Sketches of prominent citizens of 1876 : with a few of the pioneers of the city and county who have passed away, Part 41

Author: Nowland, John H. B
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Indianapolis : Tilford & Carlon, printers
Number of Pages: 644


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 41


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He left his native town when quite young, and lived in Baltimore, Maryland, until the spring of 1836, when he came to Indianapolis, and resided here up to the time of his death, which occurred a few years since. He has two children yet living in the city-Edward, who is one of the proprietors and editors of the Sun, and Mrs. Mary Potts, who is one of the most accomplished photographists of the city. Dr. Pope left his heirs quite wealthy, having at the time of his death considerable real estate in and near the city.


DAVID V. CULLEY


Was a native of Pennsylvania, but came to Corydon when it was the capital of the State, and, as a journeyman printer, worked on the State work in the office of John Douglass, the father of two of the late proprie- tors of the Indianapolis Journal.


Mr. Culley then went to Lawrenceburg and edited and published


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DAVID V. CULLEY.


the Indiana Palladium, a paper in the interest of and advocating the election of General Jackson to the Presidency.


He was an active and enthusiastic politician, and advocated his opinions with a force and fluency that few possessed. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, sound judgment and great stability of char- acter. I rememcer him well as one of the active and leading men of his party while in the Legislature as Senator of Dearborn county.


In the canvass for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, in the year 1831, he was placed on the Jackson ticket as its candidate for the latter, with James G. Read for Governor against Noah Noble and Milton Stapp, the Clay candidates. Although his party were a majority in the State, the great popularity of Governor Noble carried the election of the Lieutenant Governor, and Mr. Culley was defeated.


In the year 1836 he was appointed, by General Jackson, register of the land office for the Indianapolis district, and, with his family, removed to this place, and resided here until the time of his death, June 4, 1869.


Soon after his removal to this place he identified himself with the benevolent and charitable institutions of the city, ever taking a deep interest in Sunday-schools, and, afterwards, the general free school system of the State and city. He was, for years, one of the trustees of the latter, and took a lively interest in the cause of education generally.


He was one of the leading members of the Second Presbyterian church, becoming so while it was under the pastorate of that well- known and flowery divine, Henry Ward Beecher.


Mr. Culley was often appointed by will, and selected on the dying bed, as administrator of estates, always complying cheerfully with the request of the dead, and performing the duties to the entire satifaction of the living.


Writing of so many old and departed but not forgotten friends, brings a sad clearness of the past and crowds my memory with many pleasing recollections, as well as melancholy regrets, and I sometimes feel that I am almost the last of the pioneers of Indiana.


Mr. Culley was of a pleasant disposition and had a kind word for all. In person he was about five feet eight inches in height, spare made, with mild dark eyes, black hair and dark complexion. In his attire he was plain and neat, and possessed a great deal of native dignity, with a fine address. I noticed him, while a member of the Senate, called on to temporarily preside, which he did with a dignity and promptness found in but few presiding officers of the present day; indeed, it was this fact


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that secured him the nomination for Lieutenant Governor in 1831. But he has gone from among the living.


" So fades, so perishes, grows dim and dies All that the world is proud of."


HENRY TUTEWILER


Has been a citizen of Indianapolis since 1834. He was from Lancaster, Ohio, and, like most others who settled here at an early day, had but little of worldly goods. He had a good trade, industrious habits, and a robust constitution.


He engaged as a partner with William Lingenfelter in the plastering business, and the fact that two such singular names as ".Tutewiler & Lingenfelter " should be associated together as partners often caused a laugh from the "new-comers " or Yankees that might chance to settle in our city.


Mr. Tutewiler was one of the most energetic mechanics, of any kind, in this place. See him when you would he was in a hurry, driving his work instead of it driving him. I have often met him in different parts of the city, within the same hour, overseeing his different jobs of work ; and although he has retired from active business, I do not see any abate- ment of his youthful zeal and industry.


Soon after he made this place his residence he connected himself with the Methodist church, and has ever borne the name of a true and consistent Christian, as much by practice as precept. He was a member of the Wesley Chapel congregation when it was the only Methodist con- gregation in the city, and there often listened to those eminent and old- fashioned ministers, such as James Havens, Allen Wiley, Calvin W. Ruter, and many others of less notoriety, and has there often met brother Jimmy Kittleman and Francis Mclaughlin, and heard their loud amens, accompanied by the clapping of their hands that would ring through the ears of the congregation.


Mr. Tutewiler has looked forward through the vista of years to his sons as the pride of his old age, and who, as the representatives of his family, were to carry down to succeeding generations its respectability, and credit and good name of their father, who has not wasted time


" In dropping buckets into empty wells And growing old in drawing nothing up,"


but has accumulated sufficient to start his sons in a lucrative business,


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ENOS B. REED.


while he yet remained on earth to assist them by his counsel as well as his means.


His son, Henry W., was for two terms city treasurer, and was suc- ceeded by Colonel Wiles, the present incumbent.


ENOS B. REED.


Mr. Reed was born at Salem, New Jersey, on the 11th of August, 1822. At the age of fifteen he was thrown upon the world with a com- mon school education, to carve out a fortune and living as best he could. For awhile he clerked in a hardware store in Louisville, Ken- tucky. He then engaged in a dry goods store at Frankfort, in the same State. He afterwards learned the printing business at Madison, Indi- ana. He then went to Cincinnati, where he published and helped edit the Daily Nonpareil. He was also one of the editors of the Daily Times in the same city. For a number of years he edited the Daily and Weekly Union, and one or two other papers. In the summer of 1869 he came to Indianapolis and edited the Journal of Commerce. He afterwards started the People, the first Sunday paper ever issued in the capital city. A great many over-sanctimonious persons objected to reading the People because it was a Sunday paper, although they had no conscientious scruples about reading a paper the work of which was done on Sunday, and the paper distributed on Monday.


Partly to gratify this whim, but mostly for his own convenience, the People was changed to a Saturday weekly, and now makes its appear- ance simultaneously with the Saturday Herald. Those papers are issued from the Indianapolis Publishing House, and make their appearance about ten o'clock, and are looked for and read with great interest by forty or fifty thousand of the population of the great railroad city. In read- ing the People we find many spicily written articles, and it is not at all difficult to understand Mr. Reed when he attacks what he considers cor- ruption either in high or low places, particularly the former. He ex- presses himself clearly, in the best sense, and in a manner well calculated to make the subject tremble in his boots, which makes the People de- servedly popular.


Soon after Mr. Reed became a citizen of Indianapolis he was impor- tuned by the people of the Fourth ward to become a candidate to rep- represent them in Council. This request he reluctantly complied with, and was defeated. The next year he was elected in the same ward by a small majority. Since that time he represented the Third, Eleventh


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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.


and Fifth wards, the boundaries being changed; that threw him into different wards. He has been a leader in the Council and the most of the time its president.


Mr. Reed is a ready and fluent writer. Language flows from his pen without a seeming effort. He is also gifted with a poetical imagina- tion. There is often a noble, simplicity in the line of his expressions. His paper he manages so that it is interesting to his patrons as well as lucrative to himself, although he has often had


" A weary work of tongue and pen, A long, harsh strife with strong willed men."


Mr. Reed is an amateur fisherman, and delights to cast his line among the finny tribe, even if he should be rewarded only with "a glorious nibble."


He was married at Cincinnati to Miss Mary Worth Ireland, who is yet the mistress of his home. They have five children. Such is Enos B. Reed, sole proprietor, editor and manager of the People.


JOHN B. GLOVER.


The subject of this sketch was born in Orange county, Indiana, on the 4th day of March, 1833. His father, Thomas B. Glover, is a well- to-do farmer, and has lived in the northeast township of the above named county for more than sixty-two years, having moved from Shelby county, Ky., with his father, Uriah Glover, in the spring of 1814. J. B. was brought up on the farm, and, from the time he was large enough to hold the plow, his summers were spent in the corn field and his win- ters in the little log school house on one corner of the place. His an- cesters on the paternal side were of pure English stock, and probably emigrated to this country before the Revolutionary war. His grand- father on the mother's side, Jesse Elgin, Esq., came from Kentucky in 1812, and settled at Claysville, Washington county, where he lived to be nearly one hundred years old. His ancestors were long-lived on both sides of the house. His opportunities for obtaining an education were not first rate, and yet, by close application to his studies, he was en- abled to begin teaching school at the age of seventeen, which profession he followed for about eleven years, having taught in the public schools at New Albany, in Salem High School and other places in the southern part of the State. On the 23d of December, 1855, he was married to Mary C. W., daughter of Professor James G. May, of Salem, Indiana.


John F. G Lo.


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CAPTAIN. HENRY M. SOCWELL.


His family now consists of his wife and five children, viz: Nannie G. Nowland-married daughter-Lula C., Charlie Morton, Wm. Claude and Mary May.


In 1861 he left the school room and raised a company for the 38tl1 Indiana volunteer infantry, of which he was elected captain and was mustered into the service in the summer of the same year. He com- manded the company until October, 1862, when he was elected major of the regiment, which position he held until the fall of 1863, when he was compelled to resign on account of ill health. He took part in the great battles of Stone River and Perryville, besides the lesser engagements at Hoover's Gap, Tennessee, and Dug Gap, Georgia. He was wounded at Perryville, but remained on the field to the end of the engagement. At Stone River his horse was twice shot under him, and his clothing three times pierced by the bullets of the enemy.


After retiring from the army he practiced dentistry up to 1868, at which time he was elected treasurer of Lawrence county, defeating Cap- tain Jesse Bailey of Bedford. He was re-elected in 1870 over William Ragsdale, Esq. On the 22d of February, 1872, he received the Repub- lican nomination for treasurer of State, and, after a hard fight, was elected by 800 majority over Hon. James B. Ryan. In 1874 he was renominated for the same position and defeated by Colonel B. C. Shaw. During all the canvass no charges were made against him, and to this day his official career has received only favorable criticism. In politics Major Glover has always been a radical Republican, having cast his first vote for John C. Fremont, in 1856. In religion he is what might be termed a liberal Christian, discarding the harsh dogmas of the elder or- thodoxy, and accepting the doctrine of the "Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man."


CAPTAIN HENRY M. SOCWELL.


The father of Captain Socwell, Henry M. Socwell, was born at New- port, New Jersey, on the 10th of November, 1781. On the 8th of March, 1815, was married to Lydia Campbell, the mother of the subject of this sketch. In 1837, when Captain Socwell was but a boy, the family removed to Switzerland county, Indiana. The father has been dead several years; the mother died on the 5th of June, 1876, at a ripe old age. When he was quite a small boy Captain Socwell engaged with Captain Tom Wright, on the old steamboat Wisconsin, and by assidu-


27


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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.


ous attention to his different duties he was gradually promoted from one position to another until he became prominent in the steamboat busi- ness. The captain has had considerable experience in flat boating on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, laden with produce for the New Orleans market. He was on the Mary Pell when she sank at North Bend, and was also aboard the Thomas Jefferson, which sank at Island No. 84, and was on another at Prophet Island, both in the Mississippi river. After fifteen years of steamboat life and undergoing nearly all the dangers and hardships incident thereto, he abandoned it and came to Indianapolis in 1859, with eight hundred dollars in his pocket, two hundred of which were borrowed. He immediately engaged in the grocery business, and has successfully carried it on up to the present time. He is now, and has been for several years, on East Washington street.


A few years after he became a citizen of Indianapolis a company was formed to build a small steamboat called the Governor Morton. Cap- tain Socwell became a stockholder and commanded the boat during the entire time she ran, which was about one year. The boat would have been a success had the hull been built of oak instead of pine. On one . occasion, Sunday afternoon, the boat made a trip to Cold Spring, a few miles above the city with about six hundred passengers on board.


Before coming to Indianapolis Captain Socwell was married to Miss Isabella, daughter of Doctor Samuel Fallis, a prominent old school phy- sician who had an extended practice in the counties of Switzerland, Rip- ley and Jefferson.


They have five children ; the three eldest are young men, just grown to manhood; all of them, like the captain are full of business, and act- ively engaged ; the two youngest are daughters.


Captain Socwell owns some fine property on East Market street, near Liberty, where he resides. This property is mostly or entirely leased for family residences. His store is one of the largest retail es- tablishments in the city. He takes great pride in keeping it well stocked with every article desired for family use, and, like the proprie- tor, it is always neat and clean, and well calculated to attract the atten- tion of the fastidious epicure. Captain Socwell is a very fine looking man, and very popular in his business, and has accumulated his prop- erty by close application and industry.


DANIEL A. LEMON


Was born near Millersville, Marion county, Indiana, about eight miles


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GOVERNOR JOSEPH A. WRIGHT,


north of the city, on the 24th of October, 1844, his father being one of the early farmers in that settlement, and with whom the writer has been acquainted near half a century.


Mr. Lemon lived and worked on the farm until he was twenty-one years of age, receiving in the meantime such an education only as could be obtained in the common schools of the country and city. After he had attained his majority he removed to the city and commenced the grocery business on his own responsibility, without a dollar except what he had earned himself, and therefore, in every sense of the term, is a self-made man. He was engaged in the business about ten years in the same building on West Washington street. About March, 1877, he moved to his present place of business on the southwest corner of Wash- ington and Mississippi streets, where he does an extensive business both as a wholesale and retail grocer, indeed as large a business as is done by any similar establishment in the west end of the city.


In February, 1866, he was married to Miss Eliza Wyatt, daughter of one of the early settlers of the county, who died suddenly in Fletcher Place Church during the past summer. So far Mr. Lemon has but one child, a daughter, to bless the family hearth-stone.


GOVERNOR JOSEPH A. WRIGHT.


Governor Wright was born at Washington, Pennsylvania, on the 17th of April, 1809. In 1819 the family of his father moved to Bloom- ington, Monroe county, Indiana. Joseph and his two brothers assisted their father in making brick. In 1823 his father died, leaving him, a boy fourteen years of age, to depend upon his own resources for a living. He has often told the writer that he off-bore brick for twenty-five cents per day. He was at school and college about two years. While at the latter place he was janitor of the building. What little money he had was made by gathering hickory nuts and walnuts and selling them to the students, and was known by the sobriquet of "Walnut-huller." After he received a fair English education he studied law in the office of Judge Hester, of Bloomington. His preceptor is still living and is a judge in California.


In 1829 Governor Wright settled in the practice of his profession at Rockville, Parke county, meeting with fair success from the start. In November, 1831, he was married to Miss Louisa Cook, daughter of a prominent farmer of the county of his adoption. This union was one of the most fortunate events of his life; he not only needed a wife, but


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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.


one who would exert an influence on him and develop and bring out the sterling qualities of his mind and heart. Mrs. Wright was an intelligent as well as a staunch Christian woman, and well calculated to exert a great influence with her husband.


In 1834 he was elected to represent Parke county in the lower branch of the State Legislature. In 1837 he connected himself with the Meth- odist church. In 1836 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the dis- trict in which he lived. In 1839 he was elected to the State Senate.


He was associated with General Tighlman A. Howard in the prac- tice of law from 1840 to 1844. In 1843 he was elected to Congress to represent the Seventh District. In 1849 he was elected, under the old constitution, to succeed James Whitcomb as governor of the State, and again, in 1852, under the new constitution, for four years, serving seven years, at the last election over the late Nicholas McCarty, one of the most popular men of the State.


In 1857 he was appointed by President Buchanan, Minister to Prus- sia, and served as such until 1861. During his residence at Berlin he made the acquaintance of Baron Von Humboldt, and there sprang up a warm friendship between them, which continued as long as they lived. On the 7th of September, 1861, the citizens of Indianapolis gave him a reception on his return to his home after an absence of four years. He was welcomed back by General E. Dumont on behalf of the citizens. After this he traveled over the most of the Western States, making speeches and encouraging the people to volunteer in behalf of the Union.


In March, 1862, Governor Morton appointed him to fill the place in the United States Senate made vacant by the expulsion of the late Jesse D. Bright, and he served until a successor was elected by the Legislature in January, 1863. In 1863 he was appointed by President Lincoln commissioner for the United States to the Hamburg Fair.


In 1865 President Johnson appointed him Minister to Prussia. This was the second time to the same Court. He served until his death, May IIth, 1867. His remains were brought home for interment.


The writer formed the acquaintance of Governor Wright during the session of the Legislature that convened in Indianapolis in 1834. I ever found him a kind, generous man. He had ever been a strong and con- sistent Democrat up to the time of the firing upon Fort Sumpter. From that time to his death he was a Union man, and as such supported the administrations of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson.


Governor Wright had but one child, John C. Wright, well known in Indianapolis. On his father's last mission to Prussia he accompanied


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AUGUSTUS KIEFER.


him. While there he fell in company with the late William Y. Wiley and daughter who were traveling in Europe. There sprang up between Mr. Wright and Miss Wiley a friendship which terminated in marriage after their return. Miss Wiley, too, was an only child.


For some time Mr. Wright was engaged in the wholesale grocery business in this city. He is now vice president of and a large stock- holder in the First National Bank of this city. A few years since he erected a fine block of business houses between Pennsylvania and Dela- ware streets on Market, which is known as "Wright Block," and is a monument to his enterprise and liberality.


RICHARD A. CONNER


Was born in Jennings county, Indiana, on the 20th of October, 1839. He received an education in the common country schools, but he re- ceived a more thorough one in the printing office, a place that has educated a great many prominent men of the past as well as of the present day. He was for some time editor and publisher of a news- paper. He served three and a half years in the war of the rebellion in the Union army. He was elected auditor of his native county in Octo- ber, 1868, and served the full term of four years. During the Legisla- ture of 1877 he was nominated by the Republican party and elected State Librarian for two years, and is the present occupant of this office. On December 25th (Christmas), 1865, he was married.


The assistant librarian of Mr. Conner is Miss Mary D. Naylor, daughter of the late Judge Isaac Naylor, of Crawfordsville. This is a fit testimonial to the memory of Judge Naylor, who was one of the brave pioneers of the Indiana Territory that periled their lives at, the battle of Tippecanoe, on the 7th of November, 1811. With the father and mother of Miss Naylor the writer was well acquainted before their marriage, Mrs. Naylor being Miss Catharine Anderson, sister-in-law of the late Samuel Merrill.


AUGUSTUS KIEFER.


Mr. Kiefer was born in Bavaria, Germany, in June, 1828; with his father's family came to the United States in 1846, and received an English education at Dayton, Ohio. In 1849 he came to Indiana, loca- ting in Edinburg, Johnson county, and engaged in the retail drug busi- ness. In 1858 was elected to represent Johnson county in the State


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Legislature. In 1863 he removed to Indianapolis and engaged in the wholesale drug business in connection with Colonel Harry Daily and Dr. W. P. Rush, this being the only exclusively wholesale drug house in the city or State. In 1866 he sold his interest in the establishment and organized his present business in connection with the late Almus E. Vinton. After the death of Mr. Vinton, Mr. Kiefer bought the interest of Mrs. Vinton and is now sole proprietor of the establishment.


In 1861 Mr. Kiefer was married to Miss Martha E. Shipp, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Shipp, of Clinton county. They have two children living and one dead. Mr. Kiefer is a thorough, practical druggist, and understands the business he is engaged in, and is doing exclusively a wholesale business on South Meridian street, in the midst of the whole- sale business of the city. He is well known to the country physicians and dealers as a man of strict integrity, and one whom they can depend on in getting nothing but pure articles.


JACOB H. COLCLAZER


Was born at Frankfort, Clinton county, on the 14th of May, 1843. At a suitable age he came to Indianapolis and learned the jeweler business with W. P. Bingham. In 1863 he volunteered in the 63d Indiana regi- ment under the command of Colonel Fred Knefler, and was made brig- ade quartermaster, and served to the close of the war.


On the 6th of October, 1868, he was married to Miss Taylor, daughter of the late Judge William Taylor, of Madison. Mr. Colclazer had been extensively engaged for some time in the jewelry business in this city.


He died suddenly on the 23d of January, 1877. Mrs. Colclazer is still a resident of the city. Mr. Colclazer was stricken down at a time when he had a bright future in anticipation. He had not yet reached the meridian of life. Mrs. Colclazer has two sisters living in the city. One is the widow of the late Aaron Ohr, the other the wife of Mr. Robert Browning.


SAMUEL W. WATSON


Was born at St. Louis, Missouri, on the 13th of April, 1835. He came to Indianapolis on the first of January, 1854, and engaged with Messrs. Alfred & J. C. S. Harrison as a clerk in their dry goods store. When they abandoned the dry goods business and engaged in banking he still




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