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 51
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JOHN CARLISLE,
The veteran miller of Indianapolis, is a native of the Emerald Isle, having been born in the Province of Ulster, county of Down, in the north of Ireland, in the year 1807. When in his eighteenth year (1825) he came to the United States, landing in the city of New York, and for twelve years was a successful miller at Marlborough, Ulster county, on the Hudson river.
From the latter place he came to this city in the year 1837, and engaged in the manufacture of soap and candles. At the same time he commenced and carried on a distillery and dairy, and was the first to have milk sold from a wagon in this place. In the year 1840 he built a large merchant mill on the arm of the canal, near where it crosses Washington street. It was at this mill he manufactured and packed in barrels the first flour that was manufactured in this part of the country for shipment. In this enterprise he was ridiculed and laughed at by his friends for wagoning flour to the Ohio river to sell at from two to three dollars per barrel. Although not profitable at first, he was build- ing up a reputation for his flour for after years.
In the year 1842 he bought wheat at twenty-five cents per bushel, corn at ten cents, and sold his flour on the Ohio river at two dollars and seventy-five cents per barrel, corn meal in this city, eight bushels to the dollar, bran at five and shorts at ten cents per bushel, delivered in the city. In the years 1864 and 1865 his transactions in grain and flour
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amounted to one million of dollars, his losses being equal to his earn- ings of several years previous. When the war closed he was the heav- iest grain and flour dealer in the west. He had flour on sale in all the eastern as well as western cities, and as the article fell he still con- tinued to buy, thereby aiding in keeping up the prices in the west. When the government took possession of the railroads to convey the troops home, he found it impossible to have his grain and flour for- warded before such time as it had fallen in the market to make a loss of from five to six dollars per barrel on the flour, and a corresponding loss on grain:
He tells me that in 1866 he paid $3.25 per bushel for wheat and sold flour at $16.00 per barrel, the highest price ever obtained for either article in this market. A large grain dealer of this city once remarked that the farmers of this and adjoining counties should erect a monument to his memory in consideration of the fact that he was the first to advance and keep up the price of grain, and would suffer loss rather than do anything calculated to depress it.
Mr. Carlisle also tells me that his great error in business was that of holding on too long before selling, and that had he bought and sold instanter his profits would have amounted to a large fortune. His great desire was to keep up prices in the hands of the producers, thereby ben- efiting the whole country. He says he never failed to make money when he bought and sold promptly, but he has the proud satisfaction of knowing that his action has benefited the whole country. In the years 1864 and 1865 he often bought from 25,000 to 30,000 bushels of wheat and from 2,000 to 3,000 barrels of flour in one week, paying out in cash therefor nearly one hundred thousand dollars, this amount going directly into the hands of the farming community. It is quite unnecessary to say that his credit was commensurate with his demands for money in
carrying on those immense transactions. Although he lost very heavily, as stated here, I would not have the reader think for a mo- ment that his circumstances were any other than affluent. Out of his seventy years of life forty-nine have been spent in the milling busi- ness. With this experience it is no wonder his brands of flour stand so high in all the eastern as well as western markets.
Mr. Carlisle is a remarkably active and industrious man, never leav- ing for to-morrow that which can be done to-day. He is nearly always on the go-more inclined to attend to his own business than that of other people. He doesn't seem to have any time to spare in idle or
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frivolous conversation ; although decided in his political views, he never tries to force them upon others. He has bought a greater number of bushels of grain, a larger number of barrels of flour, and disbursed more money among the farmers than any man now living in the city. In all his transactions he has been prompt, and he requires others to be so with him. Such is John Carlisle, the veteran miller of Indianapolis.
PROF. C. C. KOERNER
Was born at Waynesville, Warren county, Ohio, on the Ioth of August, 1848. His early education he received at Newtown, Hamilton county ; he then entered the Harveysburg Academy in Warren county, and com- pleted his education in the Hughes High School at Cincinnati, and after- wards graduated in the Bryant & Stratton Business College of that city, and was principal in that college for some time after graduating. After leaving the college he was book-keeper in several prominent mercantile establishments and banks in Cincinnati. In the year 1865, he came to Indianapolis, and at once established himself in a commercial business school. For a long time he struggled against adversity, but a change came for the better, and he is now at the head of the largest commer- cial school in the country. He was married on the 3d of February, 1871, to Miss Antoinette Lietz, a daughter of Th. Lietz, a prominent portrait painter of this city. Mr. Koerner has, with his partner, Prof. Goodier, succeeded in establishing on a paying basis the Indianapolis Business College and Telegraph Institute, which is equal to any in the United States. Prof. Koerner, like his partner, is genial in manners, but strict in school, and wishes the attention of his pupils.
PROF. J. R. GOODIER
Was born in Carroll county, Ind., and was brought up in Clark county, Ohio. He was educated at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio. At the breaking out of the rebellion he enlisted in the 35th Ohio volunteers. At the close of the war he engaged in teaching. He studied theology at the Garret Biblical Institute, Evanston, Ills., after which he was ap- pointed principal of the Haven Normal school, at Waynesboro, Ga., which position he filled to the entire satisfaction of all the officers and patrons of this institution. His health failing in the south he returned north and opened a commercial college in Danville, Ills., which was a complete success. In October, 1875, he came to Indianapolis and formed
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a partnership with Prof. C. C. Koernor, for the purpose of conducting the Indianapolis Business College and Telegraph Institute, and by his untiring energy and perseverance he has succeeded in building up the largest school in the west, if not in the United States. Professor Goodier, in penmanship, has no superior and but few equals. His genial manners and painstaking disposition, and close attention to improving his pupils, have done much in building up his popular institution.
OTTO STECHHAN
Is a native of Prussia; was born in the city of Berlin, on April 15, 1851. He came to Indianapolis in 1857, and worked at the upholstering busi- ness with his father, Louis Stechhan. He is at this time manufacturing and dealing in parlor furniture alone, at No. 128 Fort Wayne avenue. Mr. Stechhan, like many other natives of Germany, came to the United States for the purpose of making a living, but are not only making a living but a fortune. I am sure his great enterprise in this city deserves encouragement. He manufactures as fine furniture as can be found in the west, if not as good as any similar establishment in the United States. His large and fine establishment is not only a credit to him but an honor to the city, and goes far to show to what perfection Indianapo- lis has arrived as a manufacturing city. Mr. Stechhan was married in November, 1872, to Miss Rosa Sahm, daughter of Ludwig Sahm, an old citizen of this city. "May they live long and prosper."
WILLIAM I. RIPLEY.
Mr. Ripley is a native of Cincinnati, born on the 24th of June, 1842, and there lived with little or no educational advantages until fifteen years of age. He then engaged on the steamboat Portsmouth (a packet that ran between Cincinnati and Portsmouth), as a cabin-boy. He was on different boats in various capacities, indeed he filled all the offices of a boat except engineer and pilot, until he became captain of the Arizona and was engaged with that boat in transporting troops, provisions and munitions of war to the front during the rebellion.
After the war, in 1865, Mr. Ripley came to Indianapolis and engaged in the family grocery business at the place he now occupies, southeast corner of Market and Illinois streets, at first in partnership, the firm being Elder & Ripley, afterwards Ripley & Gates, now William I. Rip- ley, sole proprietor. Mr. Ripley was married to Miss Josephine Cassell,
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of California, five miles above Cincinnati, Ohio, by whom he has three children-William C., a sprightly boy of twelve summers, is now assist- ing his father in the store, John Walter, and a daughter that bears the name of the mother. Mr. Ripley has a separate department to his store where teas, coffees, sugars, etc., are sold ; indeed this department is a regular tea store. It will be seen that Mr. Ripley is indebted to no person but himself for his success in life, and is emphatically what so many claim to be, a self-made man, and is the architect of his own for- tune. He has passed thus far through the financial panic unscathed, an evidence that his business is based on a firm foundation.
CALVIN FLETCHER DARNELL.
" Calvin F. Darnell, the subject of this sketch, is a son of Lewis Darnell, now living on Eagle creek, three and one-half miles west of the city. 'Cal,' as he is familiarly called, was born December 22, 1832, six miles west of the city, near the National road. He was reared as a farmer, and frequently hauled wood to the city, selling the same at sev- enty-five cents per cord. His team was one yoke of oxen and a horse in the lead. He continued farming until the year 1846, when he was thrown from a horse and was so injured that he became a cripple, through the ignorance of a drunken doctor, his leg being improperly treated. After this he went to school out on Eagle creek, in an old log school house. He became a very good penman, and subsequently taught penmanship, in which he was quite successful.
"In the year '1851 he determined that he would learn a trade, so he selected the carpenter trade. He worked for fifty cents a day and boarded himself. In 1853 he purchased a lot of James P. Drake, for two hundred dollars, where he now lives, and in 1854 he built a small house with one room. In the following year, February 28, 1855, he was married, in Cincinnati, to Miss Catharine Wilcox, daughter of Timothy Wilcox. They immediately started in life comparatively anew, at the place where he now lives. At that time, which was twenty years ago, he was still in the woods, and had only a few neighbors-among them James Blake, deceased, who was well known to the citizens of Indian- apolis. Cal saw this city in its infancy, and also saw the first train of cars that entered it, which was on the old Madison road, in 1847. In the year 1856 he went into the building business for himself, and since that time has been quite successful as a contracting builder.
" Mr. Darnell was elected to the city council, from the old eleventh ward, in 1873, and re-elected in 1875, over the heads of some of the
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most prominent men in the ward. His attention to the interests of the ward and his arduous exertions in the opening of streets for the im- provement of the city gained for him the title of the 'Great American Street Opener,' of which he can justly feel proud. While in council he served on some of the most important committees. He was always faithful and energetic while in the council, and was regarded by all as an honorable man and an efficient officer.
" He made many friends while in council, and was urged by many at the last election to be a candidate for the office of county recorder, which he concluded to be, and was triumphantly nominated and elected, and is now performing the duties of that office.
" Mr. Darnell's injury, referred to above, causes him to limp very badly, and few would suppose, who did not know the fact, that when standing upright he measures six feet two inches in hight. He has very dark hair, with beard approaching to the sandy order, and, like most other sandy-whiskered gentlemen, is a good-looking man, as the above portrait goes to show. Mr. Darnell makes an efficient recorder, and is energetic in all that he undertakes. He is a warm friend and a most unrelenting enemy, and can not be swerved from what he believes to be right by either threats or persuasion. He is clear-headed, never put- ting that into his mouth that will steal away his brains. He is a good debater and a most capital talker, a Republican, dyed in the wool."
The above sketch was taken from the People of this city.
Mr. Darnell exposed in his Council career all the fine-spun fallacies of the opposing party. There is no need of advertising the public of his political creed. He had bestowed on him numerous offices, and the people feel convinced that he has performed his duty and discharged every trust to the best of his abilities.
Lewis Darnell, father of Calvin, has ever been one of the most respectable farmers of Marion county. He came with his father to this county from North Carolina, in 1823, and settled near where he now lives. He molded part of the brick for the old Court House, in 1822. His brother, Samuel, filled the State House yard, which was originally a low, marshy piece of ground, and which occupied one year, costing the State several thousand dollars. Lewis Darnell has been twice mar- ried, the mother of Calvin having died. "Darnell's Still House," which was built and owned by Samuel Darnell, near the ranch of old Bob Helvey, on the school section, was a popular place of resort fifty years ago, and many shooting matches and quarter-horse races took place there, and how many rough-and-tumble fights posterity will never know.
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ELIZABETH NOWLAND.
I can not think of closing this work without paying a tribute of respect to the memory of my departed mother.
From the autumn of 1822 to that of 1856 there was no woman whose name was more familiar to the citizens of Indianapolis than that of Mrs. Nowland. Indeed there were but few persons more generally known throughout the State. I have frequently been asked when trav- eling through Illinois and other western States if I were related to Mrs. Nowland, of Indianapolis. No person who ever knew her could forget her universal good humor. In her kindness to all, both rich and poor, there was no distinction made in their treatment. The poor were never turned away hungry or empty-handed from her door, being ever ready to contribute the "widow's mite" for all charitable purposes.
She was left a widow at the age of thirty years, with five small chil- dren depending upon her for support. With the determination to keep her children together and have the care of them herself, she labored incessantly. She toiled with willing hands through the day and often late at night, sitting alone by her tallow candle. She found joy in pro- viding for the wants of her children, and she never seemed to think her lot a hard one when her family were comfortable.
What matters if her remains have long since mingled with earth ? There is a sympathetic chord still existing between mother and child, and there is an earlier and more indelible remembrance of her teachings by what is written on the heart in the first susceptibility of childhood and graven on memory's tablet by a mother's tongue in giving us our first lessons. I often think of her who could always find an excuse for any delinquency on my part, when I could not for myself. She who was the first to love, was ever the last to censure. The home of my childhood ! The very word falls sweetly on my ear, and recalls the many scenes of innocent plays numbered with the past, and with fond recollections we delight to dwell on the early events of our life, and before the home circle had been invaded by death. The many years which have passed have not dimmed the bright colors with which mem- ory has painted those happy hours, spent with my mother in our rustic home. The memory of a mother's care and love should be enshrined in our gratitude and graven upon our hearts. I venerate the very earth that wraps her slumbering ashes.
A few years before the death of my mother I left the home of my childhood (Indianapolis), then comparatively but a village, to seek my
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fortune among strangers, in an eastern city, leaving the endearing asso- ciations of kindred and friends. To me it was a great sacrifice, yet duty and circumstances compelled me to make it. There was not a brook or tree but brought some pleasing recollections of my early life and school- boy days; for the memory which recalls most vividly the happiness of youthful days is generally a more faithless record of their sorrows. One has said that "They who dwell upon the fragrance of the flower are al- ways the first to forget the sharpness of the thorn." Who, indeed, can recall the griefs and anxieties of his early years, the throng of childish fears and disappointments by which the sunshine of his young spirit was overcast and shadowed. Well do I remember the little family circle that gathered around me in my mother's family room, the evening be- fore my departure, to bid me good-by. I little dreamed that to most of them I was bidding a long and last farewell ; little did I think of the changes a few short years would bring. About two years after her death I visited my old home, where I had left the unpretending village, and I found a city of about twenty thousand inhabitants, with railroad com- munication to all parts of the Union ; it was even then the railroad city of the west. Nearly all the old landmarks, once so familiar to me, were obliterated and gone ; where stood the humble shop of the mechanic there stood a large palatial hotel ; where stood the unpretending country store house there was that magnificent specimen of architectural gran- deur-Odd Fellows' Hall. If I had taken a Rip Van Winkle sleep I could not have expected so great a change as was there presented.
In my wanderings through the city my eyes rested upon a place more changed to me than any I had yet seen ; it was mother's old brick house, I entered the family room, where, but a few years before, my friends had met to bid me good-by. It was there I had passed many years with kindred and friends. Oh ! what a change was there ; already were its walls tottering and crumbling to the earth; time had laid its heavy hand upon it. It had stood the blasts of thirty winters, and now, like its former inmates, it must give way for others. This house was the second brick building on Washington street, and the third in the city.
What a multitude of thrilling memories of early years and happy dreams mingling with the forms of the loved and the dead, and the tones and voices heard no more. A soft but not unpleasant melancholy is sure to steal over us when we enter a house in which we have enjoyed ourselves in a numerous circle of friends and acquaintances. I was forci-
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bly reminded of the language, and could almost realize the feelings, of the poet when he wrote :
" I feel like one who walks alone, Some banquet hall deserted ; The lights are fled, the garlands dead, And all but me departed."
There was naught but strange voices saluted my ear. No kind mother came forth to embrace me with love beaming in her eye; no loved sister to meet me with a joyous smile; no brother to take me by the hand and bid me thrice welcome under its once hospitable roof. All were gone ! I felt that I was almost the last of my race, and that there were but 'few whose kindred blood coursed through my veins. Just within the western limits of this city of which I have been writing for some months there is another city whose population has grown almost in proportion with this-it is the City of the Dead, whose many marble spires indicate the last resting place of some loved friend or departed relative. It was there, at twilight and alone, I sought my kindred. In that portion of the city set apart for our family, and corresponding in number with that of my lost friends, I found those little hillocks which so forcibly remind us of the truth, "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return."
Although separated now, I live in the hope of meeting my friends in that other and better land. "Shall we know each other there ?" Perhaps if the memory dies we will not, but if thought lives and love is any reality, then shall " we know as we are known."
VALEDICTORY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Writing sketches of so many people is like looking through a ka- leidoscope, as every one has his own mode of shadowing forth his recol- lections, and when the writer strikes a responsive cord the task is easy, but in many cases the subject gives such an imperfect foundation that renders the labor of preparing it for the press most onerous. In this work I have written mostly of persons with whom I have been long ac- quainted, which went far to assist me in my labors. It was the dreams of my young life highly colored by associations and reading that kept a live and burning desire to be able to gather my ideas in a book form, or something more enduring than newspaper articles. I had a tale shut up in my breast I wished to tell, and studied days and nights to fix in my mind a starting point for the public. I wanted to write of things I
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had seen and were familiar to me from the age of six years. With what success I have met I leave to the reader of my works to judge.
At the age of nine years I was deprived of a father's guiding care, and circumstances threw me in company with persons much older than myself, which had much to do with forming my early resolutions. I have buried father, mother, brothers, sisters, and children, the life flow- ers of my youth ; I am only waiting to join them. As I never made any demonstration of religion I leave my acts of this life to be judged by my fellowmen, and my future fate in the hands of him who does all things right, and when I make my last bow and bid the world good night, I feel that all will be well. The man who lives and dies in the hope of being long remembered, who has no more enduring record than the monument of marble to perpetuate his name, must judge by those who have passed away before him, that his name will soon perish and all recollections of his history will be as a tale that is told.
I was born at Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, on the 12th of October, 1813. At this writing I have just begun my sixty-fifth year. My paternal ancestors were of Welsh descent, and came to the United States before the Revolution and settled at Dover, Delaware, where my father was born. My maternal grandfather was an Irishman, direct from Ireland ; my grandmother, Virginia Dutch. So my physical form- ation is something like the Yankee peddler's clock faces, "a compo- sition of ingredients." I resided in the place of my nativity until I was in my seventh year, and on the 4th of November, 1820, with my father's family, arrived in the wilderness where now stands the great railroad city of Indianapolis.
In 1822 I went to the first school that was commenced in Indianap- olis, taught by a man named Lambert. The first forenoon I was in the school the teacher, for some trivial offense, jammed my head several times against the logs of the cabin so hard that it caused my head to swell. When I reported to my father, he went direct to the teacher and served him in the same manner, only more severely. This closed my first term at school. In 1823 I was sent to the first Sunday school established in the place; afterwards to the second teacher, Mr. Flem- ing, then to Austin W. Morris and several others, until finally to the school taught by Ebenezer Sharpe, assisted by Thomas H. Sharpe and his sister Isabella. To them I am indebted for the most of my educa- tion. I was a short time at the University at Bloomington ; not long enough to realize any benefit from it. During my school-boy days my only labors consisted in working my mother's garden, which I did in
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the mornings and evenings in order that I might fish on Saturday. The only day's labor I ever engaged to do for pay was for the late John Wilkins.
One Friday evening as I was returning from school I met Mr. Wil- kins in the street. He said he would give me a quarter of a dollar if I would grind bark for him at his tanyard, which I agreed to provided he would lay out a certain quantity of bark which, when ground, would complete the day's work, so when done I might go fishing. The horse worked in the bark mill was an old, vicious, gray stallion-the laziest animal I ever knew; if you undertook to whip him along he would kick and fight; he would be five minutes making the circuit of the mill. I found that I would have but little time for fishing if I did not find some way or means to accelerate his movements. I went to the woods close by and cut a thorn bush, and while the old horse was standing asleep I rested the bush on the end of the shaft to which he was hitched and tied it to his tail ; after securely fastening it I dropped it between the shaft and his legs. I scarcely had time to jump aside before he had made the circuit of the mill and kept up the race for about five minutes, attracting the attention of the hands at work in the shop. All efforts to. stop him were of no avail, until the mill came to pieces and he, with the shaft and brush at his heels, took to the woods. While Mr. Wil- kins and the men were pursuing the horse I left for home, and I never went to collect the pay for my labor, nor was I seen in the neighbor- hood of that tanyard for years afterward. After I left school I was engaged in different mercantile establishments of the place, first with Henry Porter, then Hervey Bates and Jacob Landis. In 1834-35-36 I bought horses in small numbers and sold at Louisville, Kentucky. In 1837 I engaged in mercantile business for myself; I also purchased horses in 1840-41-43 for the New Orleans market. At the end of five years I had my goods scattered in bad debts over the prairies of Illinois, Iowa and other western States, and had learned that I had missed my calling when I began merchandising. I sold the remnant of my store for a farm and distillery ; these I kept a few years and then traded for horses and wagons ; the horses I took to Louisville and sold.
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