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 35
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m. J. Lander
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WILLIAM F. LANDER. This gentleman has had a career in some respects remarkable, a narrative of which will be found most interesting. He is a New England Yankee, and was born in Medford, Mass., March 21, 1847, a son of Francis and Harriet (Kenedy) Lander, natives, respectively, of Boston, Mass., and the State of Maine. His father, a distant rel- ative of Franklin Pierce, was born and reared on "Old Fort Hill," a locality popularly regarded at that time as quite an aristocratic neighborhood, now known as Washington Square. He became a ship contractor, and is now a resident of Cambridge, Mass. In the course of his busy career he has built wholly or in part many vessels, making a specialty of cabin work. He was well known among seamen and vessel owners, and had a most envia- ble reputation with the general business public. Mr. Lander comes from patriot stock. His great-grandfather was orderly sergeant of the Concord, Mass., company, which did service in the Revolutionary struggle, and was at the historic battle of Lexington, and lost a leg at the battle at Monmouth. He died at the age of forty-five years. His paternal and maternal grandfathers were both soldiers and officers in the United States army during the War of 1812-14. His father is a veteran of the late war, having served as second sergeant of Company F, Fifth Massachusetts Infantry, mostly in North Carolina. His grandfather Lander was educated at Eton and Oxford Colleges, England, and for several years was a professor of penmanship in the schools of Boston, in which his wife was also a teacher. He was a native of England, and was, no doubt, related to the great English traveler of that name. He died and was buried in Massachusetts. Mr. Lander's maternal grandfather was a sea captain, and was lost at sea at the age of thirty seven, by being washed over- board during a storm which his vessel encountered en route from Cuba to Boston. Will. iam F. Lander was reared at Medford, Mass., and educated in the public schools of that place. At the age of seventeen he went to sea and led a seafaring life for four years thereafter, making voyages to South America, the Sandwich Islands, Chili, Peru, Rio Janeiro, the Mediterranean and the island of Sicily. He doubled Cape Horn four times, visited Gibralta twice, spent eight weeks at Valentia, Spain. Relinquishing his sea life, he engaged in piano and organ manufacture at Cambridge, Mass., and continued in it with much success until 1884, as a contractor, employing from sixteen to twenty men. During that year he came to Indianapolis and engaged in the organization of fraternal orders and branches of the same, a kind of work in which he had already had considerable experience, having been for a few years grand secretary of the K. & L. of H., of Massachusetts. In 1889 he organized the O. of E., and was made its supreme secretary. The affairs of this order are conducted in the most conservative manner, and it has come to the front as a popular and growing enterprise. Fully 5,000 membership certificates have been issued, and more than a hundred local councils have been organized and are in a flourishing con- dition. Mr. Lander is a member also of the I. O. O. F., the K. P., the Uniformed Rank, the A. O. U. W., the K. & L. of H., the M. W. and other orders. He is a popular mem- ber of the Columbia and Marion Clubs, of Indianapolis. Mr. Lander was married in 1875, to Miss Emma J. Alderson, of Plymouth, Mass., and has six sons: Francis, Percy W., Roswell S., Frederick, Charles A. and Robert V.
SIMON P. SCHERER, M. D. The younger physicians of Indianapolis have, some of them, done as much to give reputation to the medical profession of the city as any of their older professional brethren, and one of the brightest, best informed and most promising of this class is Dr. Simon P. Scherer, who was born in Tipton County, Ind., August 26, 1865, a son of the Rev. Ambrose H. and Sarah E. (Patton) Scherer. Rev. Ambrose Hinkle Scherer was born in Gnilford County, N. C., November 22, 1822, and died April 14, 1892, at Sharpsville, Tipton County. At the age of twelve years be removed with his parents to Tennessee, where he remained three years. He then came to Hendricks County, Ind., in which State he lived until the day of his death. At the age of seventeen years he united with the English Evan- gelical Lutheran Church. He studied theology under the direction and tutorage of Rev. Jacob Scherer, his uncle, at Olney, Ill. He was regularly licensed to preach the gospel at the second session of the synod of northern Indiana, held at Columbia City, Ind., in 1849, and was ordained at Ladoga, Ind., in 1852. His first charge was the Bethel Church, in Morgan County, Ind., which church he organized. This charge he served one year, when he moved to New London, Ind., organized Union Church, and supplied with it several
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neighboring points for five years. This work of organizing churches in central Indiana, acting as a missionary, and most of the time without any assistance from the board of home missions, he was engaged in until the day of his death. Seventeen churches stand to-day in Morgan, Madison, Hendricks, Hamilton, Tipton, Howard and adjoining counties, as the result of his early, self-sacrificing and earnest work. In the organization of several of the above named churches, Mr. Scherer was assisted by the venerable "Father" Wells. Three years ago he was stricken with paralysis, when in the midst of his last work-the organization of St. Peter's Church, in Sharpsville, Ind., and the erection of the church building. At its com- pletion and dedication, in June, 1890, he felt that his life-work was accomplished and resigned himself to the call of God. He was married to Sarah Patton, a native of Maryland, in Car- roll County, October 9, 1850, and his widow and ten children survive him, remembering him as a devoted husband and most indulgent father. Dr. Scherer was reared amid all the advantages of a cultured Christian household, in the county of his birth, and was educated in the common and graded schools of Sharpsville, and at the county normal school. He remained on his father's farm until he was twenty-two years old, and then, going to Indian- apolis, was for a year a student in a prominent business college. The next year he spent in reading medicine under the direction of Drs. Heath and Rubush, of Sharpsville. Then, returning to Indianapolis, he continued his medical studies with Drs. Todd and Maxwell and entered the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons in the fall of 1889, and was graduated therefrom with honors, as the valedictorian of his class, in March, 1891. In 1890 he was, for about seven months, employed as a drug clerk and assistant at the city dispen- sary, a connection that was of much practical benefit to him in the prosecution of his studies. Immediately after his graduation he entered upon the practice of his profession in Indian apolis. His standing as a practitioner is indicated by the following facts: He is attend- ing physician to the polyclinic of the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons, a member of the Marion County Medical Society and a member of the Indiana State Medical Society. He was married October 14, 1891, to Miss Allie J. Culley, a native of Monroe County, Ind., and a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Field) Culley, both of whom were born in this State, the former being now dead and the latter a resident of Indianapolis. Dr. Scherer is a member of the Presbyterian Church; his wife is identified with the Christian Church. In politics the Doctor is Republican. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and is connected with other worthy organizations. As a citizen he is zealous for the public good and has ever contributed his full share to the furtherance of all worthy objects and measures.
ALFRED R. HOVEY is one of the leading lawyers of Indianapolis, and the firm of Hard- ing & Hovey, of which he is a member, is the second oldest law firm in the city. Mr. Hovey comes of the best American stock. His father is Goodwin S. Hovey. His mother was Salina Weed, a daughter of Reuben Weed and a relative of the late Hon. Thurlow Weed and Smith M. Weed, of New York, men of national fame. On his mother's side Mr. Hovey can trace his ancestry in America back to 1635. The Weed family are of revolutionary memory and Mr. Hovey's great-grandfather was an officer in a Connecticut regiment and as such risked his life in defense of American independence. Reuben Weed, Mr. Hovey's maternal grandfather, was a judge in Allegany County, N. Y. His great-grandfather was one of the early judges in Wyoming, in eastern Pennsylvania, and his family were there at the time of the historic Wyoming Massacre, south of the present Wyoming County, on the bank of the Susquehanna, opposite Wilkesbarre. At that time Judge Gore was in the revo- lutionary army. The Hovey family are of Anglo-Saxon origin. Three brothers came to America in the seventeenth century, one locating in Massachusetts, one in Vermont and one in Connecticut, and from the latter descended the line of which Alfred R. Hovey is repre- sentative. From the time of his great-grandfather, the Hoveys and many of the families with which they have intermarried, have lived in New York State. Some of them were among the early settlers in Wyoming County, the very garden spot of the State. With others, some of Mr. Hovey's maternal ancestors made a trade with the Indians, under authority of the general Government, and secured much valuable land in Cayuga County, N. Y., upon which they erected houses, barns, and fences and made other improvements. There was a conflict of authority which has become historical, and under orders from Gov.
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De Witt Clinton, the sheriff of Cayuga County was ordered to proceed to the neighborhood and burn out these sturdy settlers whom it had been found impossible to dispossess by milder means. Even this harsh measure did not succeed, for, bereft of house and home, Mr. Hovey's ancestor and his companions retained possession of and protected their title to their lands. . This ancestor, Elisha Durkey, was a member of the general assembly of New York. Mr. Hovey has in his possession a letter concerning the burning of the farm- houses written by his great-grandfather 101 years ago. Mr. Hovey's paternal grand- father, Alfred Hovey, was, at the time of his death, principal of the old Binghampton, N. Y., Academy, and had been for fourteen years. He was a civil engineer of the finest attainments, and in his professional capacity made surveys for several canals in the State of New York and of the Saginaw Canal in Michigan, and made the first survey for the Erie Railway. west from Binghampton. Goodwin S. Hovey, father of the immediate subject of - this sketch, was born and reared and has always lived in New York. His earlier years were spent in the lumber business and he is now living, retired from active business, in the little old town of Dalton. He is the owner of considerable property gained by the industry and prudence of his active years. Always prominent where he has been known he has countless times been solicited to accept public office, but has never been prevailed upon to do so except when he consented to take the office of township supervisor, to which he was successively elected, an office involving grave responsibilities under the laws of New York. Very active in religious matters, he has always been a liberal supporter of churches and for more than twenty-five years has been a Sunday-school superintendent. Formerly he was a Free Soil Democrat. butsince the organization of the Republican party has affiliated with it and exerted all his influence in support of the principles it has represented. Goodwin S. and Salina (Weed) Hovey had one son and two daughters. Of the latter Helen R. married Fernando Baldwin, a prosperous farmer, living near Dalton, N. Y. : Minnie L. is the wife of Lorenzo S. Gelser, one of the leading business men of Filmore. N. Y .; Alfred R. Hovev was reared at the family home in New York State and was educated at the Alfred University, Alfred, N. Y. After teaching school a couple of years in his native State he taught for a year at Sycamore, Ill., meantime reading law. In November, 1877, he came to Indianapolis and pursned the study of law under the direction of Hon. Lucian Barbour. In May, 1878, he was admitted to practice in the District and Cirenit Courts of the United States. He remained with Mr. Barbour until October. 1879. The firm of Harding & Hovey was organized in 1880. Mr. Hovey is popular at the bar and no less so in commercial and social circles. Following in the footsteps of his father, he is a stanch Republican. He was the first. president of the Marion Club. the most active Republican organization in the city, and in 1892 was nominated by his party for presidential elector. He is a K. of P. and a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was married in November, 1882, to Miss Sylvia M. Wade, a native of Champaign County, Ohio, and has two children. Mande, aged eight. and Goodwin S., aged two. The Jate Gov. Hovey was a descendant from the same old Hovey family from which Alfred R. Hovev descended.
DANIEL N. BROWN, D. D. S. The calling of the dentist is a most important one and to become thoroughly grounded in this branch of medical science. requires years of arduous study. To attain perfection as an operator, requires not only natural aptitude but experi- ence as a practitioner, and all their requirements are possessed or have been fulfilled by Dr. Daniel N. Brown who is one of the highly regarded professional men of the city of Indian- apolis. The town of Brownsville, Ind .. gave him birth August 23. 1855, and the "Hoosier State " has been his home up to the present time. The family of which be is a member was among the first to settle in the State and for many years they were prominently con - nected with the history of Union County. The paternal grandfather, William Brown, was a native of North Carolina and after locating in Union County, Ind .. he entered land from the Government, which he cleared and converted into a fine farm. He resided on this home- stead for many years or until his death which occurred at the patriarchal age of ninety-six vears. A part of the old house first erected on the place and occupied by him is still stand- ing. He was a man of intelligence, enterprising, industrious and frugal, and as a natural sequence, he accumulated a comfortable competency. He was an uncle of Gen. Ambrose Burn- side. He was active in the affairs of his section, was interested in the political affairs of
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his day, and held the office of county treasurer and was several terms county commissioner. The parents of the subject of the sketch, Thomas E. and Mary J. (Brown) Brown, were born in Indiana, and from this State the father enlisted in the service of his country at the opening of the Rebellion, and was in the service from 1861 to 1865, participating in many hard fought and bloody combats. He was seriously wounded in the engagement at Mission Ridge, being shot through the hip and back, and as he was unable to make his escape, he was captured and taken as a prisoner of war to Andersonville, in which foul pen he was confined for eight months. He is now much broken in health from the hardships, toils, and privations of army life and from the effects of the untold privations he endured while in prison. He and his worthy wife are now living in retirement at Liberty, Ind. The early days of Dr. Daniel N. Brown, were spent in Union County, in the public schools of which he obtained a fair knowledge of the English branches, after which he finished his education in the high school of Liberty, from whichi he graduated. At the early age of seventeen he engaged in teaching the "young idea " and continued to follow this occupation during the winter months for about four years, the summer seasons being devoted to the study of dentistry, which profession he had decided to make his life work, bis preceptor being Dr. S. C. Carter, now of Minneapolis, Miun. In 1877 he began practicing his profession at Dublin, Ind., but one year later came to Indianapolis and became associated with Dr. B. B. Eaton, with whom he contined to labor until the latter's death. Soon after this he entered the office of Dr. Talbot with whom he remained until the latter sold out his business and moved from the city. Following this Dr. Brown went to Cincinnati and for two years thereafter worked for the Ohio Steam Dental Company and at the expiration of this time located at Portland, Ind. (in 1881) where he opened an office of his own and practiced his profession until 1888. At. the end of that time he returned to Indianapolis and accepted a position with the New York Steam Dental Company, but in the winter of 1891 he again opened an office of his own and has built up an extensive and paying patronage. He is skillful and thorough in his work, anxious to please and willing to put himself to any trouble to do so, the result being that he has made money and has accumulated considerable property in Indianapolis. He was married on December 25, 1881 to Miss Lillie B. Ellis, native of Darke County, Ohio, and a daughter of Micajah and Mary J. Ellis, and to their union four children have been given: Pearl M., Thomas M., Goldie V. and Ernest Max. Mr. Brown is a member of the Marion Lodge, No. 1, of the K. of P., Uniformed Rank Indianapolis Division No. 2. He is a past Commander of the grand order of the G. C., and he and his wife are members of the Myrtle Temple No. 7, Pythian Sisters. In the Uniformed Rank of the K. of P. he has served as keeper of records, and he was also a member of the Drill Team, No. 18, which participated in and won the prize drill at Kansas City: The Doctor and his wife are members of the Friend's Church, and in politics he is a Republican.
D. A. MYERS. One of the well-known attorneys at law of Indianapolis who commands the respect as well as the admiration of his brother practitioners is D. A. Myers, who stands as a living refutation of the popular idea that " there is no honest lawyer." His birth occurred at Gettysburg, Ohio, February 28, 1848, a son of Scipio and Mary (Campbell) Myers, the former of whom was born on what afterward became the battle-field of Gettys- burg, Penn., the latter's birth occurring near that place. This worthy couple, in company with some of their Pennsylvania neighbors, moved by wagon to Darke County, Ohio, where they took up their residence on a farm, their neighbors settling in the same vicinity. They established the town of Gettysburg, Ohio, and named the township Adams in honor of their old home in Pennsylvania. Scipio Myers manifested his patriotism at the opening of the Civil War by enlisting in the Forty-fourth Ohio Infantry and re-enlisting in January, 1864, in the Eighth Ohio Cavalry service, and was in the command . of Gen. Phil Sheridan to the close of the war. After his return home at the close of hostilities, he was elected to the State Legislature from Darke County, and in this capacity, as well as that of a soldier, his duties were discharged faithfully, earnestly and efficiently. He is still a resident of Darke County and is retired from the active duties of life and in the enjoyment of the fruits of a life well spent. He and six children survive the wife and mother, who died in September, 1892, and all reside near Gettysburg, Ohio, with the exception of D. A. Myers. He was brought up on his father's farm and in early life attended the public schools, finishing his
THEODORE V. DENNY.
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education in and graduating from the Iowa State University in June, 1874. The following year he graduated from the law department of the State University at that place, after which he came to Indianapolis, a total stranger, and entered upon the practice of his profession. Unlike the majority of young attorneys he was not compelled to wait long for clients, and his agreeable manners and undoubted ability soon won him recognition at the bar, a reputa- tion which has known no diminution since that time. His practice extends in nearly all the courts. He is a forcible speaker and pleader, and in the advocacy of cases before a jury he is especialy strong and successful. His legal training has been careful and thorough, which enables him to grasp and easily solve the most complicated legal questions into their elementary constitutent principles. He is attorney for three of the leading building and loan associations of the city, as well as for a number of its most prominent business firms. He enjoys the confidence and esteem of all the brethren of the legal profession, and in all matters looking to the advancement and welfare of the community he has always been prompt and liberal. In 1879 Miss Mattie Wolf, who resided in the vicinity of Indianapolis, became his wife, and to their union two children have been given: Ernest and Tyner. Mr. Myers and his wife are church members.
THEODORE VERNON DENNY AND ELIZABETH (MOLAUGHLIN) DENNY. It is always a pleasure to deal with the history of one of those grand old pioneer families that have been distin- guished for patriotism, the genuine spirit of Christianity and the strong characteristics which have made its members men and women of mark. When a citizen of worth and character has departed from this life, it is meet that those who survive him should keep in mind his life work, and should hold up to the knowledge and emulation of the young his virtues and the characteristics which distinguished him and made him worthy the esteem of his neighbors. We, therefore, present to our readers a narrative of the life of the representative pioneer, Theodore Vernon Denny. This highly honored and eminently useful member of society was a native of the Old Bay State, born in the town of Leicester, the seat of an academy, then, and long after, noted for the thoroughness of its preparatory instruction as well as for having laid the educational foundation of many men renowned in statesmanship. in letters, and in the learned professions. Like all thorough going institutions of learning, Leicester Academy imparted a high moral tone, a culture, to the people of its immediate neighborhood, by mere absorption if not by actual contact. To this day, though the academy has no longer its prominence nor its prestige, the town still retains all the characteristics of a literary cen- ter. Theodore Vernon Denny partook of the academic instruction of his native town, though not so liberally as did his brothers and sisters, who became teachers, bankers. merchants, manufacturers and capitalists. The religions and practically missionary spirit was strongly manifested throughout the family. Without exception, its members were orderly, industrions, independent, respected and influential. The family was a large one. It may be found to-day with creditable representatives, in large numbers. in Leicester in the neighboring cities of Worcester and Boston, and scattered throughout Massachusetts and Maine, and indeed all New England, with a not inconsequent delegation in the Middle, North-western and Sonthern States. The family traces its genealogy to John Denny, who received from King Henry VI, a grant of land in Combs. Suffolk County, England. in 1439. It is a curions fact characteristic of its English strain and of its conservative and cantious tendencies, that lineal descendants of John Denny still own and occupy that particular land.
Theodore Vernon Denny had within himself, to a greater extent than any of his collateral kindred, the constituent elements of the pioneer in civilization. He remained in his parental home until he attained his majority. Upon attaining his twenty-first birthday he gave way to his longing for that broader. less restrained and less conventional life to be found in the then far West. Early in 1821, when John Hobart, a neighbor and companion from child- hood, be abandonded his native town. They made their toilsome journey to Ohio, where they remained for a year without settled residence, and then in pursuance of their original impulse, they pushed on to Indiana, to seek a permanent home, and as they fondly hoped, to lay the foundation for moderate fortunes, in the capital of the new State. They bought land, cov- ered with a dense. dark forest, near the town of Indianapolis. The residence of these two families in Marion County date from 1822. Mr. Denny's land was located abont three miles southeast from the court-lionse. The Cincinnati branch of the Big Four and the Belt
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railroads cross on the Denny farm. When the road to Cincinnati was built it ran through the old farm-house, necessitating the building of a new. When the Belt road was built it ran over the spot where the new was built, necessitating its removal. Near this spot Mr. Denny started in a settled life. On the 30th day of March, 1823, he married Miss Elizabeth McLaughlin, a member of the family and a niece of William Mclaughlin who came to this county in 1821, and who lived near. Mr. Denny participated, as one of the original mem- bers, in the organization of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis. According to facts and dates given in Col. Holloway's History of Indianapolis, it appears that this is the second church, now in existence, organized in the capital. In 1825, his wife who had previously been a Methodist, united with this congregation. For many years this husband and wife re- mained earnest and efficient members of that society; and then, to aid a weaker one, removed their membership to the Lick Creek Baptist church, an organization old enough to have figured at the constitution of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis. Mr. Denny was a farmer, and an intelligent man, prominent in the councils of his fellows, and in school, church, and political matters. He was well read in the current topics of the day, and he was always prepared for the most intelligent adversary in the discussion of any social, political or theological question. His reasoning was fearless, clear and convincing. He was too bold a man to truckle for favor. He never held an office higher than that of school director, and he never soughtone. He was exacting in his expectations of just treatment from others, and in his requirements of the conduct and associations of his children. He was a stern adher- ent to any canse or doctrine that seemed to him to be right. He lived in a time when theo- logical controversy was an absorbing occupation, and no man, not a professional controver- sialist, could maintain his side of a theological argument with greater force. He was a stanch Whig, and had an intelligent comprehension of the doctrines and tendencies of that party. He did not live to witness its extinction. He was a pronounced anti-slavery man, but did not sympathize with the lawless methods of the Abolitionists. Earnest in his opinions that the newly opened Territory should not be contaminated with slavery, it cannot be doubted that, had he lived, he would have espoused warmly every position of social or economic doctrine taken by the Republican party. He lived to see four children from his family of eight, attain mature years and start in life apart from the parental roof. One day he complained of feeling ill, but took his axe and went to the woods to drive away ill feeling by hard work. That effort no doubt hastened his death. He was immediately prostrated by a fever from which he died, on January 19, 1854. His remains were interred in the church yard of the Lick Creek Baptist church. After the establishment of Crown Hill Cemetery, the body was removed to the family lot in that beautiful resting place.
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