USA > Ohio > Memoirs of the lower Ohio valley, personal and genealogical : with portraits, Volume I > Part 23
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EDMUND B. COOLMAN, city engineer, New Albany, Ind., was born in Portage county, O., Dec. 12, 1845, his parents being William L. and Eliza (Babcock) Coolman, both natives of that county. The
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paternal great-grandfather, William Coolman, came from Strasburg, Germany, and after several years in Connecticut, settled in Portage county. In Germany the name is spelled Kuhlmann. William Cool- man, the grandfather of Edmund, was a prominent man in the affairs of Ohio in his day. He was twice sheriff of Portage county; three times elected to the legislature; one of the proprietors of the Cleve- land & Pittsburg stage line; and one of the contractors that built the Cleveland & Pittsburg railroad. The father of Edmund B. was at one time publisher of the Ohio Star, at Ravenna, though in later years he gave up the printers' trade and became a carriage painter. He died at Ravenna in 1888, being about seventy years of age. His widow is still living at Ravenna. The Babcocks are descended from the old New England Puritan stock. Edmund B. Coolman was the eldest in a family of four children. Horace C. is a physician at Hud- son, O .; Laura A. is a Mrs. Porter, residing in Ravenna, and Eliza died at the age of twelve years. Edmund was educated in the public schools of Portage county and the city of Ravenna. He left school at the age of seventeen and joined an engineering corps then engaged in the construction of the Atlantic & Great Western railway. He re- mained with this corps for four years, there receiving his first les- sons in the work which he has since followed. At the age of twenty- four he taught a term of school; was employed as engineer on various roads in Ohio, until 1871; then came to New Albany as construct- ing engineer on what is now the Monon railway. Owing to the panic of 1873 work was suspended and he entered the government service as engineer on the White river improvement in Arkansas; returned to Portage county and was engaged in merchandizing for about eighteen months at Atwater; returned to New Albany in 1881, and assisted in completing the road begun several years before-the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago. In 1882 he went to Mississippi and took a con- tract to build thirteen miles of the New Orleans & Northeastern railway. For three years, from 1884 to 1887, he was a contractor on the Ohio Valley railroad between Henderson and Princeton, Ky., and from 1887 to 1889 he was employed as engineer with the Louis- ville & Nashville railroad. In 1889 he was elected city engineer of New Albany, holding the office for one term. In 1892 he went to Spokane, Wash., where he had charge of the construction of the water tower and electric transmission plant of the Walla Walla Gas and Electric Company, after which he returned to New Albany. In addi- tion to the numerous services already mentioned he was for twelve years surveyor of Floyd county; in 1902 was again made city engi-
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neer, and was re-elected in 1904. ] Mr. Coolman is prominent in Masonic circles, having taken his first degree in the order while living at Ravenna, joining the lodge of which both his grandfathers were charter members in 1813. In politics he is an unswerving Democrat and is always ready to give his reasons for his political faith. He was married in New Albany, Aug. 16, 1883, to Mrs. Sarah E. McCurdy, widow of Frank McCurdy and daughter of Capt. James C. Bentley. They have one son, William E. Coolman, now nineteen years of age. Mrs. Coolman had one son by her former marriage, now Capt. James F. McCurdy, of New Albany, captain of a company in the Indiana National Guard.
JOHN F. SHUTT, chief of police, New Albany, Ind., was born in Forsyth county, N. C., June 18, 1853, and is the son of Jacob F. and Salina H. (Carmichael) Shutt, the father a native of Pennsyl- vania and the mother of North Carolina. In 1860, Jacob F. Shutt, being a Union man, and not liking the appearance of the situation in North Carolina, left that state and came North, settling at Hope, Bartholomew county, Ind. When the war broke out he enlisted in Company I, Six- ty-seventh Indiana infantry, and served until a sunstroke compelled him to retire from the service. After the war he removed to Indianapolis, where he followed his trade of carpenter for a time; served five years on the police force, after which he engaged in mercantile pursuits, being thus employed at the time of his death, June 5, 1901. The mother of Chief Shutt was born in North Carolina on June II, 1821, and is still living in Indianapolis, hale and hearty for one of her age. The six children of Jacob and Salina Shutt were Martha J., now the widow of John Hornaday, of Indian- apolis; her husband was a veteran of the Civil war; Henry A., de- ceased; John F., the subject of this sketch; Sarah, now the wife of John A. Kersey, a lawyer at Marion, Ind .; Mary L., now Mrs. John Fleming, of Indianapolis, and James W., who died in childhood. John F. Shutt was seven years of age when his parents came to Indiana. He received the greater part of his education in the schools of Hope; worked with his father and learned the carpenter's trade; was em- ployed for a time in a feed store; became a contractor and builder;
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followed this vocation both in Indianapolis and New Albany; re- moved to New Albany in 1888; was appointed a patrolman in 1893; with the exception of one and a half years has been connected with the force ever since; served as patrolman, sergeant and detective, and in April, 1903, was appointed chief. In all his long career as an of- ficer Mr. Shutt has been a conscientious performer of his duty as he saw it. Courageous, cool-headed in time of danger, and full of re- sources, he has been an ideal policeman. His promotions tell the story of his faithful service and as the head of the department he has the entire confidence of the people of New Albany. Mr. Shutt is a Knight of Pythias and has a high standing in his lodge. He was mar- ried on March 27, 1879, to Miss Georgia Herrell, and they have two children: Lena May and Harry B., aged respectively twenty-four and nineteen years.
THOMAS CANNON, captain of po- lice, New Albany, Ind., and the senior member of the force, was born in Dan- ville, Livingston county, N. Y., April 1, 1851. He is a son of Michael and Bridget (Culkin) Cannon, both natives of County Galway, Ireland, where they were married in 1850 and immediately after- ward came to America to seek their for- tune. After one year in each of the towns of Danville, N. Y., Mount Morris, Pa., and Chicago, they came to New Albany, where the father died in Janu- ary, 1897, his wife having departed this life in July, 1895. They had five children, viz .: Thomas, Michael, Charles, Mary, and Cordelia, and all are living except Michael; who was born at Mount Morris and died in New Albany, aged ten years. Charles is a glass blower by trade and lives in New Albany, as do the two sisters, neither of whom ever married. Thomas was less than three years of age when the family came to New Albany. He attended the common schools until he was about sixteen years old, when he went to work to learn the trade of upholsterer, and worked at it for some time, after which he was employed in a glass factory for several years. Then he took serv- ice on a steamboat and was for three or four years on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers between Pittsburg and New Orleans. In 1874 he was appointed a supernumerary on the New Albany police force, and
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with the exception of the years from 1881 to 1886, he has been con- nected with the force ever since. During those five years he filled the office of constable with credit and efficiency. In 1891 he was pro- moted to the chieftainship of the department and held the position for two years. In 1893 he was elected superintendent of the force, holding that position for four years, and since then has been a cap- tain, the change being brought about through the change in politics of the city administration. Captain Cannon is a prominent member of the Improved Order of Red Men and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has been twice married. Some time after the death of his first wife he was married to Miss Elizabeth Dingeldine of New Albany, the marriage taking place on Sept. 25, 1883. He has one daughter living, Catherine, now a young lady.
PROF. CHARLES A. PROSSER, su- perintendent of the public schools, New Albany, Ind., was born in that city, Sept. 20, 1871, and is a son of Rees W. and Sarah Emma (Leach) Prosser. The for- mer was born in Wales in November, 1848; came with his parents, Thomas and Margaret (Williams) Prosser, to this country when he was twelve years of age; began learning the trade of iron worker in a rolling mill before leaving his native land; worked at Wheeling, W. Va., New- burg, O., and New Albany, and is now foreman of the American Steel Roofing Company's plant at Middle- town, O. The mother is a daughter of Thomas Leonard Leach, a farmer of Floyd county, Ind. She is still living. Rees W. and Sarah E. Prosser had a family of six children: Enoch, Charles A., Frank, Estella May, Nellie Grace, and Thomas Leonard. Enoch and Frank died in infancy. The others are all living. Professor Prosser gradu- ated from the New Albany high school in 1889 and in the same year from the New Albany business college; was for the two succeeding years superintendent of the New Albany postoffice; from 1891 to 1893, inclusive, was a student at DePauw university ; managing editor of the DePauw Bema and editor-in-chief of the DePauw Literary Magazine; vice-president of the Interstate Oratorical association, composed of ten states; and winner of the first inter-collegiate debate between DePauw and Indiana universities. For want of funds to pursue his
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college work he left DePauw in his junior year and was for the next two years principal of the West Market street school in New Albany. From 1896 to 1899 he was teacher of physics, chemistry and literature in the high school. During this time he spent four summers doing graduate work in the summer schools at DePauw and Indiana uni- versities; graduated as honor man in the class of 1898 at DePauw, the only time in the history of the institution that this honor was ac- corded to a non-resident student; elected to the Phi Beta Kappa fra- ternity on graduation; read law with the Sprague Correspondence school; graduated from the Louisville Law school in 1899, winning the Edgar Thomson prize for the best essay on a legal subject; kept up his duties as science teacher in the New Albany high school while study- ing law; elected superintendent of the New Albany public schools in 1899; present term expires on June 1, 1905; was president of the Indi- ana State Teachers' association in 1902, the youngest man ever elected to the position; and is now carrying on post-graduate work at De- Pauw university. Professor Prosser has been in close touch with high school work ever since he graduated from the university. While doing science work in the New Albany high school he was really the acting principal owing to the advanced age of the nominal principal. Since his election to the office of superintendent he has closely super- vised the work entrusted to his care, being filled with a laudable ambi- tion to make the New Albany schools the equal of any in the coun- try. For the past two years he has been at the head of the commis- sion for the revision of the course of study in the graded schools of the state. Professor Prosser is a fine example of the "sound mind in the sound body." He is about five feet seven inches in height; weighs one hundred and fifty-five pounds; excellent health; interested in athletics and while in college played short stop on the base ball team. He was married on Dec. 30, 1896, to Miss Zerelda A. Huckeby, a graduate of the Louisville Kindergarten association and a teacher in the kindergarten of that city. At the time of her marriage she was a kindergarten teacher elect in the Cook County Normal school, of Chicago. She is the daughter of Lawrence B. and Zerelda Ann (Minor) Huckeby, her father being an attorney of New Albany and her mother of the old Minor family of Virginia. Mrs. Prosser is eligible to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution through her mother's ancestry. Professor and Mrs. Prosser have one son, William Lloyd, born March 15, 1898. Professor Prosser is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Phi Delta Theta and the Phi Beta Kappa fraternities.
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WILLIAM M. ADAMS, sergeant of the police force, New Albany, Ind., was born near Elizabethtown, Hardin county, Ky., April 25, 1864, his parents being Thomas and Letitia (McMullen) Adams. The father was a wheelwright by trade and died in New Albany at the age of sixty years. The mother died in LaRue county, Ky., in 1873. When William was about twelve years old he came to New Albany, where he made his home with his sister, Mrs. John R. Morris, and started in to learn the trade of shoe- maker. After a time at this occupation he decided that he did not like it and went into the blacksmith shop of Samuel Marsh, where he served an apprenticeship of three years. Following this he worked for awhile at his trade in the old New Albany Steam Forge Works. In 1883 he enlisted as a blacksmith in Troop H, Sixth United States cavalry, in the regular army, and served for five years, at the end of which time he re-enlisted in Troop E, of the same regiment, where he served three years and three months, making a total of eight years and three months in the army. Most of this time was spent in Col- orado, Nebraska, the two Dakotas, Arizona, and New Mexico. He participated in the White Mountain and Apache campaigns in Ari- zona, the famous Geronimo campaign in New Mexico, and the Messiah war in South Dakota, being all the time under Gen. Nelson A. Miles, the noted Indian fighter. In June, 1891, he was honorably discharged and returned to New Albany. In 1892 he went to Chicago and joined the World's Fair Columbian Guards, serving as special policeman in Machinery Hall until the following March, when he resigned and came back to New Albany to become a patrolman on the police force of that city, where he has since remained. In 1895 he was made a sergeant; in 1897 he became superintendent and chief, holding the office for six years, when a change in the political com- plexion of the city administration reduced him to the position of a detective, but after a few months he was again made a sergeant. Sergeant Adams is a member of the Masonic fraternity; the Improved Order of Red Men; the Modern Woodmen; the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks; and is a stanch Republican in politics. He was married March 17, 1891, to Miss Nancy Elizabeth, a daughter of Capt. John R. Morris, an old steamboat man, now residing in New
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Albany. Mrs. Adams was born in Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 2, 1861, her mother being Margaret E. (Stephenson) Morris, who died Jan. IO, 1901, aged seventy-two years. Sergeant and Mrs. Adams have had but one child: Cleon, born April 1, 1892, and died March 27, 1895.
NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY .- The New Albany Public Library was organized May 8, 1884, under an act of the legis- lature approved on March 5, 1883. Until January, 1904, the library occupied rented quarters. In that month it was moved into a magnificent building at the inter- section of Bank and Spring streets. This building was the gift of the Hon. Andrew Carnegie, who donated $35,000 for its construction and $5,000 for the proper equipment of the building in book stacks W. G. HARRISON. and furniture. The Carnegie Library is especially adapted to all modern improvements in library work. It contains a reading room 31 by 22 feet, in which are kept about fifteen daily papers and thirty magazines, all of which are of free access to the public. The children's department is a room of the same size, in which are kept constantly on file magazines, newspapers and all popu- lar books of a juvenile nature. At the north end of the main floor there is a stack room equipped with metal stacks and having shelving ca- pacity of over 75,000 volumes. The building also has a public hall 50 by 31 feet, with a capacity of two hundred and ten chairs, which is used for educational purposes. The main building is 90 by 75 feet. The officers of the public library are Charles Day, president; William Rady, secretary; George Borgerding, treasurer; Walter G. Harrison, librarian; assistant librarians, supernumeraries from the public schools. The purchasing of books is in the hands of a committee composed of the following members: Dr. J. W. Duncan, chairman; Miss Delia Woodruff, secretary; Mrs. R. L. Stoy, Mrs. James Dunbar, Charles Needham and George A. Briscoe. The library was recently re-catalogued under the Dewey classification, which, with the open shelf system, has proved very satisfactory. The number of card holders now using the library is 3,103. The number of books in the library is 11,525, of which 325 are in the Government room and 1,500 are in the children's department. The library is open from 9 A. M. to 9 P. M. every day, except Sunday. The beginning of the public li-
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brary work in New Albany was due to the public spirit and generosity of a few of its leading citizens who banded together and raised a subscription of $1,000, which enabled the library to come under the law and be supported by taxation from the city. The librarian, Mr. Walter G. Harrison, whose portrait appears, took charge of the New Albany Public Library in 1896. When it was succeeded by the splendid Carnegie Library Mr. Harrison was retained as librarian and now fills that position with great efficiency, giving it his entire attention. He has a laudable ambition to make the Carnegie Library of New Albany second to none in the country. Mr. Harrison is a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar. He is deservedly popular and is one of the most progressive and highly esteemed young men of his native city.
JOHN S. KRAFT, chief of the fire department, New Albany, Ind., was born at La Grange, Oldham county, Ky., Dec. 23, 1863. His par- ents, Ferdinand and Sophia (Scharf) Kraft, are both natives of Ger- many, the former coming to this country at the age of twenty-four, and the latter at the age of two years. They now live in New Albany. They are the parents of eleven children, viz .: Frances, wife of Jacob Kleober, of Louisville, Ky .; Robert, ex-city clerk of New Albany, now deceased; Elizabeth, wife of Captain August Reuter, of New Albany; John S., the subject of this sketch; Louisa, now Mrs. Frank Klumb, of Louisville; Minnie, Mrs. Peter Felter, of New Albany; Ida and Emma, twins, both deceased; Alice Amelia, wife of John Raba, of New Albany; Katherine, died in infancy; and George, now in New Albany. Of the two twins Ida died at the age of eighteen years and Emma became Sister Itta in the Catholic convent at Oldenburg, Ind., where she died at the age of thirty-two. John S. Kraft has lived in New Albany since he was six years old; was educated in the public and parochial schools of that city ; learned the shoemakers' trade while still in his boyhood; worked at it until he was twenty-three years of age; was then a short time in the New Albany Plate Glass Works; then for awhile with the N. K. Fairbank & Co. Soap Works, of St. Louis; collector for the firm of Rhodes & Burford, a large furniture installment house of Louisville, for seven years; then in a similar posi- tion with John Shrader, Jr., of New Albany; started in the furniture business for himself in 1901 at 1405 East Market street, New Albany, which business he still owns and manages. On May 10, 1904, he was appointed chief of the city fire department. Although he was without practical experience at the time of his appointment he was not alto-
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gether a stranger to the duties of the position. On May 31, 1888, he was married to Miss Anna, daughter of William Merker, who was for thirty-two years chief of the fire department, and by association with his father-in-law, Mr. Kraft acquired technical knowledge of the art of fire fighting. Since assuming charge of the department he has won the confidence of the men under him, and by his manage- ment and disposition of the force in handling fires he has likewise won the confidence of the public. He is a member of the Improved Order of Red Men, which is the only order to claim his membership. Chief Kraft and his wife have one child, Frances Amelia, born Oct. 6, 1893.
WILLIAM V. GROSE, mayor of the city of New Albany, Ind., a son of Sol- omon and Naomi (Miller) Grose, was born in Crawford county, Ind., Aug. 8, 1842. His father was a native of Law- rence county, Ind., was a brickmaker and miller by trade, and was killed in 1864, while serving in the Union army during the war. The mother was a daughter of Felty Miller, of Crawford county, and died April 13, 1865, from the effects of a paralytic stroke. William V. Grose has been a resident of New Albany since he was seven years of age. He has had a somewhat checkered career. After learning the trade of brickmaker with his father he enlisted in Company K, Forty-ninth Indiana infantry, as a private; was made lieutenant before the close of 1861; took part in the siege and cap- ture of Vicksburg; the Red River campaign; numerous battles and skirmishes; and was mustered out in 1864. For several years after the war he was manager of the Louisville and New Albany Transfer Company ; was for a long time employed in the New Albany Rail Mill, and in 1895 became a solicitor for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which position he held until May 3, 1904, when he was elected mayor of the city for the term beginning in the succeeding September. Mr. Grose's popularity is attested by the fact that he was nominated for mayor by the Democracy, of which party he has for years been an active member, and was elected by a clean ma- jority of 435 votes, although the city is nominally Republican. Mr. Grose is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, in which order he is
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a member of the Uniform Rank, and the Rathbone Sisters; and has a popular standing in both societies. He has been twice married; in 1866 to Charlotte Elliott, who died in 1879. Her children living are Carrie, wife of George Hall; John K., Joseph R., and Eddie. Those deceased are William E., Etta and George A. In 1880 Mr. Grose was united in marriage to R. Belle Brown, and to this union have been born two children: Mary E. and Charles Albert. In whatever station of life the lot of William V. Grose has been cast, whether as a brickmaker, a soldier, superintendent of the transfer company, solicitor for a life insurance company, or operative in the rolling mill, he has done his duty faithfully and conscientiously, and as mayor of the city he will not prove a disappointment to those who elected him. Mr. Grose is a member of the Tabernacle Baptist church and invokes the aid of the Master in the performance of his official functions.
GEORGE B. MCINTYRE, prosecuting attorney of the Floyd county circuit court, New Albany, Ind., was born in the city of Keokuk, Ia., Jan. 6, 1868, and is a son of Dr. Charles W. and Mary McIntyre, now living in New Albany, where the father is a practicing physician. Besides the subject of this sketch they have two other children: Charles W., Jr., a physician in Louisville, Ky., and Mar- garet. When George was a small boy his parents removed from Keokuk to Cannelton, Ind., and in 1880 to New Albany. Seven years later he graduated from the New Albany high school; then attended the University of Louisville for two years, after which he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and graduated from that institution in 1891. Returning home he began the practice of law in New Albany, practicing alone for about one year, when he formed a partnership with John B. James, under the firm name of McIntyre & James, which lasted until 1900, at which time Walter V. Bulliet was admitted to partnership and the firm became McIntyre, Bulliet & James. The firm is one of the strongest in Southern Indiana, having been retained in many important cases and enjoying a large clientage. Mr. McIntyre is also well known in political circles, being one of the active and enthusiastic Democrats of his section of the state. In 1892 he was elected to the legislature, where he made a creditable record although one of the youngest mem- bers of the general assembly. In 1896 he was a candidate for presidential elector on the Bryan and Sewall ticket, and in 1898 was elected prosecuting attorney of the Fifty-second judicial district; was
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