USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Sketches of prominent citizens of 1876 : with a few of the pioneers of the city and county who have passed away > Part 27
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JOHN S. NEWMAN
Was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, on the 10th of April, 1805. In March, 1807, he came to what is now Wayne township, in Wayne county, with his grandfather, who settled two miles north of Richmond. His mother having died he was taken into the family of his grandfather, Andrew Hoover, Sen. It seems he was fitted by nature for the strug- gles he must encounter, and has manfully overcome all, and was ever found on the upward path.
In January, 1827, he removed to Centerville, where he was em- ployed in the office of his uncle, David Hoover, who was clerk of the county courts. He there studied law, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1828, and continued the practice of law until 1860. For nearly ten years of the period of his practice he was in partnership with Jesse P. Siddall, the firm being Newman & Siddall. He was, afterwards, for several years engaged in mercantile business in the firm of Hannah & Newman, at Centerville.
In 1850 he was elected a delegate to the convention to revise the constitution. In 1847 he was chosen president of the Whitewater Canal Company, and served as such five years. In 1851 he was elected president of the Indiana Central Railway Company. In 1860, for con- venience to his business, he removed to Indianapolis. For the past several years he has been president of the Merchants' National Bank of this city.
On the first of October, 1829, he was married to Miss Eliza J., daughter of Samuel Hannah, Esq. They have had six children. Mary married Dr. H. G. Carey ; Gertrude is the wife of Mr. Ingram Fletcher, a banker of this city; Omar is engaged in the lumber business in Chi- cago; Walter, who was first lieutenant in the United States army and
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ANDREW BROUSE.
served in the army of the Union, died in this city, January 1, 1864, of a disease contracted in the army. Two other children died in infancy.
Mr. Newman is well-known to the business men of this city, and is highly respected for his kind and obliging disposition, and charities to those less fortunate than himself. The writer remembers him as a reg- ular attendant upon the Supreme and Federal Courts forty years ago.
SAMUEL DELZELL
Was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the 17th of August, 1819; came to Indiana and settled in Warren township, Marion county, in 1827. In 1831 he came to Indianapolis for the purpose of learning the book binding business. After finishing his apprenticeship he, in 1844, commenced the business in connection with a man named Lane, the firm being Lane & Delzell; this firm continued two years; he then became the partner of Mann, under the name and style of Mann & Delzell; in 1851 he became connected with Tyler, the firm being Delzell & Tyler ; this firm continued until 1859.
Mr. Delzell was a member of the city council, representing the first ward from 1852 until 1856; was a good and working member.
After retiring from the book binding business in 1859 he engaged in the real estate business, in connection with Mr. Smith, under the name and title of Delzell & Smith.
Mr. Delzell married Miss Martha S., daughter of the late Hiram Brown. From 1872 to 1874 he, with his wife and daughter, traveled in Europe, visiting the principal cities and towns of the continent. He has just now returned from a tour of four months in California.
Mr. Delzell has lived to see Indianapolis grow from a village of five hundred inhabitants to a commercial city of one hundred thousand inhabitants ; to see the old log school house replaced by those costing forty thousand dollars; to see the elegant train of railroad cars take the place of the old six passenger stage coach or mud wagon.
By industry, economy and strict integrity, he has secured a com- petency of the world's goods quite sufficient for old age.
ANDREW BROUSE
Was born in Bickley county, Virginia, on the 5th of February, 1801; with his father's family emigrated to Ohio in 1806, and settled with three other families in the woods. Two years afterwards the county of High-
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land was organized and the town of Hillsboro laid out. The fact that the county was an almost unbroken and impenetrable wilderness ren- dered the chances for education very limited ; hence Mr. Brouse received. but little. Mr. Brouse grew up to manhood, then learned the carpen- ter's trade.
In 1824 he was married to Miss Mary Ann Wilkins, sister of the late John Wilkins of this city.
In 1835 came to Indianapolis, and has been a resident since that time. When in his fourteenth year he joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and has been a regular and consistant member since that time. Although he has passed the time generally allotted to man, he is yet vigorous and seems to be good for another score. In the forty years I have known him he has borne an irreproachable character, both as a man and Christian. He is a brother to the Rev. John Brouse, a well known Methodist minister, who is mentioned in another sketch.
JUDGE JEREMIAH SMITH.
Judge Smith was a native of South Carolina ; with his father's family came to Indiana, in 1817, and settled in White River township, Ran- dolph county, and soon after removed to Winchester. Mr. Smith was county surveyor, prosecuting attorney, and for eight years judge of the Circuit Court and for thirty years a practicing lawyer.
He was said to be one of the best expounders of the old English law of any legal man in the State. Some years since he had a protracted discussion with Ovid Butler, Esq., on the subject, "Is slavery sinful ?" Mr. Smith took the negative, advocating the instincts of his early edu- cation. The debate was published in book form and widely circulated. In connection with the late Oliver H. Smith, he was mainly instrumental in the building of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis railway (now known as the Bee Line), from Indianapolis to Union City on the State line.
Mr. Smith wrote the early history and reminiscences of Randolph county, a work that will be highly prized by the future historian of that part of the State. His old friend Oliver H. Smith, in his " Early Indi- ana Trials and Sketches," says of him:
" He received in early life a good common English education, which he improved after he entered upon the active duties of life. He was emphatically a self-made man, with a vigorous mind, a strong, sound constitution and untiring energy. He rose rapidly to a high stand
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ISAAC HOWK.
at the bar. Judge Smith in person is large and corpulent, high, broad forehead, full face, good features. As a speaker he makes no pretense to eloquence, but marches directly to the point in controversy with all his might, throwing himself bodily into the argument. The judge has many years been an active member of the Christian church, and one of the trustees of the University at Indianapolis. He is president of the Cincinnati, Union and Fort Wayne, and the Evans- ville, Indianapolis and Cleveland Straight Line Railroad Companies ; still his indomitable energy and untiring perseverance seem to be equal to the labors he performs."
Mr .. Smith lived many years of usefulness after the above was written. He died in 1874, aged sixty-nine years, leaving six sons and two daughters. William K. Smith is engaged in the boot and shoe business at Union City ; John D., in the jewelry business in the same city ; Charles C., in the drug business in Winchester ; Mary E. married to Frank B. Carter, at Bradford Junction, Ohio; Henry B., in the jewelry business at Hartford City, Indiana, and elected clerk of the county in 1876; Charlotte A., married to Dr. George W. White, of Bradford Junction; Jeremiah Giles Smith is a resident of Indianapolis, and extensively en- gaged in the plumbing and gas fitting business on Pennsylvania street ; and Oliver H. Smith, a young man living at Union City.
The writer well remembers Judge Smith, when his visits were quite frequent to the capital on business of a public nature or before the Supreme or United States Courts. He was ever looked upon as a lead- ing man in the northeast portion of the State, where he was well known both as a lawyer and a man of the most uncompromising and sterling integrity.
ISAAC HOWK
Was born in Lee, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on the 23d day of July; 1793. His father was a farmer, and his own boyhood and early youth were chiefly spent in agricultural pursuits. During the years 1812 and 1813 he was a student most of the time at Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, but his means were limited, and did not admit of his completing the full course of college studies. About the year 1815 his father's family removed from Massachusetts, and settled in Wellington, Lorain county, Ohio. He came west with his parents and family, but did not remain with them. Having determined to pur- sue a professional life he spent the year 1816 in the study of law at Cin- cinnati. Early in the year 1817, having first obtained license to prac-
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tice law, he located in the town of Charlestown, Clarke county, Indiana, and entered upon the practice of his chosen profession.
On the 13th day of July, 1820, he was married to Elvira Vail. On the 24th day of May, 1833, at Indianapolis, Indiana, while in at- tendance upon the Supreme Court, he died in the fortieth year of his age. At the time of his death his professional practice was large and lucrative, and he was rapidly acquiring fame and fortune. His widow survived him more than thirty-six years. He left three children sur- viving him, one of whom died in early boyhood, and the other two are now residing in New Albany, Indiana.
Mr. Howk was an able lawyer at the time of his death, among the first of his profession in this State; his practice had become large, and extended to nearly all the counties in Southern Indiana. He repre- sented Clarke county in the State Legislature some six sessions, and was chosen speaker of that body for the thirteenth and fifteenth sessions. His decisions whilst speaker were prompt and judicious, and evinced a thorough knowledge of parliamentary law and rules for the government of deliberative bodies. He was a delegate to the Masonic Grand Lodge of Indiana at its organization, was its grand secretary in 1820, and its grand master in 1826. At the time of his death he was prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of Indiana. In the discharge of every duty, public and private, entrusted to him, no taint of corruption ever appeared, or was even whispered against him. Honor, truth and justice governed his actions through life, and he left an untarnished name . as a legacy to his children. The following notice of his death appeared in the Indiana Democrat : .
OBITUARY .- Died, in Indianapolis, on Friday evening, the 24th ult., at the Washing- ton Hall, of a violent attack of colic, Isaac Howk, Esq,, aged abont forty years. Mr. Howk was a resident of Charlestown, Clarke county, Indiana, and arrived here on Thurs- day evening in good health. After breakfast, on Friday, he was attacked with the dis- ease above stated, and after the most intense suffering departed this life in the full pos- session of his senses, at about nine o'clock the same evening. Every exertion was made to relieve him, but his hour had arrived, and the messenger soon performed his office. Mr. Howk has left a wife and three small children to lament the greatest of human losses-a kind and affectionate husband and parent. In his early manhood he emigrated to Indiana from the State of Massachusetts, and by his own exertion had raised himself to the first rank in his profession, and had occupied several conspicuous stations in the public eye, having been repeatedly elected to the House of Representatives, and on several occasions honored as the speaker of that body, the duties of which station he filled with honor to himself and advantage to the public. At the time of his decease he held the office of prosecuting attorney in the second judicial district. His death will be deeply regretted by his numerous acquaintances, who regarded him as a man of talent, probity and worth, and the social circle of Charlestown will lament the loss of one who, in the
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REV. FERNANDEZ C. HOLLIDAY, D. D.
capacity of a neighbor and friend, was highly esteemed, and whose sudden and unex- pected demise will touch the most sensitive feelings of the community. A truly amiable and affectionate wife will be overwhelmed with poignant sorrow, and the mantle of mourning will cover others than those of his household.
The following invitation to his funeral was circulated :
You are invited to attend the funeral of Isaac Howk, Esq., from Mr. Henderson's, this afternoon at three o'clock. A funeral discourse will be delivered by Rev. Mr. Spronle, at the Presbyterian meeting house, to which place the body will be conveyed. Indianapolis, May 25th, 1833.
REV. FERNANDEZ C. HOLLIDAY, D. D.
Doctor Holliday is a native of the State of New York, born near Auburn, on the 30th of November, 1814; was brought by his parents. to Indiana when but three years of age. His youth was spent in Dear- born county, his summer months in labor on his father's farm, his win- ter months in the school, first in the district school and then in the county seminary in which he received a good education in the ordinary English branches, and formed such habits of study as enabled him to. receive a more thorough education in after years. He received the degree of Master of Arts from the McKendree College in Illinois, and the Allegheny College of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1858. He had joined the Methodist church and entered the Indiana conference in 1834.
After having spent three years in traveling circuits he was stationed at Rising Sun, and filled successively the pulpits of the principal churches. in Madison, New Albany, Evansville and Indianapolis. Doctor Holliday has spent three years on circuits, twenty years in stations and nineteen. years as presiding elder.
In 1848 he was stationed at Wesley Chapel, Indianapolis, and since that time has been identified in some manner with the church in Indiana- polis. Although constantly engaged in the active duties of the ministry he has not been idle with his pen.
In 1837 he published The Anniversary Book for Sunday Schools. which had a large circulation through the schools of the church. In 1853 he wrote and published, The Life and Times of Rev. Allen Wiley, one of the pioneers of the Methodist church in Indiana. In 1869 he published The Bible Hand-book, a valuable work for young ministers
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and Sabbath school teachers. In 1871 he wrote The History of Indiana Methodism, containing an account of the introduction and progress of Methodism in the State.
Besides these he has been a regular contributor to the magazines and periodical literature of the church. Doctor Holliday has been an earnest friend to and worker in the cause of education. He has been a member of the board of trustees of the Indiana Asbury University for twenty-five years. He was one of the projectors and founders of Moore's Hill college. As a member of the committee appointed for that pur- pose, he wrote the address of the people of the State to the State con- vention which prepared the present system of public schools for the State of Indiana.
In all the relations in which Doctor Holliday has been placed he has performed his duties well. Doctor Holliday is the son-in-law of the late Samuel Hannah, and brother-in-law of John S. Newman and Alexander Hanna.h
ISAAC THALMAN.
Isaac Thalman is one of our most industrious and enterprising citi- zens. He was born of Swiss parents, October 24, 1834, on a farm in Jackson county; Indiana, near where Seymour is now located, where old Rockford once stood-now extinct-one of the liveliest villages in all Hoosierdom. The old settlers will remember the feud which existed between the Salt Creekers and Rockforders, which was the cause of many a bloody battle, in the old backwoods style, on the banks of White river, the dividing line of the belligerents. The principal busi- ness of the village being horse racing, shooting matches, gambling and fighting, the parents of young Thalman were quite willing that he should go forth into the world at a tender age to seek his own fortune, and one bright day he packed his handkerchief and left the old farm never to return, at that time being but twelve years old. Since this time Mr. Thalman has been the architect of his own fortunes, and may truthfully be styled a self-made man. He first made his appearance in this city in 1846, and entered the grocery store of Julius Nicolai, in wose employ he remained for several years-in the store from early morn until ten o'clock at night. His next employment was in the variety store of Thalman & Evans, where he remained until 1852. This early training in different stores only served to prepare Mr. Thalman for future useful- ness.
One day Mr. Thalman was surprised by being called into the office
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ISAAC THALMAN.
of the then postmaster, W. W. Wick, Esq., who offered him the responsible position of general delivery clerk at a salary beyond his most sanguine expectations. Of course it was accepted with a thankful heart. It was not until many years afterward that Mr. Thålman dis- covered that it was to the friendly influence of the Hon. Albert G. Porter he was indebted for this important rise in the world. It is stated that Mr. Porter took great pleasure in assisting deserving young men and helping them on to fortune without their knowledge, which is cer- tainly very creditable to both his head and heart. Would there were more rich and influential men of this character.
After remaining in the postoffice for several years Mr. Thalman re- signed to accept a position as book-keeper and salesman in the Indian- apolis Woolen Mills, where he served until 1865, when he was admitted as a partner, under the firm name of C. E. Giesendorff & Co. With careful management the business of this well-known firm, since Mr. Thalman's introduction therein, has increased from a production of four hundred yards of woolen goods per week to four thousand, besides deal- ing in wool to the extent of five hundred thousand pounds per annum. The firm consists of only C. E. Giesendorff and Isaac Thalman.
Julius Nicolai, Mr. Thalman's first employer, a staunch and honest old Democrat, first instilled the principles of Democracy into Isaac's youthful mind, and the last Democratic vote cast by Mr. Thalman was for Stephen A. Douglas. Since that time he has been acting with the Republican party, although not looked upon as a bitter partisan. He was first elected to the city council by the Republicans of the Fourth Ward in 1869 and re-elected in 1871 and 1873. He has been on some of the most important committees of the city council and was an earn- est and diligent worker.
Mr. Thalman is married, but has no children. His wife is the daugh- ter of his partner, Mr. C. E. Giesendorff. Mr. Thalman is a very useful member of society-painstaking and industrious. He is of pleasant address, spare figure and medium height. As a business man we find him to be a pleasant gentleman, while as a citizen he is highly esteemed by all. His father, Isaac Thalman, Senior, died during the present year aged eighty-three years.
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ANDREW WALLACE.
The name that heads this sketch is, perhaps, as familiar to the citi- zens of this place, as well as to the farming community of Marion and the surrounding counties, as that of any person now doing business in the city
Although not one of the oldest, he has certainly been one of the most successful produce dealers of his day.
Mr. Wallace was a paper-maker by trade, having learned the busi- ness with John Sheets, of Madison, Jefferson county. He came to this place in the year 1840, in comparatively poor circumstances. Soon after he bought a small farm in Hamilton county, and removed his family thereon ; there he remained some time, and, to accommodate his- friends, Messrs. Sheets and Yandes, he returned to the city to take charge of and superintend their paper mill, their former superintendent having been burned and otherwise injured so as to prevent his attending to. the duties. Mechanics of that kind being very scarce at that time, Mr. Wallace consented to accommodate them until such time as they should be enabled to employ another.
He remained with them until January, 1847. The high water of that year destroying the aqueduct of the canal wound up for the time being the manufacture of paper and his connection with those gentlemen.
Mr. Robert Underhill, in the meantime, having become acquainted. with Mr. Wallace, and learning something of his untiring industry and fine business qualifications, employed him to take charge of his Bridge- port flouring mill, which he did, and managed with profit to his em- ployer until the fall of 1847. It will be remembered by our old citizens. that our merchants up to this time had not paid cash for produce, with the exception of pork to be driven to the Ohio river, and by John Car- lisle for wheat, which was but a very small portion of the surplus of the country.
Mr. Wallace inaugurated the present system of paying cash for stock and all kinds of produce in this place, and everything he laid his- hand to prospered.
He then took charge of Mr. Underhill's City Mills. Mr. Underhill having the utmost confidence in his integrity, arranged for him to draw money out of bank on his own checks in the transaction of business pertaining to the mill. From the time he took charge of Mr. Under- hill's business it prospered, so that in a few years he was enabled to re- tire with a fortune.
Andrew Wallace
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ANDREW WALLACE.
In the year 1848 he was employed by Mr. Jeremiah Foot as a clerk in his store. Mr. Foot wished to make as much as possible out of Mr. Wallace's services, and, like the person that killed the goose that laid the golden egg, very unwittingly got himself rid of his valuable services. One very dull day of trade Mr. Foot requested Mr. Wallace to go into the cellar and saw half a cord of wood, as there was not much doing in the store. This Mr. Wallace refused to do ; he stood upon his dignity, and told Mr. Foot he would rather pay for the sawing out of his own pocket.
Mr. Foot insisted on his doing it himself, as he could not afford to . take it out of his own pocket. Mr. Wallace acceded to Mr. Foot's request, and told him that he would saw the wood, and wished Mr. Foot to make out his account while he was so doing, and that after the wood was sawed he would consider himself free from any obligation to con- tinue in Mr. Foot's employ.
The sawing of that half cord of wood was, perhaps, the dearest Mr. Foot ever paid for, as it was to Mr. Wallace time better employed than he had done before.
In the fall of 1848 Mr. Wallace commenced the purchase of grain and shipping to the house of Pollys & Butler, of Madison, Indiana, and did more business in that line than all the other establishments of the kind in the place, often shipping five or six car loads per day. He then com- menced the business of a family grocer in the Walpole House, a frame building situated about middle of the space between where the Odd Fellows' Hall now stands and the alley on the north side of Washington, between Pennsylvania and Delaware streets.
On the vacant ground east of his store, and adjoining the alley, were his wagon yard and salt sheds. On every board in the fence and every barrel of salt was branded the name of "Andy Wallace," much to the annoyance of his competitor, the late P. B. L. Smith, who then did a large business on the corner where Odd Fellows' Hall now stands, and was somewhat jealous of "Andy's" at least great show of business.
Andy would never suffer a farm wagon to pass his door, going west, until he had used every stratagem and exhausted all his eloquence to induce its occupants to call in at his establishment first. Often by the time the wagon would be fairly stopped he would have the old lady's baby in the store sitting on the counter, with a stick of candy in each hand and one protruding from its mouth, before the mother had got out of the wagon. Andy, with a large stock of candy with which he sugar- coated the children, and a pretty wiry tongue and an accommodating
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disposition, became a great favorite with the farmers of the country, which built him up an extensive trade.
His competitors in business thought that it would not take long to wind Andy Wallace up. This, reaching Andy's ears, caused him to redouble his diligence and industry, being determined to succeed or risk his all upon the trial ; like Richelieu, he thought that " there is no such word as fail." At this place Mr. Wallace built up a fine business and an extensive acquaintance throughout this and the adjoining counties.
In the year 1855 he engaged in the wholesale grocery business, which he still continues, and has a large share of the wholesale business for both city and country. He is a fair illustration of the truth of the saw, "that some things can be done as well as others." He owns some very valuable business as well as private property in the city, and one of the finest and earliest cultivated farms in the county. One of the great secrets of his success was that when he made up his mind to do anything he did it with all his might, and when he thought that he had a good in- vestment in property he held on to it. He was for eight years president of the State institutions for the amelioration of the condition of the deaf and dumb, insane and blind, and they, like everything else he put his hands to, prospered under his supervision. But he, like most other successful men, has not been free from the abuse and vituperation of those less successful, and he has hurled back the calumny upon their own heads with redoubled force.
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