Doctor Schoen was born at Lanesville, Harrison County, Indiana, March 16, 1870, and is a son of Jacob Schoen. His father, a native of Germany, was a young lad when brought by his parents to the United States, where he received a public school education and as a youth learned the trade of blacksmith. He settled in Harrison County as early as 1851, and for a time followed his trade, but later turned his attention to farming, and for many years carried on both vocations with industry and great ability, the farmers coming from miles around to have work done at his forge, where they could be assured of honest workmanship. He is still living, although now in retirement, and is one of the highly respected men of his community. He and his worthy wife were the parents of ten children.
Philip H.Schoen attended the common schools of Harrison County while assisting his father in the work of the farm during the summer months, and subsequently completed a course at the high school at Valparaiso. His medical studies were prosecuted at the Kentucky School of Medicine (now the University of Louisville), from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. At that time he went to New Middletown, Harrison County, where he was engaged in practice for fourteen years and built up a large professional business, but in 1912, desiring a broader field for the display of his abilities, came to New Albany, where he has practiced to the present time and now has a large patronage. Doctor Schoen is a capable member of his profession in every way and is thoroughly deserving of the success that has come to him as a general practitioner of medicine and surgery. He is a thorough and conscientious student and a valued member of the American Medical Association, the Indiana State Medical Society, and the Floyd County Medical Society, of which he was secretary for ten years. For four years he has been secretary of the staff of St. Edward's Hospital, New Albany, and while residing at New Middletown was secretary of the board of health. During the World war he was a member of the advisory board and the conscription board, chairman of the Council of Defense and an active and conscientious worker in all war drives. Doctor Schoen takes an active, helpful and constructive part in civic affairs, and with his fellow-members of the Kiwanis Club formulates and carries through beneficial movements. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America and the B. P. O. E. His office is located at 216 Market Street, where he has a large medical library and the most modern equipment known to the profession.
Doctor Schoen married Miss Anna L. Gehlbach, of Harrison County, Indiana, and they are the parents of four children: Dr. Carl Philip, a graduate of the University of Louisville, who is now an interne in the City Hospital of Louisville; Orland Jacob, assistant manager of an Atlantic & Pacific chain store at Detroit, Michigan; Clarence Alfred, who is attending the University of Louisville; and Arthur Melvin, who is attending public school at New Albany.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
EMMETT FORREST BRANCH, a former governor of Indiana, has had much of influence in the councils and campaign activities of the Republican party in his native state, has long been a representative member of the Indiana bar, and has shown constructive leadership in his association with public affairs. Colonel Branch maintains his home at Martinsville, judicial center of Morgan County, and in this county his interests are large and varied. He is valued as one of the most liberal and progressive men of his native county and is ever ready to give his influence and tangible aid in the advancing of his home city, county and state, as has been proved in the varied activities and services of his singularly alert and loyal career.
Colonel Branch was born at Martinsville on the 16th of May, 1874, and is a son of Elliott Frank and Alice (Parks) Branch, the former of whom was born in Johnson County, this state, and the latter in Morgan County. Henry Branch, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in Trimble County, Kentucky, and became one of the sterling pioneer citizens of Indiana, where he passed the remainder of his life. Mrs. Alice (Parks) Branch, who died in 1884, at the age of thirty- six years, was a daughter of Perminter S. and Lucinda S. Parks, the former of whom was a son of James Parks and a grandson of George Parks, a patriot soldier in the War of the Revolution. The Parks family likewise gave early pioneer settlers to the State of Indiana.
Elliott Frank Branch was reared to the sturdy discipline of the parental farmstead and received the advantages of the Indiana common schools. As a youth he became a clerk in the mercantile establishment, at Martinsville, of Perminter S. Parks, whose daughter Alice he later married. Mr. Branch was the founder of the Branch Grain Company, which has long been one of the substantial and important business concerns at Martinsville, and he was one of the leading business men and influential citizens of Martinsville at the time of his death, in 1906. He served as county treasurer and as a member of the Republican state central committee of Indiana.
Emmett Forrest Branch is indebted to the public schools of Martinsville for his early education and after completing his studies in the local high school, he became a student in the University of Indiana, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1896 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then returned to Martinsville, where he continued his study of law, under the able preceptorship of his uncle, Judge Parks, until he gained admission to the bar, in 1899. He has since continued in the practice of his profession at Martinsville, and his law business, substantial and representative, has called him to appear before the higher courts of the state as well as those of localized order.
When the nation entered the Spanish-American war Colonel Branch was the first man to enlist, April 27, 1898, in Company K, One Hundred Fifty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was honorably discharged with the rank of first lieutenant. Colonel Branch again entered military life when the United States became involved in trouble with Mexico, and he was in active service on the Mexican border, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Thereafter he had World war service in the United States Army, in which he held rank of colonel of infantry. He received his honorable discharge in December, 1918.
Colonel Branch represented Morgan County in the Lower House of the Indiana Legislature during the sessions of 1903, 1905, 1907 and 1908. He was speaker of the House in the session of 1907 and the special session of 1908. In 1920, as candidate on the Republican ticket, he was elected lieutenant governor of his native state and as such he served as presiding officer of the State Senate during the legislative sessions of 1921 and 1923, Colonel Branch was a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1924. The Colonel functioned with characteristic loyalty and efficiency as governor of Indiana when he filled out the unexpired term of Governor McCray. October 14, 1924, he called the first safety conference, through the medium of the Indiana Public Service Commission, and at this time he placed special emphasis upon the expediency of establishing a state agency for the prevention of crossing accidents. As a public official Colonel Branch has always stood firm for wholesome and progressive financial and economic measures and was a strong supporter of the budget system, the state tax board, the industrial board, as well as other important state departments. Colonel Branch is president of the Branch Grain Company at Martinsville, a concern founded by his father, as previously noted. He is a stockholder in the Martinsville Trust Company, and is the owner of large and valuable farm interests in his native county.
Colonel Branch has been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity since December 8, 1897, and in the same has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is affiliated also with the Knights of Pythias and the Beta Theta Phi college fraternity. He has membership in the Morgan County Bar Association and the Indiana State Bar Association, and has been since 1905 an active member of the Columbia Club in the City of Indianapolis.
In the year 1904 Colonel Branch was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Bain, who likewise was born and reared at Martinsville and who is a daughter of James G. and Sallie (Johnson) Bain, both natives of Morgan County. Colonel and Mrs. Branch have one son, James Elliott, who was born July 6, 1906, who was afforded the advantages of the University of Illinois, and who, as an architectural engineer, is now associated with the firm of Ulen & Company at Lebanon, Indiana. James E. Branch married Miss Mary E. Kennedy, daughter of Walter and Eloise Kennedy, and the one child of this union is Mary Patricia, born April 7, 1929.
Colonel Branch is a member of the Christian Church in his home city and he has served as a member of its board of trustees. He and his family have always been a prominent influence in his home community and in the state.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HON. CHARLES ROGERS TURNER, former member of the Indiana Legislature, is a New Albany attorney and has won a highly creditable place in Southern Indiana both as a professional man and citizen.
Mr. Turner was born at New Albany, Indiana, September 5, 1893, son of George and Liza Turner and grandson of William Turner. His grandfather came from England and settled at New Albany about 1820. He was a Southern Indiana farmer. George Turner was born at New Albany. Charles R. Turner was one of four children. He was three years of age when his mother died, and after that he was in an orphan's home until nine years of age. He then grew up to the age of eighteen with a farmer named Thomas Wininger, of Floyd County. Accordingly he had only limited opportunities during his youth. He attended the grade and high schools of Floyd County, and after that had to work his way. He graduated from the Thorpe University School in 1913 and supported himself while in college by pressing clothes and cooking. Mr. Turner completed his law course at the University of Kentucky and was admitted to the bar in 1916. He began practice at New Albany in 1917 and has built up a large clientage. He is regarded as a very able counselor, a man exemplifying complete fidelity to the interests entrusted to his charge.
Mr. Turner served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1916 to 1918 and took an active part in the legislative program during the years immediately following the close of the World war. During the war he was a four-minute speaker and served on committees for prosecuting the Liberty Loan drives and the War Savings Stamp campaign and also in behalf of the Red Cross. Mr. Turner was elected prosecuting attorney of Floyd County in 1918 and served three terms, and from January 1, 1926, until January 1, 1930, was attorney for the City of New Albany.
He first married Miss Carrie Fenger, who died February 6, 1926, leaving a son, Charles, who is now attending school at New Albany. In 1927 Mr. Turner married Antoinette Donoghoe, a native of Kentucky. He is affiliated with Pythagoras Lodge No. 355 of the Masonic fraternity, the New Albany Country Club, and Floyd County and Indiana State Bar Associations.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
WILLIAM ROBERT HELM was born and reared in Floyd County and at its judicial center, the City of New Albany, he now holds the office of county sheriff, in which he is giving an efficient and popular administration.
Sheriff Helm was born on the parental farm in Floyd County September 3, 1879, one of a family of eight children. He is a son of T. W. and Rebecca J. Helm, his father having been born in Kentucky and having come in 1867 to Floyd County, Indiana, where he became a substantial farmer and general contractor.
The present sheriff of Floyd County was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and received the advantages of the district schools. He continued his active association with farm industry in his native county until the nation became involved in war with Spain, in 1898. He was eighteen years of age when he thus enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war, he having become a member of the Second United States Infantry, having continued in service three years and having been with his command in campaign service in Cuba. After receiving his honorable discharge he returned to Floyd County, and in 1902 he was appointed assistant platform foreman of the New Albany freighthouse of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville (the Monon) Railroad. He continued in this service until 1914, and thereafter he was a valued member of the New Albany police force until 1926, when he had the distinction of being chosen chief of the police department. His vigorous and effective administration in this office marked him as a logical candidate when he was made the Republican nominee for that of county sheriff, to which he was elected in 1928 and in which he is serving with characteristic loyalty, discrimination and resourcefulness.
Sheriff Helm is a stalwart in the ranks of the Republican party, in the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the four York Rite bodies - Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commander of Knights Templars, as well as with the Mystic Shrine, and he has membership also in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Improved Order of Red Men, the Junior Order United American Mechanics, the Veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He and his wife, whose maiden name was Lillian Stubblefield, and who was born in Kentucky, have no children.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ELMER H. MILLER is one of the most active business men of his native City of New Albany. He was in the army air service for several years and for the past ten years has given his time to the automobile business. He is now president of the Boone-Miller Motor Company, Inc.
Mr. Miller was born at New Albany, February 1, 1892, son of Louis and Anna (Frankenberger) Miller. His paternal grandparents, John and Theresa Miller, came from Germany, lived in Pennsylvania for a time and located at New Albany in 1860. John Miller served as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war and for many years was in business at New Albany. Louis Miller was born in Indiana and followed a business career. His wife, Anna Frankenberger, came from Mainz, Germany.
Elmer H. Miller was one of a family of three sons and one daughter. He attended the grade and high schools of New Albany, and when nineteen years of age began a business career. For two years he was a salesman for hardwood lumber. He was enlisted with the Indiana National Guard from 1911 to 1917, at first in Company M of the Fourteenth Regiment, and he went to the Mexican border with B Troop of the Fourteenth Cavalry. He was on the border patrol service until 1920, when he returned to New Albany.
For nearly ten years Mr. Miller has been with the Studebaker Automobile Corporation, at first as field service representative. In 1927 he organized the Wilcox-Miller Motors Company. In 1928 Mr. Boone bought the interest of Mr. Wilcox and since then the firm has been Boone-Miller Motor Company, Inc., with Mr. Miller president and general manager, S. H. Boone, vice president and treasurer, and A. E. Miller, secretary. His company acts as distributors for the Studebaker and Erskine cars over a large territory in Southern Indiana. They handle about 200 cars annually and have a fine show room with shop, covering about 12,000 square feet. Their shop is equipped with the most modern mechanical devices for handling repair work of all kinds. About twelve people are employed throughout the year.
Mr. Miller in 1924 was appointed a member of the City Council for an unexpired term and he has since been elected in 1926 and 1928. He is an active member of the New Albany Chamber of Commerce, is a Republican, a member of the Masonic fraternity, B. P. O. Elks and the American Legion. Mr. Miller married Alma E. Hessing, of Floyd County. They have one daughter, Virginia May, attending school at New Albany.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES W. STOLZER is a native of Indiana whose life work has consisted chiefly in activities connected with education and with the practice of medicine. Doctor Stolzer is one of the leading physicians of New Albany.
He was born in Clark County, Indiana, April 26, 1862. His father, William Stolzer, was a native of Straussburg, France, and was two years of age when his parents came to America and settled in Kentucky. He grew up in the home of an uncle, Capt. I. Huber, who had served as an officer under Napoleon. William Stolzer spent his life as a farmer and business man. He married Elizabeth Wade, a native of North Carolina, whose parents moved to that state from Pennsylvania.
Doctor Stolzer was one of four children. He attended the grade and high schools of Floyd County and graduated from the National Normal University of Lebanon, Ohio. He then took up school work, and from 1889 to 1907 served as county superintendent of schools in Floyd County. In the meantime he was studying medicine, and in 1904 graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Indianapolis. For six years after graduating he carried on the practice of medicine in connection with school work . In 1910 he received a diploma in general medicine from the University of Louisville. Doctor Stolzer has license to practice medicine both in Indiana and Tennessee. He practiced in Tennessee from 1908 to 1910, and again from 1918 to 1928. In the latter year he located at New Albany, and has built up a large patronage here. He is a member of the Floyd County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations and during the World war Was medical examiner for the draft board.
Doctor Stolzer married Sarah E. Webb, who was born in Iowa. They have one daughter, Frances, and a grandson, Charles Wiley Gray.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
EDGAR F. JOHNSTON was for over a quarter of a century connected with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee. He became one of the company's ablest representatives in Northern Indiana. His home was at South Bend from 1913 until his death in November, 1930, and in that city he gained a host of friends who esteemed him not only for his business abilities but for his willingness to serve and work in many causes and organizations not directly connected with business.
Mr. Johnston was a native Hoosier. He was born on a farm near Lawrenceburg in Dearborn County, May 23, 1874, and death came to him in the prime of his years and power, at the age of fifty-six. His grandfather, Joseph E. Johnston, was born in Virginia and was descended from an ancestor of the celebrated Confederate leader, Joseph E. Johnston. Joseph E. Johnston came to Indiana the year it was admitted to the Union, in 1816. He built one of the first flour mills in Dearborn County, and followed the milling business until his death.
Columbus Johnston, father of the late Edgar F. Johnston, was born in Dearborn County, was a miller and farmer and was one of the trusted political leaders of his county. From 1880 to 1895 he served as a member of the Indiana Legislature, in both Houses. He died at Lawrenceburg in 1899. Senator Columbus Johnston married Ella J. Brumblay, also a native of Dearborn County. She died in April, 1929, at the age of seventy-four. Her parents had come from Maryland to Indiana in 1840.
The only child of his parents, Edgar F. Johnston, was educated in the public schools at Moores Hill, and later attended Moores Hill College (now Evansville College, at Evansville), where he was graduated with the A. B. degree in 1894 and was salutatorian of his class. Mr. Johnston at the age of eleven had served as a page in the Indiana Senate. After graduating from college he taught one term in the Boys Reform School at Plainfield, Indiana. His interest had early been awakened in newspaper work and he accepted an opportunity to get into journalism at Moores Hill, where for one year he was a reporter, and then became associated with the publication of the Four Counties Chronicle, a weekly newspaper at Moores Hill. His partner in this enterprise was Earl E. Martin, later editor of the Cleveland Press.
After leaving the newspaper field Mr. Johnston went on the road as a traveling representative of an Indiana wholesale house. In January, 1896, he located at Hammond, and operated the first railway express service between that city and Chicago. While in Hammond he served as secretary of the Chamber of Commerce and was secretary of the Hammond Building & Loan Association. In 1903 he, entered the insurance field as district agent of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in the branch office at Hammond. In 1913 he went to South Bend to become the partner of Mr. Warde L. Mack, general agent of the company for Northern Indiana. In that capacity he supervised the work of local agents in twenty-nine Northern Indiana counties. He was a past president of the Mutual Life Underwriters Association.
Probably no citizen of South Bend was more frequently called upon for helpful participation in civic undertakings. During the World war he like nearly every other insurance man had a prominent part in the campaigns and drives. He was a member of the executive committee of South Bend's first War Chest drive. He was a former president and for eight years before his death had been a director of the South Bend Chamber of Commerce. He had the honor of being appointed to the United States River and Harbors Congress, a body of representative leaders from cities and the Great Lakes district working in behalf of the inland waterways program. Mr. Johnston was for many years deeply interested in Masonry. He was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Saint Joseph Lodge No. 45, A. F. and A. M., and was also a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Round Table Club, Knife and Fork Club, was secretary of the South Bend Country Club, and a member of the official board and a trustee of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, and a member of the board of trustees of the Epworth Hospital. During his early years in South Bend his associate as general agent for the insurance company was Warde L. Mack, but after Mr. Mack's retirement in 1927 he had the entire management of the general agency.
Mr. Johnston married October 15, 1895, Miss Elene E. Friedley. She was born at Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, daughter of Judge W. T. Friedley, a former judge of the Jefferson Court. To their marriage were born five children: Edgar F., Jr., now of Apalachicola, Florida, who is married and has a daughter, Mary Elizabeth; William, deceased; Frederick Merrill, of South Bend, who is married and has two children, Suzette Anne and Marye Jayne; Robert, also deceased; and Mary Jane, wife of J. R. Patten of New Rochelle, New York, and mother of one daughter, Mary Jane. Thus Mr. Johnston is survived by three children and four granddaughters.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES TOMBLESON HERTZSCH. The entire career of Charles T. Hertzsch has been connected with the American Car & Foundry Company, and during the past thirty years he has risen from the position of stenographer to that of district manager, with headquarters at Jeffersonville. His life is another illustration of the awards to be secured by steady application, great industry and unswerving integrity, when backed by natural and acquired ability and experience. Most men, interested in their personal affairs and busily engaged therein, give only passing thought to the civic matters which vitally affect their community. Not so with Mr. Hertzsch, who is universally recognized as one of the most public-spirited citizens of the city and who has been a leader and supporter of the greater part of the movements which have resulted in Jeffersonville's development and progress.
Mr. Hertzsch was born at Marshall, Texas, February 11, 1882, and is a son of Charles W. and Anna M. Hertzsch, who brought him to Jeffersonville when he was two years of age. He attended the public schools of the city, graduating from high school as a member of the class of 1898, and in 1900 entered the offices of the American Car & Foundry Company in the capacity of stenographer. He was subsequently advanced to a clerkship in the auditing department, and later in the purchasing department, then becoming time clerk in the production department. In 1906 he be came assistant foreman in the construction department, in the fall of 1907 advanced to general. foreman, and at the time of the death of the foreman of the sheet, pipe and tin department that department was, in 1911, placed in Mr. Hertzsch's division, he thus becoming foreman over fifty per cent of the men employed by the company. In 1916 he was made assistant superintendent of the entire plant, in 1917 was made superintendent and in August, 1918, was made district manager, a position which he has held to the present. The American Car & Foundry Company plant covers seventy-five acres and employs 700 people in the manufacture of railroad passenger cars of all kinds, dining cars and special cars. During the World war the plant was engaged 100 per cent in war production work, furnishing material for the patrol on the Mexican border, including pack saddles and all kinds of metal articles for the quartermaster's department, to be used in ordnance work. The company also furnished a considerable part of all. the steel and metal work for the Ohio River dams and locks.
Mr. Hertzsch is a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce, and a charter member and second president of the Rotary Club. In the Chamber of Commerce he has acted as chairman of many committees on good roads improvements of city streets, etc., and with Wilmer Fox, another public- spirited citizen, was the instigator of the Louisville bridge to Jeffersonville. Mr. Hertzsch was one of the founders of the Clark County Memorial Hospital, and since 1920 has been president of its board of trustees. He is president of George Rogers Clark Aerie of the Boy Scouts of Clark, Floyd, Washington, Scott and Crawford counties. He is a director of Region Seven of the Boy Scouts of America, with headquarters at Chicago. He is a director of the Indiana Manufacturers Association.
Mr. Hertzsch is married and has four children: Mary Inez, Charline Clifton, Charles T. Hertzsch, Jr., and Lucile Hayes, the last named being an adopted daughter.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
SAINT MEINRAD'S ABBEY. Nestling in the hills of Spencer County, in the southern part of the state, is an amazing religious institution, the history of which is so closely identified with that of the lower part of the state that it must be of profound interest to anyone, regardless of creed, who claims Indiana for his home. This institution is Saint Meinrad's Abbey – a community of Benedictine monks, solemnly established at Saint Meinrad on March 21,1854.
Their coming to this locality was not a matter of chance. It was the fruit of the labors of the zealous Father Kundek.
In 1834 the diocese of Vincennes comprised an area of over 50,000 square miles, and included part of the present State of Illinois. Scattered over this vast area were three or four thousand Catholics. One bishop and three priests were not sufficient to administer to them, especially when their numbers began to swell with the immigration of Irish and Germans, mostly Catholics, to these parts. Bishop Brute, the first bishop of Vincennes, sent out a call for missionaries and among those to answer the call was a stalwart native of Croatia - the Reverend Joseph Kundek. Assigned to Jasper, Dubois County, he soon gave evidence of a wonderful skill in organizing. In a few years he founded a number of towns, built churches, and promoted the general development of this territory and the welfare of the great stream of immigrants from temporal as well as spiritual standpoints.
Missionary priests were a great help to the American clergy, but it was not the ideal condition. A native clergy was needed, men born and reared in the field of their future labors. Such was the conviction of Father Kundek, and with the Bishop's sanction he set out for Europe, hoping to interest some religious community in the project of founding a seminary in the Middle W est. His first efforts were unsuccessful. However, he eventually persuaded Abbot Henry, of Einsiedeln, a renowned monastery and place of pilgrimage in Switzerland, with a thousand years of history recorded in its chronicles, to make the venture. At that time the religious in many parts of Europe were being secularized, and the Abbot was searching for a place to which his community might take refuge in the event of their being exiled.
Accordingly, two priests of the Order of Saint Benedict, Father Ulrich Christen and Father Bede O'Connor, were sent to study the prospects and consider the project. When these two were finally settled in their humble quarters on the Denning farm at Saint Meinrad, two more monks, Father Jerome Bachmann and Father Eugene Schwertzmann, arrived from Einsiedeln, and the four began to lead a community life according to the ancient Rule of Saint Benedict, written in 529.
Their first convent was a small log cabin, formally dedicated with impressive ceremonies on March 21, 1854. About 1,500 people from the neighboring hamlets were in attendance.
In less than a month, on April 17, 1854, the first school was opened, with two students enrolled, Robert Huntington and Joseph Key. It is traditional with the Benedictines to conduct schools in connection with their monasteries, and the most important work of the monks at Saint Meinrad, next to the carrying out of the Liturgy, has always been the conducting of a major and a minor seminary and a commercial college.
The history of the community is one of steady progress. One by one the buildings were erected slowly and economically, until today the hill is crowned with an impressive stone structure of great strength and beauty.
The first buildings were frame and included a two-story monastery building of thirteen rooms and a library, and a church, the materials and labor for which were furnished entirely by the monastic community. The cornerstone of this church was laid on April 21, 1858. The building is still standing. Services are conducted in it once a year when the community makes the pilgrimage thither on one of the Rogation days.
The site of the present town of Saint Meinrad, north of the Abbey, was once monastery 1and, but to raise badly needed funds the second Prior, Martin Martz, laid out a twenty acre plot and sold the lots at auction on January 28,1861.
The building program never slackened. In the summer of 1861 the first school building and dormitory was erected - a frame building accommodating thirty boarders. A very thorough course of study was offered to the twenty-four students in attendance. The outbreak of the Civil war somewhat affected the number of students.
On top of the arduous tasks of teaching, ministering and providing their community's physical needs by means of agriculture, milling, etc., the small staff of clergy then at the monastery found time for missionary work in the scattered but rapidly growing pioneer communities round about.
Many names deserve mention in the history of those heroic days, but space prohibits any lengthy details. However, it should be recorded that Father Martin Marty, who was only twenty-six years old when he came to the monastery as Superior, was so indefatigable and possessed such rare .judgment that it was under his wise administration that so many of the earlier problems were solved and so much progress made in putting the establishment on a strong foundation.
On August 20, 1857, a convent for the training of Sisters of Saint Benedict, at Ferdinand, near Saint Meinrad, was established under the direction of Father Martin, and this institution has steadily grown to a community now numbering 270 members. These sisters now have charge of thirty-five parochial schools, aggregating approximately 6,000 children.
The crowning event of Father Martin's administration as Prior was the erection of the Shrine of "Our Lady of Monte Cassino, built of sandstone quarried on the property. The cornerston was laid September 21,1868, but it was not completed until 1870. Frequent pilgrimages are still made to this shrine in the woods by many worshippers from far and near.
Up to 1870 the institution held rank as a priory, but on September 30 of that year Pope Pius IX raised it to the dignity of an independent Abbey, with rights and privileges enjoyed by the abbeys of the Swiss congregations. Father Martin was simultaneously made the first Abbot of the new Abbey. The ceremonies of the blessing of the new Abbot were attended by large numbers of persons from the surrounding country.
On May 2, 1872, the cornerstone was laid for the new monastery by Abbot Martin, and on September 14, 1872, the cornerstone of a new Abbey church was laid by Bishop de St. Palais. Both buildings were constructed of sandstone quarried on the property and built by labor donated mostly by neighboring parishioners and by the monks and students. Generous contributions came from the congregations in charge of the Abbey.
As missionary work is one of the prime purposes of the Benedictines, much missionary work was fostered by Abbot Martin, resulting in the establishment of several new Abbeys in western areas and the care of Sioux Indians in Dakota Territory on the Standing Rock Agency. This missionary enterprise grew to such proportions as to require the entire attention of one official, and accordingly on September 22, 1879, Pope Pius IX appointed Abbot Martin, Vicar Apostolic of Dakota Territory and Titular Bishop of Tiberius.
Father Fintan succeeded Bishop Martin Marty as Abbot of Saint Meinrad, being elected February 3,1880. His rule was characterized as less rigorous and conducive to a more congenial atmosphere. He completed the college begun by Abbot Martin and began the building of a great church.
On September 2, 1887, just when prosperity seemed assured for Saint Meinrad, a terrible fire broke out in the Abbey kitchen and in three short hours the arduous labors of thirty- four years were destroyed,. the loss being estimated at $200,000.
Through the generosity of many benefactors the buildings were rebuilt in 1889 in their present form, with subsequent additions. The college became henceforward an exclusively ecclesiastical school for aspirants to the priesthood, while those students who wished to pursue a secular education were transferred to Jasper, Indiana, where the Fathers opened a college, now known as Jasper Academy. On December 30,1889, Saint Meinrad was incorporated as an educational institution with power to confer degrees.
Abbot Fintan died in February, 1898, and was succeeded by Father Athanasius Schmitt, under whose administration the present imposing and beautiful church was built and dedicated March 21, 1907.
After the church was completed an architect was employed to revise the plans for the whole complex of buildings and project new ones, including the library, built in 1913, and the seminary, built in 1923, as well as the extensive additions now under construction.
These much needed additions are estimated to cost about $500,000. Three large four-story wings are now being added to form a new quadrangle on the south of the present building. These. will be built of native sandstone veneer on tile, the stone being cut to shape in the Abbey stone cutting shops. The frame will be of steel, the foundations of reinforced concrete, and the design of Romanesque to match the present building, everything being entirely fireproof and well equipped. It is hoped to have the new addition ready for use in 1932.
While the new seminary buildings will be designed and equipped with a view to art as well as permanence, all that suggests wealth and luxury will be avoided.
Because of the advanced age of Abbot Athanasius and the strenuous demands on the executive office at this time of expansion, Right Reverend Ignatius Esser has been elected coadjutor abbot; it is under his energetic administration that the new expansion program is going forward. Abbot Ignatius came to Saint Meinrad as a student in 1908 and was ordained in 1919. He was elected co- adjutor abbot March 11, 1930.
With the splendid modern printing plant, publishing several important periodicals with circulations of several hundred thousand as well as beautiful books; with barns and other farm equipment that would be the envy of any agriculturist; with their own modern pumping system; and with natural resources that supply much of the food and satisfy many of the needs of the institution, Saint Meinrad's Abbey is a truly impressive place and well worth a visit from anyone who takes a pride in the institutions of Indiana.
The members of the Benedictine community at Saint Meinrad now number 145, 65 priests, 30 clerics and 45 lay-brothers. Thirty priests are active at the institution, in charge of various offices and as members of the faculty; others are pastors of neighboring parishes; seven labor among the Indians in North and South Dakota; five priests, assisted by several lay professors, conduct Jasper Academy, which has an enrollment of 140 students. At Saint Meinrad the student body numbers 400: 260 in the Minor Seminary and 140 in the Major Seminary.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
GUY KELLEY MILLS, member of an old and prominent family of Warrick County, a son of the Boonville physician and surgeon, William Henry Mills, has made a reputation in his home community as a successful young attorney.
Mr. Mills was born at Boonville, July 18, 1889, son of Dr. William Henry and Sarah E. (Kelley) Mills. He has one brother, Charles Kelley Mills, a physician now practicing at San Saba, Texas, who married Dorris McPherson, of Indianapolis.
Guy Kelley Mills grew up at Boonville, attended grammar and high schools there, and in 1917 enlisted for service in the World war. He became a pilot and mechanic in the Aviation Corps. Mr. Mills since early manhood has been interested in farming, mining and real estate. In 1926 he graduated from the Benjamin Harrison Law School at Indianapolis and for a time remained in the state capital practicing law. In October, 1927, he returned to Boonville and has built up a good practice. He is a member of the committee on legal education of the Warrick County Bar Association and is a member of the Indiana State Bar Association, the Sigma Delta Kappa law fraternity and is post historian of Warrick Post No. 200 of the American Legion and belongs to the Forty and Eight Society.
Mr. Mills is a member of the B. P. O. Elks, the Kiwanis Club and Boonville Business Men's Association. In politics he is a Democrat. He married at Princeton, Indiana, February 21, 1914, Miss Eunice Coleman, of Oakland City, Indiana, daughter of Millard Coleman. They have one daughter, Margaret Lucile, born March 28, 1915, now a student in the Boonville High School.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
TAYLOR C. BASYE. The entire career of Taylor C. Basye has been passed in the drug business at Rockport, where from the time of his leaving college until 1897 he was associated with his father, and since that time has been carrying on the same enterprise, which was founded by the elder man. He is widely known in his calling, having served one term as president of the Indiana State Pharmaceutical Association, and also has various other interests, being at present president of the Spencer County Historical Society.
Mr. Basye was born at Rockport, Spencer County, Indiana, January 3, 1862, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Sampson) Basye. John Basye was born April 19, 1827, in Spencer County, second of three children of Taylor and Adoshea (Duel) Basye. Taylor Basye was born in Virginia, in 1788. While still a boy he moved with his parents to Kentucky, about 1820 he moved to Grass Township, Spencer County and later to Hammond Township. In 1829 he moved to New York, then to Kentucky, then to Tennessee and in 1839 settled at Troy, Indiana, where for many years he conducted a merchandising business extensively and successfully. He served Perry County as commissioner for two terms. He died August 31, 1857, esteemed by a large circle of acquaintances. John Basye was given a fair education and at twenty-five years of age he embarked in the drug trade at Troy, remaining there for three years. In 1858 he moved to Rockport and engaged in the dry goods trade for three years but in 1862 opened the drug store that is still operated by his son, Taylor C. Basye, the store having served the people of Rockport continuously for nearly seventy years. On November 20, 1860, John Basye married Elizabeth M. Sampson, and they became the parents of four children, of whom Taylor C. is the eldest. One died in infancy. Edith, the elder daughter, is the wife of Prof. George C. Price, of Stanford University, California, from which institution their only son, John, born in 1906, graduated in 1929. Professor Price is one of the best known educators on the Pacific Coast, and among the students who have received instruction under him are Mrs. Herbert Hoover and Secretary of the Interior Ray L. Wilbur. Blanche, the younger daughter of John and Elizabeth Basye, is the wife of Prof. E. A. Gilmore, who holds the chair of law (dean) at the University of Iowa and was for eight years vice governor general and for eighteen months acting governor general of the Philippine Islands. Governor and Mrs. Gilmore have three children: Eugene A., born in 1902; Elizabeth, born in 1905; and John, born in 1910. At the time of his death, February 19, 1897, John Basye was one of the oldest best known and most reliable merchants at Rockport. He was a Royal Arch Mason.
The public schools of Rockport furnished Taylor C. Basye with his early education, following which he pursued a course at what was then Asbury College, now DePauw University. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He then became associated in the business of his father, and upon the death of the elder man, in 1897, succeeded to its ownership. He has an enterprise that is modern in every particular and has gained the confidence and liberal patronage of a large percentage of the residents of Rockport. As before mentioned, he is highly thought of among the members of his calling in the state, who chose him as president of the Indiana Pharmaceutical Association for the term of 1912. He has always been greatly interested in the history of Spencer County, has been a close student thereof, and is now president of the Spencer County Historical Society. In addition to his pharmacy Mr. Basye has various other interests. Politically he is a Republican, but has not sought public office. He is active in public affairs, however, as a citizen, and is a member of the local Kiwanis Club. He belongs to the Methodist Church, and fraternally is affiliated with the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
On December 4, 1895, at Rockport, Mr. Basye was united in marriage with Miss Pearl Haines, a daughter of John G. and Margaret (Payne) Haines, natives of Spencer County, where Mr. Haines was for many years engaged in agricultural pursuits. Mr. and Mrs. Basye have no children.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
