HARRY W. HELMEN, physician and surgeon, is a member of his profession at South Bend whose personal character and abilities reflect a high degree of honor upon himself and upon the name of this family, which is an old and honored one in Northern Indiana.

Doctor Helmen was born at Kingsbury in LaPorte County, twenty-eight miles west of South Bend, August 16, 1882 son of Frederick and Emma (Lempke) Helmen, who have lived in South Bend since 1883. Both parents were born in LaPorte County, and all the earlier ancestors of the family came from Germany and were pioneers in Northern Indiana.

Frederick T. Helmen was born in LaPorte County, April 30, 1858, son of Frederick and Fredrika (Werner) Helmen. In Germany the Helmen name was spelled Hellmann. Frederick Helmen was born in Germany, August 7, 1828, and was married after he settled in LaPorte County, Indiana. His wife was born May 30, 1832. He worked in a flour mill and later became a farmer. Frederick Helmen died January 24, 1909, and his wife on October 24,1919.

Frederick T. Helmen married Emma Lempke, who was born in LaPorte County, June 3, 1861, daughter of Charles and Dorothy Frederika (Wilhelm) Lempke, natives of Germany, where her father was born April 5, 1826, and her mother on June 24, 1840. Charles Lempke settled in LaPorte County about 1849. His wife came to Indiana in 1856, at the age of sixteen, and after their marriage they settled on a farm, where they spent the rest of their days. Charles Lempke died in 1870 and his wife in 1876. All these ancestors were German Lutherans in religion.

Frederick T. Helmen was educated in public schools of LaPorte County, learned the trade of carpenter and millwright, and after coming to South Bend spent forty years as foreman in the wood working department of the Oliver Chilled Plow Company. He is now conducting a grocery business near Roseland and owns a farm just outside the city of South Bend. He is a Democrat in politics, is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Knights of the Maccabees.

The seven children of Frederick T. Helmen and wife are: Harry W.; Vernon R., a member of the South Bend bar; Effa Bertha, wife of John B. Bernhardt, of 209 Hammond Place, South Bend; Charles Adam, South Bend dentist; Frederick John, assistant cashier of the St. Joseph Bank of South Bend; Erma Paulina, connected with the Associates Investment Company; and Arthur Horace, manager of the Moskins Clothing Store at Whiting, Indiana.

Harry W. Helman was about a year old when his parents located in South Bend, where he attended the common and high schools. After leaving high school all the expenses of his higher education were met by proceeds of his own labor. He worked on farms, taught school, went out to the Northwest and was cashier and bookkeeper in the Portland-Oregon branch of the Oliver Chilled Plow Company. On returning to Indiana in 1908 he took the scientific course at Valparaiso University and in 1911 entered the University of Indiana School of Medicine, where he was graduated in June, 1913. He was one of the applicants for an interneship in the Indianapolis City Hospital, and stood highest in the examinations when licensed in the State of Indiana. After completing his interneship Doctor Helmen in 1914 located at South Bend, where for fifteen years he has enjoyed a steadily increasing practice.

He married in 1916, Miss Norma Belle Trayler, of Indianapolis, daughter of A. B. Trayler. They have three children, Norma Belle, Harry William and Robert Trayler. Doctor Helmen is a member of the St. Joseph County Medical Society, is a Mason, member of the Lions Club, University Club, and the American College of Surgeons.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


CHRISTOPHER BUSH COLEMAN since 1924 has been director of the historical bureau of the library and historical department of the State of Indiana and secretary of the Indiana Historical Society. To his work Doctor Coleman brings the mind of a scientifically trained historian; for a number of years he was a professor of history and has to his credit several volumes representing his research and study.

He was born in Springfield, Illinois, April 24, 1875, son of Louis Harrison and Jenny Bush (Logan) Coleman. Doctor Coleman in 1920 published a volume of memoirs of Louis Harrison Coleman, edited by him.

His scholastic degrees are Bachelor of Arts, conferred by Yale University in 1896, Bachelor of Divinity, from the University of Chicago in 1899, and Doctor of Philosophy, from Columbia University in 1914. During 1904-05 Doctor Coleman was a student at the University of Berlin. For nearly twenty years he was a member of the faculty of Butler College, now Butler University, at first acting professor of history, as professor of history from 1901 to 1919, and from 1912 to 1919 was vice president of the college. On leaving Butler he went east to Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he was head of the department of history and political science from 1920 to 1924.

Doctor Coleman is author of Church History in the Modern Sunday School, published in 1910; Constantine the Great, Historical, Legendary and Spurious , published in 1914. He edited a volume of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine , in 1922. Much of his work has been done on the lecture platform and he has been a contributor to magazines. He became a member of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Commission of Indiana in 1927, and in 1928 was elected executive secretary of the federal George Rogers Clark Sesquicentennial Commission. He is a member of the Indiana Historical Society, the Mississippi Valley and American Historical Associations and the American Society of Church History.

Doctor Coleman married, June 25, 1901, Miss Juliet Brown, of Indianapolis. They had three daughters, Ruth, now deceased, Constance and Martha Julian.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


LYNN O. KNOWLTON is one of the representative civil engineers of his native city and state, and in his profession is a constituent member of the firm of Bishop, Knowlton & Carson, with offices at 312 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis.

Mr. Knowlton was born in Indianapolis in the year 1884, and is a son of Orlando and Mary (Bass) Knowlton, both likewise natives of this state. Orlando Knowlton became one of the representative members of the Indianapolis bar and continued to be engaged in the practice of his profession in the capital city until his death, his wife likewise died in this city.

Lynn O. Knowlton received the advantages of the Indianapolis public schools, including the Manual Training High School, and in 1905 he was graduated in Purdue University, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in civil engineering. Thereafter he did professional work for various Indiana corporations, and he continued his activities in the capital city until the nation entered the World war, when he promptly subordinated all personal interests to the call of patriotism and volunteered for service in the United States Army. On the 5th of August, 1917, he was mustered into the Signal Corps of the United States Army, with rank of Captain. His unit was assigned to the Thirty-eighth Division and sailed for France about the opening of the month of October, 1918. After arriving in France Captain Knowlton and other members of his unit received preliminary training, and there he continued in active service during a considerable period, after the armistice had brought hostilities to a close. He embarked in May, 1919, for the return voyage across the Atlantic, after having been attached to the Chief Signal Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces, and he received his honorable discharge in May, 1919, with the rank of captain. His continued interest in his old comrades is indicated by his membership in the American Legion and the Service Club in his home city.

After the termination of his World war service Captain Knowlton returned to Indianapolis and resumed the practice of his profession, where he is a member of the firm of Bishop, Knowlton & Carson, civil and consulting engineers, who control a substantial and representative business.

Captain Knowlton is a Republican in political alignment, in the Masonic fraternity he is a past master of Ancient Landmark Lodge No. 319, A. F. and A. M. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity, and the Columbia Club, which has long been one of the representative civic and political organizations in Indiana's fair capital city. He and his wife have membership in the Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, the family home being maintained at 3541 Birchwood Avenue.

The year 1912 marked the marriage of Captain Knowlton to Miss Hazel Vliet, who likewise was born and reared in Indianapolis and who is a daughter of John and Dora (Buzzard) Vliet, both likewise natives of this state. Captain and Mrs. Knowlton have two children: Marilynn, born in 1915, and Jean, born in 1917.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


MEREDITH NICHOLSON was born December 9, 1866 at Crawfordsville, one of Indiana's most intensive centers of literary culture, and while his own literary talents did not flower into productiveness until the present century, he was no stranger during his boyhood and youth to gifted people in his own family and relationships and to books and literary influences. In his most recent volume of essays, Old Familiar Faces , he has sketched his boyhood experiences and his early environment, and in the same volume he pays a tribute to his grandfathers Nicholson and Meredith. The Nicholsons were Scotch and the Merediths Welsh. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Caldwell Meredith, was a printer and was publisher of a newspaper at Centerville in Wayne County. Meredith Nicholson is a great-grandson of John Wheeler Meredith, who was a soldier of the Revolution and is buried at Troy, Ohio.

His father, Edward Willis Nicholson, was born on a farm in Garrard County, Kentucky, October 27, 1826, son of James and Elizabeth (Willis) Nicholson. Edward Willis Nicholson was a Union soldier in the Civil war, at first a private in the Eleventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and after four years of arduous service was discharged with the rank of captain in the Twenty-second Indiana Battery. He was at the battle of Shiloh and was with Sherman on the march to the sea. He died August 19, 1894. The mother of Meredith Nicholson was Emily Meredith, who was born at Centerville, Indiana, January 19, 1842, and died July 7, 1914.

Meredith Nicholson married at Omaha, Nebraska, June 16, 1896, Miss Eugenie C. Kountze, daughter of Herman Kountze, of Omaha. Mrs. Nicholson was a member of the class of 1889 at Vassar College. The three children reside in Indianapolis. They are: Elizabeth Nicholson Claypool; Meredith, Jr, who married Roberta West, daughter of Robert H. West, of Cincinnati; and Charles Lionel, who married Edith Watson, daughter of James S. Watson of Indianapolis.

Meredith Nicholson's early education was not that of a pampered youth who spends twelve or fifteen years in school, academy and college. He learned the fundamentals in public schools at Indianapolis, after which his mental progress and character development were influenced by working in drug stores, printing offices, as stenographer in law offices. For twelve years he pursued the practical routine of newspaper work, from that routine edging gradually into the writing profession. For three years he lived in Colorado, as auditor and treasurer of a coal mining company.

Writing has been his vocation and occupation quite steadily since 1900. A list of his books is a graphic illustration of his versatility not only as a literary craftsman but as a thinker and citizen. His most important books, poetry, fiction, essays and plays are, Short Flights (poems), 1891; The Hoosiers, (in National Studies in American Letters), 1900; The Main Chance, 1903; Zelda Dameron, 1904; The House of a Thousand Candles, 1905; Poems, 1906; The Port of Missing Men, 1907; Rosalind at Red Gate, 1907; The Little Brown Jug at Kildare, 1908; The Lords of High Decision, 1909; The Siege of the Seven Suitors, 1910; A Hoosier Chronicle, 1912; The Provincial American (essays), 1913; Otherwise Phyllis, 1913; The Poet, 1914; The Proof of the Pudding, 1916; The Madness of May, 1917; A Reversible Santa Claus, 1917; The of Democracy, (essays), 1918; Lady Larkspur, 1919; Blacksheep! Blacksheep!, 1920; The Man in the Street, (essays), 1921; Play: Honor Bright (with Kenyon Nicholson), 1921; Best Laid Schemes (short stories), 1922; Broken Barriers, 1922; The Hope of Happiness, 1923; And They Lived Happily Ever After, 1925; The Cavalier of Tennessee, 1928, Old Familiar Faces, (essays), 1929.

Perhaps a public equally large knows him by his contribution to periodicals, through his work as a lecturer on literary and political subjects, and his appearances in political campaigns as a speaker on the issues of the day and topics of fundamental interest from time to time. Civic affairs and good government have always exercised a strong hold upon him, and what is probably his best known work of fiction A Hoosier Chronicle, reflects a great deal of the current political philosophy of the period it describes. Mr. Nicholson is a Democrat and has taken part in many campaigns, and in 1928-29 served as a city councilman of Indianapolis.

Meredith Nicholson by his work is easily one of the outstanding literary figures of Indiana, and will also rank high in the national field of letters. His writings are his best monument, but learned institutions have also been eager to welcome him into the circles of scholarship, Wabash College bestowing upon him the honorary degrees M. A. and Litt. D., Indiana University making him an LL. D., and he received the honorary degrees M. A. and LL. D. from Butler College. He is a Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Beta Kappa and member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He is a member of the Woodstock, University, Athletic and Dramatic Clubs of Indianapolis, the Players, Century and. Authors Clubs of New York, and the National Press Club of Washington. followed.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


ALEX JOSEPH TUSCHINSKY, proprietor of the Hillsdale Nursery, has made this one of the important industrial and productive enterprises not only of the Indianapolis metropolitan area but of the Middle West, for he has developed his nurseries and gardens to one of the show places in this part of the United States. His earlier experience in connection with horticulture, landscape gardening and the nursery business was acquired in his native land, and his familiarity with all details of these lines of enterprise has contributed in large degree to his success and prestige as a representative of nursery industry in Indiana. Mr. Tuschinsky's well improved and modern nursery plant is situated on a tract of eighty acres, eight miles northeast of the center of Indianapolis, and is about five miles due east of Broad Ripple. The buildings on the place are of comparatively recent construction and the tract of land has been developed most effectively in the propagation of ornamental trees, shrubbery, perennials, etc., so that its facilities are adequate to meet the large and ever increasing demands placed upon it by its appreciative patrons.

In that part of Eastern Germany that was originally a part of Poland and that the fortunes of the World war returned to the latter country there occurred in the year 1886 the birth of Alex Joseph Tuschinsky. His parents, Theodore and Wilhelmina (Haberer) Tuschinsky, still remain in their native land, where the father has long been identified with farm and horticultural enterprise. All of the nine children of the family are living, namely: Anna, Martha, Gertrude, Antonio, Conrad, Max, Francis, Alex Joseph and John. Of the number the subject of this review and his brother John are the only. representatives of this immediate family in the United States.

In the schools of the locality in which he was born Alex J. Tuschinsky received his youthful education, and in the meanwhile he acquired practical experience in farm work and in the gardening and nursery business. He served two years in the infantry branch of the German army, and thereafter he had one year of experience in landscape gardening work in Berlin, Germany. One of his friends had come to the United States and had located in Indianapolis. This friend prevailed upon him to come to this country, and he arrived in Indianapolis in October, 1909. For two years he had charge of grounds and upkeep of an estate at Irvington and thereafter he followed the business of landscape gardening five years, with headquarters in Indianapolis. Through the conservation of his earnings he was then enabled to buy his present land and this he has developed into one of the well ordered and successful nurseries of the Hoosier State. Energy, progressiveness and good judgment have conserved his success and advancement, and his present business has been developed on the basis of the excellent service rendered and the honorable policies followed.

Mr. Tuschinsky is notably loyal to and appreciative of the land of his adoption, and is grateful for the opportunities that have here been given him for the winning of success and independence through his own efforts. His political support is given to the Democratic party and he has membership in the Democratic Club of Indianapolis. In the York Rite of the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge and Chapter, as well as Raper Commandery of Knights Templar, and his affiliations are extended also to the Mystic Shrine, with membership in Murat Temple. He and his wife are communicants of Saint Peter's Lutheran Church.

On February 24; 1916, Mr. Tuschinsky was united in marriage to Miss Ida Seek, daughter of Herman and Otilie (Manthei) Seek, who were born and reared in Germany and who have been residents of Indiana fully forty years, their home being in Marion County and Mr. Seek being now retired from active business. Mr. and Mrs. Tuschinsky have had no children of their own but they have an adopted son, Theodore Alex, who was born March 25, 1931.

Click here for photo.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


HERBERT B. DEPREZ is a Shelbyville citizen whose business career has been devoted to ice manufacturing, and he is one of the outstanding men in this industry in Indiana. He is president of The Daniel DePrez Manufacturing Company.

Mr. DePrez was born at Shelbyville, December 19, 1876. His grandfather, John DePrez, was born in Alsace Lorraine, of French Huguenot ancestry. He came to America and about 1848 settled in Shelby County, Indiana. John C. DePrez, father of Herbert B., was a native of Cincinnati, and at Shelbyville helped establish the first furniture factory. He was prominent in that business for many years. John C. DePrez married Zora L. Miller, and Herbert was one of their four children.

Herbert B. DePrez was liberally educated, attending the grammar and high schools of Shelbyville, and finished his college work in Wabash College. He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After leaving college he returned to Shelbyville and his first active connection with the DePrez Ice Manufacturing Company was as office manager. In 1902 he became vice president and manager, and since 1910 has been president and manager of the company. He is a former president of the Indiana Ice Manufacturers Association and was one of the organizers of the National Ice Manufacturers Association and on its board of directors for three years. Recently elected president Indiana Local Merchants Association.

Mr. DePrez is one of the popular citizens of Shelbyville, interested in all civic and benevolent movements. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Pythias, B. P. O. Elks, Improved Order of Red Men and Fraternal Order of Eagles. He belongs to the Rotary Club, member of the Better Business Club. He did his part in the patriotic program during the World war arid was one of the organizers and chairman of the County Community Fund in 1926. Mr; DePrez married Miss Lillian Nading of Shelbyville, Indiana, and they have two children, John C. II and Mary N., both of whom are attending school, John C. at Purdue, Lafayette, and Mary at Tudor Hall at Indianapolis.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


HILTON ULTIMUS BROWN continuously since 1881 has been identified with the Indianapolis News and with the making of that not only one of the great papers of Indiana but one of the most influential journals of the Middle West.

Mr. Brown was born at Indianapolis, February 20, 1859, son of Philip Andrew and Julia (Troster) Brown. His father was born in Ohio, son of Andrew Brown, who came from New Jersey. His mother was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and came to the United States in 1848. She was married in Butler County, Ohio, to Philip A. Brown, a brick manufacturer and later in the wholesale lumber business. In 1858 they moved to Indianapolis, where Philip Brown established a lumber yard at Browns Switch. He died in 1864 and his wife in 1868.

Hilton Ultimus Brown was left an orphan at the age of nine years. He made the best of his opportunities, attending public schools in Indianapolis, the preparatory department of Northwestern Christian University, now Butler College, and took his A. B. Degree at Butler College in 1880 and the Master of Arts degree two years later. He taught one term of school in Knox County, but in the meantime had put in his application for work on the Indianapolis News, and in July, 1881, was given his first assignment, as a railroad reporter. Later he was made market reporter, was promoted to city editor, managing editor, general manager in 1901, and since 1920 has been secretary and treasurer of the Indianapolis News Publishing Company.

Mr. Brown married, October 30, 1883, Miss Jennie Hannah, daughter of Capt. Arch A. and Mary (Powell) Hannah, her father a native of Schenectady, New York, and her mother of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Mr. Brown's children are: Mark Hannah, a lumber manufacturer at Lake Providence, Louisiana; Louise, wife of John W. Atherton, financial secretary of Butler University; Mary, wife of George O. Stewart, of Indianapolis, with the Insull Interstate Public Service Company; Philip, who died at the age of nine years; Arch A., of Miami Beach, Florida; Jean, wife of Clifford Wagner, an insurance man; Hilton, Jr., who was killed November 3, 1918, in the Argonne, France, while serving with the first Division of Regulars, and is buried in the Romagne Cemetery; Paul V., executive secretary of the State Conservation Department at Indianapolis; Jessie, wife of Floyd Mannon, assistant prosecuting attorney of Marion County; and Julia, wife of David Konold, with the Art School Products Company at Omaha, Nebraska.

Mr. Brown has been a member of the board of directors of Butler College since 1888, and since 1903 has been president of the board. He is a director of the Indianapolis Art Association. Mr. Brown has been a contributor to daily journalism for more than half a century. In 1920 he edited and published the letters and verses of the son who was killed in action in the World war and gave the book the title Hilton U. Brown, Jr., One of Three Brothers in Artillery. Mr. Brown attended the peace conference at the close of the war, also wrote a series of letters on the battlefields and industrial conditions in Europe and was again abroad in 1925,and 1926; writing chiefly for the Indianapolis News. He is an elder in the Church of the Disciples. He was president of the school board and was president of the town board of Irvington when that suburb was incorporated in Indianapolis. He is a Republican. a member of Keystone Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and for two terms was national president of the Phi Delta Theta. He has been a director of the University Club, is a member of the Columbia Club, Meridian Hills Country Club, Indianapolis Literary Club, Highland Golf Club, and Hoosier Motor Club.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


Deb Murray