than a dentist. Dr. Willard W. Gates, a native of Dublin, Ind., was born August 6, 1864, son of Oliver Gates, also a native of the Hoosier State, as was also the mother, Mary (Al- bright) Gates. Both parents are living and are now residing in Indianapolis. Dr. Willard W. Gates was about five years of age when he came with his parents to Indianapolis, and in this city he was reared and educated. When eighteen years of age he began the study of dentistry with Dr. A. J. Morris, continued with him for two years and the following two years was with Dr. L. W. Comstock. In 1887 Dr. Gates entered Indiana Dental College and graduated from that institution in 1889. He then established himself in a business of his own and has been very successful. He is thorough master of his art, both in its mechan - ical and scientific features, and he has every new and improved appliance for making the extraction of teeth as easy and painless an operation as possible. He is a member of the Indiana State Dental Association, and is also a member of the K. of P. He was married on December 28, 1887, to Miss Lillie Bryan, a native of Indianapolis and the daughter of John T. and Margaret (Smock) Bryan. Two children have been born to this union: Bryan and Earl. The Doctor and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics he is a stanch Republican.
EDWARD THOMAS BOWSER. Marion County, Ind., is an Eden of fine farms and agricult. ural tracts. There are comparatively few very small tracts, and each farmer tries to outdo 8
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his neighbor in the cultivation and improvement of his land. Of the many fine attractive places none are more conspicuous than that belonging to our subject. Mr. Bowser is a native born resident of this county, his birth occurring April 27, 1841, to the union of Henry and Mary A. (Moore) Bowser. The father was born in the Keystone State in 1810, and when five years of age was taken by his parents to Miami County, Ohio, thirty-six miles from Cincinnati, where he remained until twenty-one years of age, never receiving but about two months' schooling. His mother taught him to read and write. He came with his parents to Marion County, Ind., in 1831, and located on Lick Creek, three miles southeast of Indian- apolis. The following year he married Miss Moore, daughter of Thomas Moore, and his father then gave him 160 acres of land, part of it lying in Warren and part in Center town- ships. There Mr. Bowser passed the remainder of his days, his death occurring in 1882. He was a man well respected by all and served as supervisor of Warren township several terms. He was a Whig until that party ceased to be an organization and then affiliated with the Re- publican party. To his marriage were born ten children, as follows: Thomas died at the age of three months: Catherine, died at the age of twenty-two years; John W. died at the age of twenty years; James died at the age of eight years; Edward Thomas (subject); Fannie A., deceased, was the wife of Jolin E. Miles (she left six children, Ira, Ida, Mary, Annie, Ar- thur and William); Sarah E., deceased, was the wife of William Rowney (she left one child, Harry); William Bowser, of Marion County, married Miss Florence L. Shimer and they have four children (Harry, Maggie, Asa and Mary); Mary Bowser became the wife of Edgar Head of Marion County, and Charles G. died in infancy. The father of these children died in 1882 and the mother in April, ten years later. The father was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Our subject's paternal grandfather, Henry Bowser, was born in Pennsylvania and died in Indana in the year 1843. The great-great-grandfather emigrated from Germany to America early in 1700, and our subject's great-grandfather was born on the ocean while his parents were making the voyage. Our subject was educated in the common schools of Center town- ship and attended from two to three months each winter. On account of ill health he was obliged to quit school when twenty years of age and he remained under the parental roof until thirty-five years of age. In December, 1876, he married Miss Martha J. Kitley, daughter of Richard Kitley, a member of one of the old pioneer families of Marion County. After marriage our subject lived on his father's farm in a separate house one year, and then moved to Clark Township, Johnson County, Ind., where he bought eighty acres of land, sixty-five acres of which were cleared. He paid $3,300 for this. On this farm he made his home for eight years, and in 1884 he bought eighty-two acres of the old Richard Kitley farm. On this farm was a fine brick house of slate roof. Mrs. Bowser's share of the estate was ninety-nine acres, which is in her name. Mr. Bowser traded his eighty acres in John- son County and in addition paid $1,050 for forty-five acres and the house in which he now lives. This is situated on an elevation, and it is said to be one of the bandsomest locations for a residence in Marion County. Mr. Bowser is a member of the Baptist Church, and, like his father, is a Republican in politics. Richard Kitley, father of Mrs. Bowser, was born in Ohio, November 19, 1825, and came to Indiana with his parents when a child .. He settled in Marion County, Ind., and there his death occurred September 5, 1879. He was married three times, his first wife being Miss Martha Davis, whom he married May 4, 1848. Three children were born to them: Lucy A., wife of William Moore of Marion County; John, who died in infancy, and Martha J., wife of Edward T. Bowser, our subject. Mrs. Kitley died September 15, 1854, and Mr. Kitley on September 13, 1855, married Miss Elizabeth Smithers, who bore him four children, Willis J., Hester M., Sarah Elizabeth and Stephen A. D. Mr. Kitley selected his third wife in the person of Mrs. Susan Willard, nee Wilson, who died January 6, 1881, without issue. Mr. Kitley bought eighty acres of land in Johnson County, and added to the original tract until he became the owner of about 500 acres. He was a Douglas Democrat but subsequently became a Republican. Socially he was a member of the Masonic fraternity but was never a member of any church. His father, Mrs. Bowser's grandfather, was John Kitley, and he was the father of these children: John, Rebecca, Alex, Hoag, Ibbie, Francis, Richard and Jane.
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