Mr. Bailey was born at Ontario, New York February 14, 1881, son of Jonathan Cornley and Harriet (Borland) Bailey, and a descendant of a branch of the Bailey family that settled at Scituate, Massachusetts, in the early Colonial period. His maternal grandfather was Washington Irving Borland.
Mr. Bailey was educated in public schools in New York, graduated from the University of Rochester in 1905 and spent two years in the New York Library School at Albany, where he received the degree Bachelor of Library Science. He was an assistant in the New York State Library in 1906-07, worked in the Library of Congress at Washington, and in 1908 was made librarian at Gary, Indiana. During the fourteen years he was there he completely organized and built up a public library service in keeping with the needs of this great industrial community. In 1922 he accepted the call to the public library of Flint, Michigan, where again he did important work in reorganizing the library service. On September 1, 1926, he came to Indianapolis as director of the State Library.
Mr. Bailey rendered valuable service with the war organization of the American Library Association, helping raise funds to provide library service to the soldiers at home and overseas, and during 1917 also helped establish libraries at Camp Sheridan, Camp McClellan and Camp Shelby in Alabama and Mississippi, and from March, 1918, until 1920 acted as supervisor and dispatch agent, with headquarters at New York City, sending books to the soldiers in France. While stationed at New York he was in charge of receiving books and sending them out allover the country and abroad for the use of the soldiers and sailors, and during two years his office handled over 7,000,000 books, and at the close of the service in 1920 several hundred thousand volumes were turned over to the Federal Government. Mr. Bailey was president of the Indiana Library Association in 1914, and in 1925 was elected president of the Michigan Library Association. He has served as chairman of numerous committees with the American Library Association. He is a member of the Indianapolis Literary Club, the Century Club, the Theta Chi fraternity and the Congregational Church. Politically he is an independent. He was appointed by Governor Ralston chairman of the Lake County Centennial Commission in 1916. He was also a member of the City Planning Commission while at Gary.
Mr. Bailey married, November 28, 1907, Miss Regnea Gunnison, who was born at Brooklyn, New York. They have four children: John Chalmers, a student in Purdue University; Richard Gunnison, in the University of Michigan; Beatrice, attending the Technical High School; and Horace Compton, in grade school.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES EMMET COFFIN has been one of the prominent figures of Indianapolis commercial and civic affairs for over forty years. Mr. Coffin is a native of Indiana, born at Salem July 13, 1856, son of Zachariah T. and Caroline (Armfield) Coffin. He represents the seventh generation of descent from Tristram Coffin, of Nantucket, Massachusetts, one of the early pioneers of New England.
As a youth Mr. Coffin was impressed with a sense of responsibility toward others. He attended a grammar school at Salem, his birthplace, completed his high school course at Bloomington, and spent one year in Indiana University. He had to give up his university career to go to work, turning over his wages to his parents. At the age of twenty he began his career in Indianapolis, as an employee of Wylie & Martin, real estate. Six years later he engaged in business for himself. His study and experience made him an expert in realty values. He was the medium for handling many important real estate operations in Indianapolis, and besides his brokerage business he developed and marketed several subdivisions in and around Indianapolis. His services have also gone to the broader financing of real estate ownership. He was one of the organizers of the Indiana Savings & Investment Company, incorporated in 1889, and for over forty years has been president of that institution, one of the largest of its kind in Indiana, with assets of over three million dollars. Practically all the funds of the company have been held for first loans on Indianapolis real estate.
Mr. Coffin also organized, in 1900, the Central Trust Company, which was sold to the Farmers Trust Company in 1913, and since that date he has been a member of the board of directors of the latter company. He was vice president of the Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Company from its organization in 1903 until the property was sold in 1905. Mr. Coffin in 1913 became secretary and treasurer of the Star Publishing Company, and in the same year was elected a member of its board of directors.
His part in organizations representing the larger commercial and civic interests of the city has been not less noteworthy. From 1899 to 1922 he served as a member of the board of park commissioners of Indianapolis, and for ten years of that time was president of the board. He was for four years, until 1926, president of the board of public works. Mr. Coffin was one of the organizers and incorporators of the Indianapolis Commercial Club in 1890, a club that for the first time gave an organization broadly representative of the progressive interests of the community, and under which were inaugurated a series of improvements and reforms that laid the foundation of the modern and greater city. He was chosen president of the club in 1900. He was also on the board of governors of the Indianapolis Board of Trade, has been a director of the Indianapolis Art Association, is a member of the Columbia Club and Woodstock Club of Indianapolis, and president of the board of trustees of the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church, also a member of the board of trustees of the Indiana State Normal School, Terre Haute. Mr. Coffin is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Indiana Historical Society, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
With all his important responsibilities in business and civic affairs Mr. Coffin is known to many thousands outside the state as an authority on whist. In 1895 he published a book, The Gist of Whist, this being followed in 1907 by The Gist of Auction Bridge. Mr. Coffin is a former president of the American Whist League.
He married at Indianapolis, September 20, 1897, Miss Mary H. Birch, daughter of Richard E. Birch. Her father was a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River. They have three children: Clarence E:, who married Lenora Smith; Jean Fletcher, wife of Commander J. H. Ingram, of the United States Navy; and Carolyn, wife of Charles Harvey Bradley.
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
CHARLES RICHARD BAKER is prominently identified with the bar and the official affairs of Franklin County, being the present prosecuting attorney of the Thirty-seventh Judicial Circuit.
Mr. Baker was born at Brookville, May 19, 1889. He comes of a family that has supplied a number of public officials to the county. His parents were Frank J. and Mary M. (Sellmeyer) Baker, his father a native of Brookville and his mother of Oldenburg, Indiana. His grandparents were John and Cecelia (Bohl) Baker and Henry C. and Mary (Studer) Sellmeyer. Henry C. Sellmeyer was in the early days a county official, holding for eight years the office of county auditor of Franklin County. Frank J. Baker has been a well known fruit grower in Franklin County. He served in the office of the Circuit Court from 1920 to 1924 and has also been on the board of Children's Guardians.
Charles Richard Baker was educated in the grade and high schools of Franklin County and went east to Washington to complete his law course in Georgetown University. He was graduated in 1927 and on January 1, 1928, opened his law office at Brookville. He served as deputy clerk of the Circuit Court from 1919 to 1924. In 1928 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Thirty-seventh Judicial District, comprising Franklin and Union counties, and was reelected in 1930, by a larger majority than in 1928.
Mr. Baker is unmarried. He is a member of the Catholic Church, is advocate of the Knights of Columbus, a member and secretary of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, lodge of Brookville, a charter member of the Kiwanis Club, a member of the Thirty-seventh Judicial District Bar Association and member of the board of directors of the Franklin County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
WILLIAM JACKSON BUSKIRK, more usually known as Will J. Buskirk, has been, for more than thirty-five years, a practicing attorney and member of the Orange County, Indiana, Bar. Orange County and Southern Indiana, has known and honored many members of the Buskirk family, as eminent lawyers.
His father, the late Judge Thomas B. Buskirk, was, for twelve years, on the bench, as judge of the Circuit Courts, of Orange and Washington Counties. He died, March 9, 1930, in his eighty-seventh year. He was a veteran of the Civil war, serving as a first lieutenant of Company G of the Forty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and was wounded in the neck in the siege of Vicksburg, but, for all the hardships of his army service, has had a long and prominent career.
His mother, whose maiden name was Miss Cora A. Jackson, of Kentucky, died on November 11, 1906. Of the union between his father and mother, ten children were born, two dying in infancy, John at the age of thirteen and Ethel at the age of nine months - surviving are Lois H., Will J., the subject of this sketch; Horace, Mabel L., Myrtle M., Thomas B., Jr., Boswell F. and George A., all of whom with the exception of Will J. and George A., now reside in Indianapolis; Will J. and George A: in Paoli, the town of their birth. Will J. Buskirk was born in Paoli, December 25, 1870, and after attending public school, including high school, took up the study of law under his father. He was admitted to the bar in 1895, and has steadily engaged in the practice in his home town, doing a large volume of general practice, and has a large clientele, including the leading banks and other corporations of his county. He is a member of the County and State Bar associations.
Politically, Mr. Buskirk is affiliated with the democratic party, but never seeks office for himself. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias.
He was married on May 15, 1901, to Miss Florence Getches, daughter of George and Florence (Clark) Getches of Vincennes, Indiana. He has four children, William B., born April 14, 1902; Hugh and Helen, twins, born January 30, 1905 and Oliver B., born July 3, 1913. Hugh is a law student, preparing to carry out the traditions of the family, as a representative of the fourth generation.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JOHN J. WELP. In the case of John J. Welp, of Jasper, Indiana, is to be found augmenting success in whatever line he has followed, and today, after a prosperous experience in farming, he is engaged in milling and banking, in the latter being president of the Citizens Bank of Jasper. He was born at Schnellville, Indiana, June 24, 1885, a son of John Welp, a native of Germany, who came to the United States with his parents at the age of thirteen years. As the years went on he acquired an excellent common school education and became a farmer, and from that calling he went into the business of handling grain, in which he was so successful that he was able to retire in 1924 with a comfortable income. He married Katherine Streigal, who was born in Indiana, and died in the same state in 1918. The following children were born to them: Two who died in infancy; John J., whose name heads this review; Rose, who married Frank Haas, resides in Dubois County, and has five children; Veronica, who married Doctor Metzgar, lives at Ferdinand, Indiana, and they have two children; Leo, who lives at Schnellville, married Lucy Schnell, and they have five children; Edward, who is a traveling salesman, resides at Huntingburg, is married and has one child; Cyrenius, who lives at Schnellville; Theo, who lives at Jasper; and Albert, who lives at Schnellville.
Growing to manhood in his native state, John J. Welp attended the graded and high schools of the public school system and the local parochial schools, and is a well-educated man, versed in different subjects. When he was twenty-two years old he left the parental farm to go into farming for himself, having been trained by his father in that line. In 1909 he began his connection with the milling industry, and is now at the head of the Jasper Milling Company, manufacturers of flour. For some years past he has been president of the Citizens Bank at Jasper, his knowledge of conditions and the people of his home community being of a vast amount of value to his financial institution.
In 1915 Mr. Welp was married to Mercedies Schuler, of Jasper, and they have one child, Dennis, aged ten years, a bright little fellow now attending school. A very strong Democrat, Mr. Welp is one of the local leaders, and he could, probably, have office if he cared to accept nomination, so popular is he. He is a Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus. The Woodmen of the World also holds his membership. He has never been too busy to take a lively interest in civic affairs; has from time to time been associated with numerous enterprises, and has always given his best efforts to promoting the interests of Jasper, and is not only one of its most prosperous and progressive citizens, but also one its most popular ones.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
DAN W. SIMMS, whose death occurred at Lafayette, Indiana, March 11, 1931, was a member of the Indiana bar from 1885, and among other honors connected with his profession one of the most grateful was his election in 1909 as president of the Indiana State Bar Association. Mr. Simms had a very successful career as a lawyer, and a brief record of it is sufficient to indicate his abilities and attainments.
He lived in Indiana most of his life, but was born in Crawford County, Illinois, February 13, 1862, son of Daniel and Nancy (Parrott) Simms. In 1866 his parents moved to a farm in Fountain County, Indiana, where he grew up and spent his boyhood days, very much as other Indiana country boys of that period. He complete his early education in the county high school, for three years attended DePauw University, graduated Bachelor of Science from the Central Indiana Normal College at Davnille, and during these years he was teaching school, spending three years at that occupation in Fountain County and during four years of the time was superintendent of a high school. He studied law with the firm of Nebeker & Dochterman at Covington, Indiana, was admitted to the bar in 1885 and the following year was instructor in mathematics and history at the Central Indiana Normal School. Mr. Simms practiced law for eleven years at Covington, Indiana, and in 1898 removed to Lafayette, where he was a member of the law firm Stuart, Hammond & Simms until 1915. From 1915 to 1919 Mr. Simms was at Los Angeles, California, practicing law there, and was admitted to the California bar and was a member of the California State and Los Angeles County Bar Associations. While in California he was chairman of the Los Angeles County and City Democratic committee and gave a great deal of his time to promoting the success of the war drives. He was United States master-in-chancery for the southern district of California during the years he was at Los Angeles. Following the war, in 1919-20, Mr. Simms was a special assistant to the attorney-general of the United States, helping in investigations and prosecutions in different parts of the country.
In 1919 Mr. Simms, returned to Lafayette and joined the law firm of Stuart, Simms & Stuart, which acted as general counsel for Purdue University. Mr. Simms himself was general counsel and a director of the Lafayette Life Insurance Company.
He was for a number of years a member of the Lafayette school board. He was a member of the Tippecanoe County, Indiana State and American Bar Associations, was affiliated with Lafayette Lodge No. 492, A. F. and A. M., the Royal Arch Chapter and Council at Covington, the Knights Templar Commandery at Crawfordsville, the Scottish Rite Consistory and Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis. He filled all the chairs in the Knights of Pythias Lodge and was a member of the Improved Order of Red Men, the Optimist Club, of which he was a former president, and the Tippecanoe County Historical Association. He also belonged to the Lafayette, Lafayette Country and Indianapolis Athletic Clubs. Mr. Simms married in 1885 Miss Ezadora J. Wright, of Fountain County. Three children were born to their marriage, Glen W; and Ruth B., both deceased, and Floy G. who is the wife of John G. Daskam, a Lafayette insurance man.
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
MRS. CARRIE A. POINIER. Not only have women proved their fitness for almost every profession and trade, but they have won election to various public offices formerly held by men, and in them have given a businesslike and honest administration of affairs that has awakened the appreciation of their fellow citizens and opened the door for others of their sex. One of these able, self-reliant and efficient members of her sex is Mrs. Carrie A. Poinier, former recorder of Wayne County, who not only succeeded her late husband in the office, but when she had filled out his term was elected herself to the office, from which she retired December 31, 1930.
Mrs. Poinier was born Carrie A. Phillips, at Eaton, Ohio, June 8, 1876, and she is a daughter of David and Sarah (Murray) Phillips, both natives of Ohio, he born in Preble County and she in Montgomery County. After the death of Mr. Phillips his widow was married to A. M. Campbell, and they are now residing at Eaton, Ohio.
After she was graduated from both the Fairhaven and Eaton high schools Carrie A. Phillips began teaching school, but after a year of that work, in 1897, she was married to Theodore E. Poinier, a native of Jacksonville, Illinois, and a son of George H. and Ida M. (Brownell) Poinier, he born at Chicago, Illinois, and she at Hillsboro, Illinois.
For six years after their marriage Mr. Poinier was in the employ of what is now the International Harvester Corporation, and then became a conductor on the Richmond, Indiana, street car lines, which position he continued to hold for eighteen years. During that period his faithfulness to duty, his courteous manner and his admirable characteristics won him many friends, and when he was nominated for county recorder, on the Republican ticket, he received a gratifying support, and was elected by a large majority, taking office in January, 1925. He was not long spared, however, to hold this office, for he died October 7 of the same year, and, as already stated, his widow was appointed to fill out his term. In the fall of 1926 she was elected to the same duties, and in January, 1927, took the office for a term of four years. Mr. Poinier was a great fraternity man, belonging as he did to the Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Sons of Veterans. When he died the whole community mourned the passing of a good citizen and excellent official, and appropriate memorials were engrossed by the county board and the different fraternities of which he was a member. Both he and his wife early became members of the United Presbyterian Church, to which she still belongs, and for which she is an earnest worker.
The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Poinier: Doris I., who married Prof. F. Harvey, of Richmond, Indiana; Helen G., who married J. F.. Telcher and resides at Richmond; Sarah M., who married Eber K. Williams and resides at Richmond; and Charles Kenneth, who is a railroad mail clerk, residing at Richmond. Mrs. Harvey has two children, Malcolm P. and Betty Joyce Harvey; and Mrs. Telcher has one child, Theodore F.
Mrs. Poinier is a member of the local chapter of the Eastern Star; of the Richmond Lodge, Daughters of Rebekah; and the local camp of the Woman's Relief Corps, in all of which organizations she is a leader and officer. She maintains her residence at 230 Southwest Fourth Street, Richmond.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ELMER E. PERSONETT is sheriff of Franklin County. He first served in that office by appointment, and his qualifications won the approval of the people when he was elected to that office in 1928 and again in 1930.
Mr. Personett was born at Irvington, Marion County, Indiana, December 30, 1870, son of Charles and Elizabeth (Osborn) Personett. His father was born at Centerville, Wayne County, Indiana, and his mother in Franklin County, where her father, Aaron Osborn, was a pioneer. Charles Personett learned the trade of carpenter and later for many years carried on a lumber business in Franklin County. He died in August, 1930, in his ninety-first year.
Elmer E. Personett was a small child when his mother died. He was educated in the district schools of Franklin County and lived with his father until his marriage. Mr. Personett practically grew up in the lumber business and that was his principal line of work. He had the distinction of serving as the first janitor of the new courthouse of Brookville. He was in that position two years. He also worked in a paper mill until he was appointed sheriff to fill the unexpired term in May, 1927, the result of the death of the former sheriff. In November, 1928, he was elected by popular vote to that office. Mr. Personett is a Democrat in politics. He is a member of the Improved Order: of Red Men and the Daughters of Pocahontas and belongs to the Haymakers and other organizations.
He married, May 4, 1894, Miss Effie Morgan, a native of Decatur County, Indiana. She died December 7, 1897, leaving one daughter, Blanche, now Mrs. Burton L. McFall, of Connersville. Sheriff Personett on June 8, 1900, married Miss Effie Berg, a native of Franklin County, daughter of William T. and Nancy J. (Sherwood) Berg.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JAMES NORMAN McCOY as a prominent specialist is well known all over Indiana, but has confined his chief work to his home locality of Knox County. His offices are in the State Banking Building at Vincennes. He is a Roentgen Ray therapist and dermatologist.
Doctor McCoy was born in Knox County, Indiana, December 1, 1873, a son of John Richard and Sarah Alice (Adams) McCoy. Part of his early education was acquired at Vincennes, where he attended Vincennes University, and was graduated from the Medical College of Indiana, at Indianapolis, in 1896. He took post-graduate courses in the Post Graduate School and Hospital and the Vanderbilt Clinic in New York City in 1913, in the University de Sorbonne, at Paris, in 1919.
Doctor McCoy perfected the original technique for intensive, soft Roentgen Ray dose; made the original appliances for administration of heavy X-Ray treatment to uterus without exposing the ovaries; perfected the technique for depilation of scalp by using secondary rays only. He is author of several articles dealing chiefly with Roentgen Ray therapy and dermatology in various medical journals, and is the inventor of a number of original appliances used in giving X-ray treatment.
Doctor McCoy is a member of the Knox County and Indiana State Medical Associations, the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Aesculapian Society. During the World war he was commissioned a captain in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States Army in 1917, and promoted to major in 1918. He served as surgeon with the Three Hundred and Twenty-seventh Field Artillery, as roentgenologist at Camp Hospital No. 20, as assistant dermatologist at Headquarters, Base Section No, 5, American Expeditionary Forces at Brest. In 1924 he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Medical Officers Reserve Corps and on May 17, 1931, was promoted to colonel. He has served as vice president of the Hoosier State Automobile Association, is a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Episcopal Church, and a Republican. Doctor McCoy married, April 20, 1898, Miss Mary Johnston, of Indiana, who died February 9, 1927. They had one child, Mildred Lucile, who is married to Harry R. Champ, a lawyer at Indianapolis. Doctor McCoy was married on May 7, 1929, to Charlotte Louise Antibus.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
