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 49
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A singular fatality attended the family of General Hanna. His wife died in the meridian of life ; he was killed by a train of cars, between his house and the city, on the Peru railroad, in 1858 ; one of his sons, Madison, was killed at the battle of Fort Donelson ; another son, Wil- liam, was killed by lightning, at Bloomington, Illinois, while by the side of his wife in bed ; George died in New York harbor, on his return from California ; his son-in-law, Mr. Hughes, was killed by a runaway team of horses ; his son James died quiet young. Of the ten children of General Hanna, V. C., Robert B., Thomas, David, John L. and Mrs. Hughes are living. V. C. Hanna resides in Detroit, David in Nevada, Thomas near McCordsville, Hancock county, Mrs. Hughes in Danville, Indiana, Robert B. and John L. Hanna at Indianapolis. John L. Hanna is one of the active business men of the city. For several years he was engaged as a contractor of the public improvements of the city. He was deputy sheriff of the county for two years, and has been super- intendent of the State fair and grounds. He is now engaged in the of- fice of the county treasurer. General Hanna's family was ever among our most respectable and useful citizens, and inherited a large share of their father's plain and common sense manner; frankness and candor were always characteristic of them.
ANTHONY J. GERSTNER
Was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1830, and received a German educa- tion in the land of his nativity. When nineteen years of age, in com- pany with his older brother, Christopher, he came to the United States and landed in New York on Pentecost Sunday. They took a walk and were stoned by "wharf-rats," or longshoremen, and handled pretty roughly, considering they were in the " land of the free and the home of the brave." They went up the Hudson river as far as Troy, on a steamer, thence to Buffalo via the canal. At Buffalo they again embarked on a steamer bound, on Lake Erie, for Toledo, Ohio, where they again took a canal boat bound for Dayton, where they arrived in 1849. At Dayton Mr. Gerstner apprenticed himself to a tailor, and received the first year forty-eight dollars and his board as the reward of his labor. At Dayton he remained one year and a half, then went to Vandalia, a small town in Ohio, to clerk in a store, where he remained three years. While in Vandalia a lady came into the store and asked for artificial flow-
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REV. WILLIAM A. HOLLIDAY.
ers. Mr. Gerstner, not being proficient in the English language, did not understand any thing but the fish part and handed her a box of fish- hooks, A gentleman standing by saw and corrected the mistake. After this he was more attentive to improving himself in the English language. He came to Indianapolis in September, 1856. For one year he was in partnership with a man named Rogge, in the merchant tailoring busi- ness, the firm being Gerstner & Rogge. At the expiration of one year Mr. Gerstner bought the interest of his partner, and has continued the business alone ever since that time, and is yet in business at 171 East Washington street, assisted by Richard White, of Oxford, Ohio, as book-keeper and salesman. Mr. Gerstner built and owns the fine busi- ness house where his store is. His great success in business goes to prove that he knows the difference between artificial flowers and fish- hooks, and has also learned how money has to be made, i.e., by strict integrity and attention to business-the surest way. About the time that Mr. Gerstner became a citizen of Indianapolis he was married to Miss Doretha Kirchner, of Dayton, Ohio, who is yet his partner in the journey of life.
REV. WILLIAM A. HOLLIDAY
Was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, in 1801, and with his father's family, Judge Samuel Holliday, settled in Madison county, on Fall creek, a few miles below Pendleton. He then for some time assisted his father in clearing land and improving a farm. He walked from his father's residence to Hamilton, Ohio, after he had grown up, to attend school, subsequently he attended the university at Bloomington, Indiana, and Oxford, Ohio; he then traveled on horseback to Princeton, New Jersey, to attend the seminary. Having been licensed by the Presby- tery of New Brunswick as a minister, he returned to the west and ac- cepted an invitation to become the pastor of the only Presbyterian (the First) church in Indianapolis, where he remained two years; subse- quently he devoted his time to missionary labor in different parts of In- diana, finally making Indianapolis his home. The last three years of his life he was professor of Latin in Hanover College, Indiana. At the age of sixty years he commenced to study the German language and made considerable progress in learning to speak it. He was for several years stated clerk of the Muncie Presbytery and was ever a valuable member of the church courts.
Mr. Holliday's early struggles to acquire an education caused him to sympathize with young men similarly situated, and he ever rendered them
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
all the aid in his power. With a desire to promote education, he gave, out of a moderate estate, a lot in Indianapolis, which was sold for twelve thousand dollars, for the purpose of endowing a professorship of mental philosophy and logic in Hanover College, Indiana. Mr. Holliday was a man who devoted his whole life to the cause of religion and the well- being of his fellow creatures. Mr. Hollday's father, Judge Samuel Hol- liday, was one of the pioneers of Madison county, and lived a few miles below the falls of Fall creek on that stream. He was one of the judges of the county, and was on the bench when the murderers of the Indians were tried, in 1824. The writer remembers staying at his house the night before the men were executed, in June, 1825. Judge Holliday was an upright and conscientious man, and by his exemplary life, no doubt, shaped his son's after life, which was one of so much usefulness. Judge Holliday was of Scotch and Irish descent. William A. Holliday has four children living. John H. Holliday is editor and proprietor of the Evening News, a paper he started some nine years since. At that time it was predicted that its life would be of short duration, but it has con- tinued to prosper, and is now considered one of the fixed institutions of the city. Francis T. Holliday is engaged with his brother as business manager of the same paper; William A. Holliday, Jun., is following in the footsteps of his father, and has charge of a church at Belvidere, New Jersey. Miss Grettie and Francis T. reside with their mother at 242 North Alabama street. Mrs. Holliday is well acquainted in Indi- anapolis, especially with the old citizens. She has witnessed its pros- perity and great growth of the last thirty years, and, no doubt, like the writer, often wonders if the past is not all a dream.
FREDERICK W. HERRON
Was born on the 15th of August, 1842, at Ovid, Seneca county, New York, and received a common school education in his native State. He learned the jeweler business at Elmira, New York. He reluctantly aban- doned his trade and studied law in the office of his father for some time. Having no ambition to become a disciple of Blackstone he abandoned the study of law, and in 1858 went south and worked at his trade. While in the south he joined a military company which was called into service, at the breaking out of the rebellion, by the governor of the State, and was put into active service in the cause of disunion. After being in active service three months he deserted and went to Atlanta, Georgia, where he was arrested as a Union spy, but fortunately for him
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DR. ROBERT N. TODD.
they did not dream that he was a deserter from their own army, for if they had his fate would have been sealed. Shortly after that, which was in 1861, he came to Indianapolis and engaged in the jewelry store of Mr. Jere McLene, at nine dollars per week. He worked in the estab- lishment two years and then became a partner. In 1870 he retired from the firm of McLene & Herron and engaged in business for himself.
Mr. Herron furnished all the fine clocks, including the large one in the dome, of our new court house. In getting this contract he had to fight the entire clock trade of the United States, besides others who officiously operated against him, but he fought them with a determined purpose such as is generally calculated to succed. These clocks were manufactured by the Howard Clock Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and are said to be the best that are made. The large one in the tower cost the county thirty-seven hundred and fifty dollars; the eleven marble clocks for the offices and court rooms cost seventy dollars each. Mr. Herron was married in August, 1863, to Miss Clara Gordon, daugh- ter of the late Judge .Gordon, of this city. They have had eight child- ren, but two are dead. Mr. Herron is about medium height, round, heavy form, smooth features, light hair and complexion, and, from his general contour seems to enjoy life and the good things of the world, with sociable and agreeable manners.
DR. ROBERT N. TODD
Was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, on the 4th of March, 1827, and there educated. After coming to Indiana he practiced law three years in connection with the Hon. Jonathan Liston, of South Bend, Indiana; he then abandoned the law and studied medicine. He re- ceived his medical education in the Indiana Medical College and the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
On the 7th of March, 1854, he was married to Miss White, of Marion county. She died leaving four children for the doctor to take care of. His second wife is the daughter of the late Thomas McOuat, of this city, by whom he has three children, seven in all. He is for- tunate in not having lost a child. After the death of Dr. John S. Bobbs, Dr. Todd was appointed his successor as president of the Indi- ana Medical College, and held the position four years. At the organiza- tion of the College of Physicians and Surgeons he was appointed a professor of the principles and practice of medicine and clinical medi- cine, and is now a professor and president of the faculty. He is also
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a member of the American Medical Association, which meets in some one of the principal cities once a year. He was president of the Indi- ana Medical Society one year, which is generally the time it is held by the same person. He is a trustee of the Indiana Insane Asylum, physi- cian to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and also consulting physician to the City Hospital. He was a regular surgeon for the Union army dur- ing the war.
Dr. Todd is quite tall, with smooth, even features, and light, sandy hair, pleasant and agreeable manners, and has many of the peculiarities of the southern gentleman. As a physician his encouraging words are a great auxiliary to his prescriptions.
CHARLES H. G. BALS.
Mr. Bals was born in the northern part of Germany, on the 17th of September, 1822. In 1839, when but seventeen years old, came to the United States and direct to Indianapolis, after which his father and mother and other members of the family came. Mr. Bals was not only poor when he first came to this city, but he owed in the old country a debt of one hundred and thirty dollars, which he was in honor bound and must pay before he could lay by anything in this country.
He was first employed by one of our respectable citizens as a man of all work at five dollars per month, and then for a short time by West & Meeker delivering flour from their mills to customers in this city. In the fall of 1847 he was engaged in the wholesale liquor establishment of the late P. B. L. Smith, and there remained nine years and acquired a thorough knowledge of the rectifying and wholesale liquor business, which proved of incalculable benefit to him afterwards. Soon after leaving Mr. Smith's establishment he engaged in business for himself, and afterwards for several years with Mr. Charles F. Hahn-their busi- ness was being closed up at the time of Mr. Bals' death, which occured on the 12th of December, 1876. During Mr. Bals' thirty-seven years residence in Indianapolis he made many warm friends. He belonged to several benevolent societies, both American and German. His business gave him an opportunity of forming an extensive acquaintance, espe- cially with the German population of Marion and surrounding counties.
He was married to Miss Christina Lout, who survives him ; he also left two children, the eldest, Henry C. G. Bals, who is cashier of the Merchants' National Bank of this city; Bertha, the daughter, is quite young. Both, with Mr. Bals' only brother Christian, reside with Mrs.
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WILLIAM MORROW BLACK.
Bals on the northeast corner of Delaware and St. Joseph streets. Mr. Bals left his family quite wealthy, owning fine city property and a valu- able farm in Wayne township. As a business man he was prompt in small as well as large transactions ; his word was as good as his bond. With Mr. Bals the writer was well acquainted during his entire residence in this city.
GENERAL FREDERICK KNEFLER.
General Knefler was born in Hungary, in 1834. He came to Indi- anapolis in 1850, and was engaged with John C. New in the office of the county clerk. After being in the office of the clerk some time, he studied law in the office of the late Hugh O'Neal. In April, 1861, enlisted in the army and was elected to a lieutenancy in the 11th Indiana regiment ; subsequently promoted to captain. In 1862 he was appointed colonel of the 79th regiment of Indiana volunteers, afterward promoted for meritorious service to brigadier general by brevet, and continued in the service until after the close of the war, and was mustered out of the service in July, 1865. He then formed a partnership with the Hon. John Hanna in the practice of law, the firm being Hanna & Knefler, and is continued to the present time. They have done an extensive business in their profession. The present year, 1877, General Knefler was ap- pointed pension agent at this place. No appointment made by this ad- ministration ever gave so much satisfaction to the citizens of Indianapo- lis as that of General Knefler ; no citizen of Indianapolis stands higher with the people. During the railroad troubles, in 1877, he was promi- nent in assisting to adjust the difficulty. His counsel did much toward preventing bloodshed, as he had entered the confidence of both the workingmen and business community. He was married in 1859, and has three children. He lives in a beautiful residence on the high ground on East Washington street, which overlooks the city.
WILLIAM MORROW BLACK.
Mr. Black, son of Thomas R. and Sarah Black, was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, on the waters of French creek, on the Ist of Jan- uary, 18II. His mother died when his brother, Samuel J., was four months old, and she is buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery at Erie. After the death of his mother Mr. Black and his younger brother were
32
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
taken by relatives to Westmoreland county, near Greensburg, where they lived several years, and from where they were brought to Cincin- nati in a flat-boat, by his uncle Samuel Morrow, in the spring of 1822. They then moved to this county. On their way from Cincinnati they entered eighty acres of land at the land office at Brookville. This land was ten miles north of Indianapolis on Fall creek. Mr. Black remained with his uncle, assisting in clearing ground and farming, until the 18th of January, and then engaged with Yandes & Wilkins to learn the tanning business and remained as an apprentice five years; he then worked with them one year as a journeyman. He was for some time engaged in business for himself at Mooresville, Morgan county.
Mr. Black has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for many years, and when the old Masonic Hall was torn down 1874 his name was found among the papers that were deposited in the corner-stone, as being a member when that house was built; his name is also deposited in the corner-stone of the new building, of which he is janitor. Mr. Black has several children, some living in the city. He was ever an industrious and honest man and highly respected by those who knew him best, and like the writer he is now in the " sear and yellow-leaf," and has seen much of pioneer life in Indianapolis, and was personally acquainted with the old and first citizens of the place, and no doubt often in the sleepless hours of the night reverts to the many amusing scenes that took place here in his boyhood days. I often meet him and never without bringing to my mind the tanyard of John Wilkins, with its many peculiarities.
. JOHN B. CLEAVELAND
Was born in the town of Stanstead, Province of Canada, on the 31st day of October, 1826, and there received a good English education, after which he engaged in the lumber trade in Vermont and Canada. He was married to Miss Mary E. Kimball. They have had two child- ren, one of whom is living, Mr. C. F. Cleaveland. Mr. Cleaveland came to Indianapolis in the spring of 1864, and engaged in the insurance busi- ness, afterward added real estate business, and is yet engaged in the joint business at 76 East Market street. During the year 1872 he sold over three millions of dollars worth of real estate-the firm thien was . Cleaveland, Smock & Co. In 1873 they sold very near as much. One- fifth of the whole transfers of the city and county passed through their office. Since his residence in Indianapolis he has built a number of ele-
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JOHN NEWHOUSE.
gant houses, among which was a large building on the southwest corner of Tennessee street and Kentucky avenue, intended for a hotel, but be- fore it was finished he changed it into an office block. One-fifth of the building is occupied as offices of the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western railroad. There are in the building about one hundred and sixty office rooms, fitted with all the modern improvements. Charles F. Cleaveland, the only living child of J. B. Cleaveland, was married in 1874 to Miss Frankie Hatfield, of Wayne county. They have one child, a son. Mr. Cleaveland is a man of great energy and untiring industry, as the amount of business he has done and the buildings he has erected in this place indicate. It is just such men as Mr. Cleaveland that trans- form villages into cities and in the place of hamlets erect palaces. With "a few more of the same sort" Indianapolis is bound to outstrip. any other city in the west.
JOHN NEWHOUSE,
Who lives one mile east of Millersville, in Lawrence township, is one of the most successful farmers of Marion county, and one whose paper is. considered by business men as "gilt-edged," although they are seldom asked to take it.
Mr. Newhouse was born in Kanawha county, Virginia, on the Ist day of December, 1804, and has completed the time usually allotted to man, three score and ten years; he would scarcely be taken for fifty, and is as active as most men at forty. He worked in his native coun- try as a farm-hand at fifty cents per day, until he had laid by a sufficient amount (two hundred dollars) with which to purchase one quarter-section of land; he came to Indiana in the fall of 1830, and bought from the government, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the farm on which he now resides; during the winter he built a cabin and deadened the timber on sufficient land to make a small cornfield. In the spring of 1831 he returned to his native State and engaged as a clerk in a mer- cantile establishment, and remained until his earnings were enough to purchase another one hundred and sixty acres of land. In the mean- time he was married to his present wife. In the spring of 1834 the two traveled on horseback to their wilderness home. We were shown the two parchment patents bearing the signatures of Andrew Jackson, President, A. J. Donelson, Secretary, and Elijah Heywood, Commis- sioner of the General Land Office. This half-section of land still con- stitutes his home farm.
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
Mr. Newhouse has had eight children, all of whom are yet living. He raises about fifty hogs per year to sell, and their average weight and appearance indicate that his stock as well as himself are well provided for. His great prosperity is certainly a great incentive to poor young men, and shows that where industry and will are combined there is always a way. Mr. Newhouse is a fair representative of the generous hospitality so characteristic of the native of the Old Dominion. His stereotyped invitation to his friends is, " Come when you please, stay as long as you please, go away when you please, and I will always be pleased to see you." He is well informed on all subjects, especially financial and political. He was an Old Line Whig and contends that he has always been in favor of the doctrine so eloquently advocated by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, and has never voted for the party now in power ; his political opinions, like his religion, he considers private property, and that he is amenable to God only for them. No person can mistake his views on any subject in ten minutes conversation with him ; he is frank and plain in the expression of his opinions and claims the same right for himself that he concedes to others.
I have written much of late years of men who are in the "sere and yellow-leaf;" in doing so I am influenced by a desire to do justice to the memory of those who have been my friends, many of them from my boyhood days. In writing of Mr. Newhouse, I am but paying a just tribute to an upright, high-minded, liberal and intelligent friend.
" When nature her great master-piece designed And framed her last, best work, the human mind, She then called the useful many forth, Plain-plodding industry and sober worth."
ALLISON C. REMY
Was born in Franklin county, Indiana, in October, 1827. When thir- teen years old he went west and spent two years, then returned to Indi- ana and settled in Bartholomew county, where he remained for a quarter vof a century, and engaged in various pursuits, among others farming and merchandising, which was his principal business. In 1870 he came to Indianapolis. Since he has been a citizen of the capital he has built sev- eral elegant dwelling houses, and the fine hotel on the southwest side of the Circle, known as the Remy House. In 1848 he was married to Miss Sophia Spaugh, and has had two children. The eldest, Kitty, is now the wife of Mr. Thomas H. Butler, who is a machinist by trade
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JAMES BUCHANAN.
but at the present time is business manager of the Remy Hotel; the other, Curtis H. Remy, who studied law in this city, and was married to Miss Wheeler, of Thornton, Boone county, in June, 1875. He is now located and practicing law in Chicago. Allison C. Remy was nom- inated by the Republican county convention in 1876 for county com- missioner, was elected and is now performing his duties as such. He is a large, fine looking man, and looks as though he lived on the fat of the land, which is a very appropriate appearance for a hotel keeper.
JAMES A. MCKENZIE
Was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1831, and was educated at Grand River Institute, Ohio. In 1852 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Strong, of Ashtabula. She died in 1871, leaving three children-daughters- Anna, Alice Lizzie and Frankie. In 1850 Mr. Mckenzie engaged in the clothing house of J. Mansfield as a salesman, and remained with him until 1856. He then engaged in a clothing house in Cincinnati, where he remained eight years. He then moved to Corry, Pennsylva- nia, and built the first brick block in that flourishing town, and con- tinued the clothing business, doing the largest merchant tailoring and clothing business of any similar establishment in western Pennsylvania. In 1871 he sold out and made an extensive trip on the Continent. He returned, and in 1872 went to New York city, and was there married to Miss Mary Millspaugh, of that city, when he came to Indianapolis, and did business at No. 30 West Washington street until October, 1875. Finding that place too small for his rapidly increasing business, he rented the whole building where he now does business, which is the largest retail clothing house in the city as well as the State. Mr. Mc- Kenzie takes the measure of customers, and has clothing made to order in the east. This is certainly a new feature in the clothing business.
JAMES BUCHANAN
Was born in Montgomery county, Indiana, October 14, 1837. He was the third son in a family of twelve children. His youth was spent in the occupation of farming, near the town of Waveland, in said county, where his father, Alexander Buchanan, had settled in 1824 .. He at- tended the country schools in the winter season and worked upon the farm during the summer. At the age of eighteen he entered the Wave- land Academy, afterwards known as the Collegiate Institute. He
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graduated from the academy in 1858 with the first honors of his class, completing a thorough course in mathematics and having prosecuted the study of the languages to what was graded as the junior year in the first colleges of the country. He was a close and proficient student of logic and political economy. In September, 1858, he entered the law office of his uncle, his mother's brother, the Hon. Isaac A. Rice, then living at Attica, Fountain county, as a student, and remained with him until his uncle's death, which occurred in August, 1860.
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