Philip Matter was an Indiana citizen whose life and character must be measured not alone by the standards of business success. He exemplified those personal powers and qualities which have been conspicuous in that generation of Americans to which he was contemporary. He was born near Palmyra, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in 1842. His father was a tavern owner and proprietor at Palmyra. His educational opportunities were confined to the common schools. When he was fifteen years of age he went to work for an older brother, John Matter, who was conducting an extensive business as a dealer in horses and cattle and who afterwards became a prominent banker and land owner at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. During his apprenticeship with this brother Philip Matter received only board and keep and one suit of clothes. At the conclusion of his period of training he engaged in the horse and cattle business for himself. As a stock drover he became widely known, making frequent trips to Ohio and driving herds of cattle on foot over the Allegheny Mountains to the eastern markets. During the Civil war he acted as an inspector of horses for the United States Government, and in that capacity he personally rode thousands of horses before passing on them for the Government. At the time of the battle of Gettysburg he narrowly escaped capture by the Confederate army while driving a herd of cattle through the mountains.
By the time he was forty years of age Philip Matter had achieved success in business far out of the ordinary. Some idea of the scope of his activities is found in the biography published of him about that time, from which the following sentences are quoted:
"Mr. Matter settled in this state in 1868, and in 1876 took up his permanent abode at Marion. He has followed all his life the business of dealing in live stock, in which he is an adept, and it is believed by some of his friends that he can tell a good horse as well as any other man living. He owns 800 acres of excellent land in this county, and has sold near 1,000 acres during the past year. In his stables on his stock farm a few miles north of here and also those in the town he has capacity for boarding over 200 head of horses. He ships 500 head yearly, and this, together with his other large interests, imposes no little business cares upon him.
"He owns one-fifth interest in the Hartford City Citizens' Bank, and carries on the business of contractor on a large scale. He has built thirteen miles of the C. W. and M. Railroad, has constructed miles upon miles of gravel road and has a small army of men constantly at work filling his contracts. He is among the largest land owners and wealthiest men and capitalists in this vicinity. He has made every dollar of his possessions, and he never permits his large means to get the better of his simple manners and his good judgment. He is educated theoretically and practically, possesses remarkable business talent, is blessed with an unusual amount of that rare something called 'common sense,' and is as full of honor in business and the discharge of his obligations as a man possibly can be.
"His record here in his home, where he is best known, would seem 'too good to be true'; but there is nothing in the aphorism in this connection but an evidence of incredulity simply. It could only apply in the case of a man who is not ashamed of a small beginning, who is self-made, who is even now a constant worker and who in no way is other than plain Philip Matter, though standing forth in the bright rays of prosperity's sun."
Philip Matter's energies were not limited to a "single track." New times and new opportunities dawned upon Eastern Indiana with the discovery of natural gas in the decade of the 1880s. Philip Matter became one of the organizers of the Marion Gas Company and was one of the most prominent among local men in securing not only to his own city but to other Indiana towns the industrial advantages associated with cheap fuel. He had a part in the establishment and financing of the Anderson Glass Company, the Tin Plate Mills at Anderson, the Peru Steel Casting Company at Peru, the Highland Iron and Steel Company, with mills at Terre Haute, Indiana, and West Pullman, Illinois. It was a group of Indiana men, prominent among whom was Philip Matter, who founded the town of Monessen, Pennsylvania, as the site of their large tin plate mills. In the history of the remarkable age of electrical development Philip Matter will deserve a permanent distinction in the fact that he financed and built the first electric interurban railroad in America. This was a line running from Anderson to Summitville, and was a part of the Indiana Union Traction System, now The Indiana Railroad System.
It was in line with his innate modesty that he refused all honorary positions and political honors. But he was thoroughly public spirited and in a quiet way made his influence felt for good in various directions. At the suggestion of his wife he donated a beautiful tract of ground lying along the river north of Marion for the purpose of a public park. This has been appropriately named Matter Park. During the World war he was the largest subscriber in Grant County to the various Liberty Loans. One of his outstanding traits was love of work. It is said that he almost never missed a day from his desk until the time of his death. It was his good fortune that he was given health and strength to pursue his activities practically until the end. His death on March 3, 1928, was the result of an accidental fall in his home and not from the infirmities of old age. In spite of his eighty-five years he retained until the end most of his great physical and mental vigor. He never lost his love for a good horse. He rode in automobiles, but his personal preference was to drive his own horse, and almost every afternoon during his old age, when automobiles were crowding the highways, he could be seen driving out to one of his farms in the country. Among other qualities that stamped Philip Matter as a man of no ordinary character was his sense of justice. He always refused to take an unfair advantage of anyone, even if his decision resulted in a pecuniary loss to himself.
Philip Matter married Lile Harter, whose father was a pioneer land owner at Wabash, Indiana, and was the builder and operator of the first grist mill in Wabash County. Lile Harter was born in Wabash, in 1854, and died at Marion in 1926. She was educated at the Wabash Seminary and at Glendale College in Cincinnati. She is remembered as a woman of unusual refinement, with a keen appreciation for the finer arts, and from her Milton Matter inherited his strong bent toward artistic things.
Mr. Milton Matter was born at Marion, August 12, 1887. After attending the common schools of his native city he entered the Lawrenceville Preparatory School of New Jersey in 1903, and two years later enrolled in Princeton University, where he specialized in modern languages and the history of art. He also won a place on the editorial board of each of the three undergraduate publications. In 1909 he was graduated with honors from. the university, with the degree of Litt. B. The following year, as a fellow in art, he returned to the Graduate School, winning his Master's degree, and was again awarded an art fellowship by Princeton, carrying with it the privilege of a year of European travel. While in Germany he attended the University of Berlin and the University of Goettingen.
Mr. Matter on his return to the United States in the spring of 1911 was appointed director of the John Herron Art Institute at Indianapolis. This position he resigned to become assistant professor of art at Wells College, Aurora, New York.
Since 1913 Mr. Matter has been closely identified with the Marion State Bank, the only break in his connections resulting from his service with the colors during the World war. The Marion State Bank was founded by his father in 1883. Mr. Matter began as teller, was promoted to successive higher responsibilities and in 1928 was made president. In August, 1928, the Marion State Bank was consolidated with the Marion National Bank, and since that time Mr. Matter has been vice president and director of the latter institution.
In 1916 he was elected a member of the Grant County Council. In 1917 he was chosen by the bankers of Grant County to act as chairman for the Second Liberty Loan campaign. With the successful conclusion of that drive, in which he had the satisfaction of seeing the county exceed its quota by a substantial margin. Mr. Matter volunteered as a private in the aviation service, and after three months in a training school was commissioned a second lieutenant in May, 1918. He was sent to Ellington Field, near Houston, Texas, where he became commanding officer of the Seventieth Air Squadron. He was discharged from the service in May, 1919. Mr. Matter is a member of the Meshingomesia Country Club and the Mecca Club of Marion, the Cap and Gown Club of Princeton, and the University Club of Indianapolis.
He married, November 26, 1926, Miss Mary Ann Sweetser, daughter of Fred M. Sweetser, a well known Marion banker and business man. Her mother was a daughter of Edwin S. Tansey, a banker at Union City, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Milton Matter have one son, Philip, who was born at Marion, August 3, 1929.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CALDER DE BRULER EHRMANN, M. D., who has practiced for thirty years in Rockport, has rendered distinguished service in a profession which the Ehrmann family has favored above all other occupations. The people of Southern Indiana have known very favorably the work and character of a number of men of this name in the medical profession.
Doctor Ehrmann's wife, Mrs. Bess V. Ehrmann, has long been an interesting figure in Indiana literary circles. She was one of the founders of Indiana's second "Little Theater," helping promote it in 1917, a short time after the first institution of the kind was started at Indianapolis. Mrs. Ehrmann for twenty years was dramatic director of the Rockport High School. Her favorite subject of study has been Indiana history and she has shown remarkable ability in presenting the dramatic features of local history in pageants and plays. One of these was the historical biennial pageant "When Lincoln When Flatboating from Rockport," which was first produced in 1926, at the exact spot on the Ohio River where Lincoln left as oarsman on Allen Gentry's flatboat in 1828. Mrs. Ehrmann has been president and vice president of the Spencer County Historical Society, and also president of the Southwestern Indiana Historical Society. She has also served as president of the Rockport Woman's Club, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was the first Democratic woman elected a member of the City Council of Rockport.
Calder De Bruler Ehrmann was born at Rockport, Spencer County, June 6, 1878, son of Edward D. and Eugenia (De Bruler) Ehrmann, grandson of Dr. Christian E. and Sophia (Withers) Ehrmann. Sophia Withers, who came from Baltimore County, Maryland, was a daughter of James Withers, whose wife, Charlotte Calder, was a daughter of Capt. James Calder, one of the notable families of Calders of Scotland. Dr. Christian E. Ehrmann was a well known homeopathic physician in Southern Indiana. Edward D. Ehrmann had four sisters and four brothers, and all of his brothers and one of his sisters became physicians. Dr. Edward D. Ehrmann practiced medicine in Rockport forty years. His wife, Eugenia De Bruler, was a daughter of Judge Lemuel Quincy and Angeline Huldah (Condict) De Bruler. In the early annals of the Indiana bench and bar Judge De Bruler's name is frequently mentioned with honor. Calder De Bruler Ehrmann has a brother, Lawrence Sidney Ehrmann, of Louisville, Kentucky, who married Ruth Roberts and has a son, Lawrence De Bruler.
Dr. Calder D. Ehrmann is a graduate of the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College and also attended the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons of Indiana, graduating in 1900. Since his graduation he has enjoyed the success and standing of a leader in his profession in Rockport. In July, 1918, he enlisted, was commissioned a captain in the Army Medical Corps, and for some time was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and was in New York ready to sail for France when the armistice was signed. He is a member of the Spencer County and Vanderburg Medical Societies.
Doctor Ehrmann for sixteen years has been city health officer of Rockport, served one term as coroner and for seven years was president of the city school board. He is a Republican, a member of the Masonic Lodge at Rockport, the Scottish Rite Consistory and Hadi Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Evansville. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club.
Doctor Ehrmann and Miss Bess Virginia Hicks were married at Rockport June 23, 1902. Mrs. Ehrmann is a daughter of Royal S. and Rachel (Britton) Hicks. Her mother's father, Thomas Pindall Britton, came from Virginia to Indiana and was one of the pioneers of Rockport. Her father, Royal S. Hicks, was the father of the Rockport Democrat, which has been published continuously since 1855. His talents and education enabled him to honor several callings and he was a capable lawyer, a writer, and at one time was clerk of the county.
Doctor and Mrs. Ehrmann have three children: Edwin Calder, who married Mabel Green; Dorothy Britton, wife of Richard Mason; and Carlos Royal Ehrmann.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CARL OLIVER HOLMES has been one of the leaders in advancing the civic and material development and prestige of the marvelous industrial City of Gary, where his interests have been varied and of major importance, and where as chief executive of the South Side Trust & Savings Bank he has the distinction of being in point of continuous service the oldest bank president in this metropolitan community. His civic loyalty and liberality have been ever in evidence, and his has been large and benignant influence not only in community affairs but also in connection with organizations and interests that touch the vital well being of the state at large. This history of Indiana has been favored in gaining the interposition of Mr. Holmes in the capacity of member of its editorial advisory board, for his is deep, comprehensive and well fortified interest in the history of his native state.
Carl Oliver Holmes was born on a farm near McCool, Porter County, Indiana, June 15, 1883, and is the eldest of the eight children born to Charles J. and Emma M. (Ryden) Holmes, his parents having been born in Sweden and having long been sterling and highly respected citizens of Porter and Lake counties, Indiana, where the father gave his active career to farm industry, his death having occurred in 1924 and his wife having passed away in 1902. Both were reared in the faith of the Lutheran Church but in the land of their adoption they became active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their mortal remains rest in the cemetery at Chesterton, Porter County.
C. Oliver Holmes passed his childhood and early youth on various Lake County farms that were rented by his father, and he learned in this period the valuable lessons of industry and self-reliance, the while he profited by the advantages of the public schools, his studies having included a short high school course, and he having thereafter given about three years to attendance in an academy and a business college. He then obtained the position of stenographer in the offices of the Lake County Savings & Trust Company in the City of Hammond, where he likewise gave service as assistant bookkeeper and as teller. In 1905 Mr. Holmes succeeded W. C. Harrison in the position of deputy clerk of the United States courts for Lake County, and he provided a living income by his service as court and public reporter. He finally was retained as stenographer for L. L. Bomberger and A. F. Knotts, with the latter of whom he came to Gary in that capacity. In 1906 he was employed as stenographer for the Gary Land Company, thereafter he served four years as town clerk, and for seven years he was a valued member of the local board of education, and was a member when Dr. William A. Wirt was elected superintendent of schools. In the spring of 1908 he engaged in the real estate and insurance business, under the title of C. O. Holmes & Company, his associate having been Peter W. Meyn, of Hammond. In March, 1909, Mr. Holmes organized the Calumet Trust & Savings Bank, of which, he continued the president until the following December, when the business was sold to the First National Bank of Gary. Mr. Holmes then effected the organization and incorporation of the South Side Trust & Savings Bank of Gary, and as president of this institution he now is the senior of all other chief bank executives in the City of Gary, as previously noted. Mr. Holmes has a full measure of pioneer honors in Gary, for he served as stenographer and secretary to A. F. Knotts, who, in 1905-1906, bought the land for the United States Steel Corporation, the great corporation that projected and developed, from a barren waste of sand, the present great industrial city. Mr. Holmes is vice president of the Griffith State Bank at Griffith, Lake County; vice president of the Citizens State Bank at Columbia City, Whitley County; vice president of the Peoples State Bank of Michigan City, LaPorte County; president of the Boulevard Heights Realty Company of Gary; and is treasurer of the Lookout Mountain Cave Company, of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He has served as president of the Indiana Bankers Association and in 1930 is a member of the executive council of the American Bankers Association.
Even the data thus far incorporated in this review reveal that Mr. Holmes has been distinctively the architect of his own fortunes - a man who has translated thought and purpose into large and worthy achievement of concrete order. His interests have not been confined, however, to mere material achievement, for he has had no minor leadership in public affairs and is now serving his third consecutive term as representative of Lake County in the Indiana State Senate, in which he served as chairman of the committees on banking, insurance, benevolent institutions and cities and towns, besides having been assigned to other important committees. His intrinsic loyalty has been shown in his earnest promotion of wise legislation, especially in behalf of his constituent district. Senator Holmes gave eight years of service as a member of the Indiana State Committee on Mental Defectives; he is President of the Indiana Society on Mental Hygiene; he is a member of the executive committee of the Indiana State Conference on Social Work, of which he is a past president; he has served as president of the Indiana Tuberculosis Association; he is a charter member of the Gary Y. M. C. A., as well as its representative on the National Council and State Committee of the Y. M. C. A.; and he was one of the organizers of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Gary, of which he and his wife are most zealous members and of the board of trustees of which he is the president. Mr. Holmes at the present time is a director of the local Y. M. C. A.; chairman of the Gary Interracial Council; director of Stewart House; member and treasurer of the Indiana Committee on Law Observance and Enforcement; president of the Central Trust & Savings Bank of Gary; president, of the Mutual Building & Loan Association of Gary; president of the Boulevard Heights Realty Company; director of the Mount Glenwood Cemetery Association of Chicago, Illinois; member of the executive council of the World Service Commission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and three times, 1920-1924-1928, a member of its general conference, and he renders his church further service as a member of its Foreign Language Bureau and member of its Board of Home Missions. The political allegiance of Senator Holmes is given unreservedly to the Republican party.
At Harcourt, Iowa, on the 25th of September, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Holmes to Miss Lydia Perry, daughter of Andrew and Martha Perry. Andrew Perry was for many years one of the representative farmers of Webster County, Iowa, where he was also vice president of the bank at Harcourt, his death having occurred in 1920 and his wife having passed away about four years previously. Mrs. Holmes received the advantages of the Iowa public schools and a leading academy of Chicago, her advanced musical training having been acquired in North Park College, Chicago, and she having been a successful teacher of music in Iowa prior to her marriage. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she is a devoted member at Gary, she is president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, and she is a member of the board of trustees of the local Y. W. C. A., while she has membership in the Gary Woman's Club, the local Woman's Relief Corps and the Assembly Woman's Club of Indianapolis. Mrs. Holmes is a gracious figure in the church, cultural and social circles of her home city, and is here the popular chatelaine of her beautiful home at 4300 Washington Street. Martha Louise, only child of Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, continued her studies in the Gary public schools until she had profited by the curriculum of Emerson High School, and in 1931 she is a student in the exclusive Starrett School for Girls, on Drexel Boulevard in the City of Chicago.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HON. JAMES PUTNAM GOODRICH, who was Indiana's World war governor, was born at Winchester and has always claimed that Eastern Indiana community as his home. His people were early settlers of Randolph County. His grandfather, Edmund Goodrich, a native of Virginia, was at one time head of the school at Blacksburg which is now the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. After coming to Eastern Indiana he was a merchant at Deerfield and later at Winchester. The father of Governor Goodrich was John Bell Goodrich, who was born at Blacksburg, Virginia, and died in 1872. He was an attorney by profession, held the office of county clerk and performed special duties for Governor Morton during the war. John Bell Goodrich married Elizabeth Edger, who was born at Deerfield, Indiana, a daughter of Edward and Mary J. (Gray) Edger. Her father came from Ireland and was a pioneer business man in Randolph County and carried many flat boats of produce down the river to New Orleans. Mrs. Elizabeth Goodrich was twenty-eight years of age when her husband died. She was left with five sons, reared them on a farm near Winchester, part of which she subsequently donated to the City of Winchester for park purposes, and it is known as Goodrich Park. All her sons became substantial citizens and business men and she lived to see one of them inaugurated governor of the state.
James Putnam Goodrich was educated in the public schools of Winchester, attended DePauw University two years and studied law with the firm of Watson & Engle at Winchester. He was admitted to the bar in 1886. Governor Goodrich was one of a class of nine graduates from the Winchester High School. This class comprised six boys and three girls, the three girls including Miss India Brumfield, Lilly Richardson and Mrs. James P. Goodrich, while the other graduates were Senator Watson, of Indiana, Emerson Addington, of New Orleans, P. E. Goodrich, head of the Goodrich Brothers Company, and Dr. John. R. Commons, of the University of Wisconsin.
After his admission to the bar James P. Goodrich practiced with Judge James Engle and later with Senator James E. Watson and then with John W. Macy until 1907. Federal Judge Anderson appointed him receiver of the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railway, and he conducted that receivership until the property, in 1910, was sold to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway system. He then became general counsel at Indianapolis for the insurance department of the Knights of Pythias, later was appointed receiver of the Noelke-Richards Iron Works. On January 1, 1916, he retired from law practice to become candidate for governor, was elected and was inaugurated January 7, 1917.
The heaviest parts of his administration were those arising out of the war conditions. Among great permanent and constructive reforms of his term were the establishment of the Indiana department of conservation, the organization of the highway department, a revision of the tax laws, Indiana's ratification of universal suffrage and prohibition amendments to the National Constitution and the measure prohibiting aliens from voting before becoming citizens. Governor Goodrich early in 1919 called a special session of the Legislature to take measures to prevent profiteering in coal, as a result of which the price of that necessity was reduced from six dollars to three dollars a ton.
His term as governor closed in January, 1921. During that year, while on a vacation motor trip, he received a telegram from Secretary Hoover asking him to go to Russia to investigate the famine conditions in that country. As a member and trustee of the American Relief Administration he made two subsequent trips to Russia and in 1923, after his return, advised the withdrawal of funds for further grain supplies. He is president of the American Relief Association. In 1926 he went to Russia as delegate of the Indiana State University, to attend the 200th anniversary of the celebration of the Russian Academy of Science. Under appointment of President Harding he became a member of the International St. Lawrence Waterways Commission and by reappointment of President Coolidge and President Hoover is still a member of that commission. While he was governor the plans were made, and the law enacted, for Indiana World War Memorial at Indianapolis. He is a trustee of the Roosevelt Memorial Commission, Indiana World War Memorial Commission, trustee of the American Child Welfare Association, a member of President Hoover's commission on Conservation of the Public Domain; is president of the board of trustees of Wabash College and is a trustee of the McCormick Theological Seminary of Chicago.
Governor Goodrich is president of the People's Loan & Trust Company and the People's Investment & Guaranty Company of Winchester, and is a director of the Goodrich Brothers Company. He is a Republican, is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the Indiana Bankers Association, Indiana Bar Association, and the Columbia Club of Indianapolis. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Governor Goodrich married, in 1888, Miss Cora Frist, who was born at Middleboro, Wayne County, Indiana, a daughter of Jonah and Amy (Stidham) Frist, her father a native of Preble County, Ohio, and her mother of Philadelphia. Her grandparents, John and Susanna Frist, came from Delaware, and Stephen Powell and Elizabeth Henry Powell from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Governor Goodrich has one son, Pierre, born September 10, 1895, an Indianapolis attorney. He married Dorothy Dougan, and they have one child, Nancy.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ROBERT W. REID, M. D., graduated from medical college in 1912. He has the useful background of experience as a general practitioner, but for a number of years his work has been largely limited to X-Ray diagnosis and general surgery. Doctor Reid is one of the outstanding representatives of his profession at Union City.
He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 28, 1886, son of Robert B. and Jessie (Pursell) Reid. His father was a native of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and his mother of Maysville, Kentucky. Robert Reid followed the trade of wood pattern maker. Doctor Reid attended school at Cincinnati, graduating from high school in 1905, and for several years was employed in a Cincinnati shoe factory, being assistant to the superintendent. He gave up this work in 1908 to begin the study of medicine in the University of Cincinnati. He was graduated in 1912 and for eighteen months was an interne in the Cincinnati General Hospital.
With his schooling completed he came to Union City, Indiana, where he was engaged in a general medical practice until July 10, 1917.
At that date he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps and was first assigned duty in the Cook County Hospital at Chicago. After five months he was sent to the Medical Officers Training School at Fort Riley, Kansas, and was made chief roentgenologist at Base Hospital No. 25. Doctor Reid was sent overseas in June, 1918, and while there was employed as an X-Ray expert. He returned home June 22, 1919, and on getting his discharge returned to Union City, and on resuming practice decided to give the community the benefit of his specialized experience in X-Ray work and surgery. Doctor Reid is roentgenologist at the Randolph County Hospital at Winchester. He is a member of the Randolph County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations, the Radiological Society of North America, and the Indiana State X- Ray Society.
Doctor Reid married, in 1913, Miss Myrtle Clear, who was born in Union City, daughter of Sigmond and Loretta (Miller) Clear. She died in 1925. In 1927 Doctor Reid married Lena May Dye, a native of Darke County, Ohio. They have a daughter, Roberta, born in 1928. Doctor Reid is a trustee of the Church of Christ. He has served as councilman at large in the Union City government, as member of the Union City Rotary Club; is a Republican, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Junior Order United American Mechanics, and B. P. O. Elks. He is a past commander (1930) of Orville Stover Post, American Legion, at Union City. His home is at 706 West Division Street, Union City.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CURTIS G. SHAKE, whose 1aw offices are established at 112 North Seventh Street in the City of Vincennes, is one of the prominent and influential members of the bar of this section of his native state, has been called to various important offices of public trust, and in the election of November, 1928, he was the Democratic nominee for the office of attorney general of Indiana.
Mr. Shake was born in Knox County, of which the historic old City of Vincennes is the county seat, and the date of his nativity was July 14, 1887. He is a son of Daniel W. and Arminda F. (Wyant) Shake, both likewise natives of the old Hoosier State. Daniel W. Shake was born in Sullivan County, and has given the major part of his active life to farm industry. He is a son of John and Elizabeth (Jarrell) Shake, the former of whom was born and reared in Indiana and represented this state as a loyal soldier of the Union during the latter part of the Civil war. John Shake, a farmer by vocation, was a son of Christopher and Elizabeth (Johnson) Shake, the former of whom was born near Louisville, Kentucky, and became a pioneer settler in Sullivan County, Indiana, where he established his residence in 1824. Elizabeth (Jarrell) Shake was a granddaughter of James Jarrell, who was a soldier in the command of General George Rogers Clark and who with that historic frontiersman assisted in the capture of Fort Sackville, at Vincennes, in 1779.
Curtis G. Shake is the eldest in a family of four sons. Lyman, the second son, is a farmer near Clarion, Iowa, the maiden name of his wife was Elsie Turk, and they have two children. Bert, who is one of the progressive farmers of Knox County, where he was born and reared, married Miss Myrtle VanVleet and they have two children. Arman, who likewise is one of the substantial exponents of farm industry in Knox County, married Miss Opal Waggoner and they have two children.
The childhood and early youth of Curtis G. Shake were compassed by the influences and discipline of the home farm, and he supplemented the training of the public schools by a course in Vincennes University, in which he was graduated in 1906. For two years he taught in the public schools of Knox County. In 1910 he was graduated in the law department of Indiana University and after thus receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Bicknell, Knox County. He served as deputy prosecuting attorney of his native county in the period of 1911-13, and was city attorney of Bicknell from 1912 to 1915. In 1916 Mr. Shake removed from Bicknell to Vincennes, and in July, 1917, formed a partnership with Joseph W. Kimmell, which still continues. In 1923 Mr. Shake was appointed county attorney and served as such until 1926. In the period of 1916-19 he held the office of United States commissioner for this district, and he was a member of the State Senate in the Seventy-fifth General Assembly of the Indiana Legislature, he having resigned this position when he became the Democratic nominee for the office of attorney general of Indiana.
Mr. Shake is one of the influential and popular members of the Knox County Bar Association, and was its president in 1928. He has membership also in the Indiana State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. As implied in previous statements, he is a stalwart advocate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, and in their home city he and his wife have membership in the First Christian Church. He is a member of the Indiana Historical Society, the Mississippi Valley Historical Society, the Society of Indiana Pioneers and the Sons of the American Revolution. His basic Masonic affiliation is with the historic Vincennes Lodge No.1, A. F. and A. M., and he has membership also in the local chapter of Royal Arch Masons and in Vincennes Commandery of Knights Templar. He is a member of the Harmony Society of Vincennes.
On June 5, 1911, Mr. Shake was married to Miss Ann Szeleczki, who was born in Bohemia but who was reared and educated in Indiana. The one child of this union is Gilbert, who is now a student at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
THE GUTHRIE FAMILY were among the earliest settlers of Lawrence County, Indiana. They were not only pioneers in point of time, but had the instincts and character of pioneers, doing something constructive and leaving records of their good work and their citizenship that are held in high esteem in that county today.
The first white child born in Lawrence County was John W. Guthrie, who was a grand-uncle of Alfred Guthrie, who was born in Lawrence County June 25, 1828. Alfred Guthrie was a son of Daniel and Mary (Weddle) Guthrie. Daniel Guthrie came from his native state of Virginia, arriving in Lawrence County when practically the only settlers were Indians. Daniel Guthrie improved a tract of land and was rated as one of the good farmers of Lawrence County. He had a large family, and beyond the advantages of the local schools was unable to give them special opportunities. The oldest of the children was Alfred Guthrie, who lived all his life in Lawrence County, where he passed away June 7, 1913, at the age of eighty-five. No other member of the Guthrie family is known to have reached that good old age. After the common schools, he taught school for several terms. When he was thirty years of age he was told by his doctor that on account of tubercular trouble he had only a short time to live, but his long life disproved that prophesy and he not only lived long but showed a capacity for action, an energy matched by few men, and became a man of much wealth and influence. One of his early ambitions was to go into the army at the time of the Civil war, but he was rejected. Three of his brothers were in the Union ranks, his twin brothers, Eli and Eri, and Marshall. Eli died from illness while with the army in Mississippi. Marshall was a successful farmer and stock dealer and a man of most estimable character. Alfred Guthrie made his start in a business way by investing all his modest capital in a stock of goods and equipping a "peddler" wagon. He succeeded well from the first and after a few years started a little store at Tunnelton. Tunnelton was on the right- of-way of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway, which at that time was being built through Lawrence County. Its name was derived from the fact that three miles east was one tunnel and two miles west was another. Because of this heavy construction a great many men were concentrated there for a long time. Alfred Guthrie got on friendly terms with the workers and also made arrangements with the railroad company to guarantee the bills, and enjoyed an immense trade in his store, so that he was well on the road to wealth and prosperity before the construction work was completed. He then bought land and enlarged his store, and largely as the result of his individual enterprise Tunnelton remained for many years the biggest trading point in Lawrence County. It was not unusual for him to sell as high as $200,000 worth of goods annually. His surplus was invested in land until at one time he owned 3,200 acres in Lawrence County.
When Alfred Guthrie was about twenty-eight years of age another family came into that section of Lawrence County, the Hubbards, from Kentucky. Soon afterward he married Isabelle Ann Hubbard, and they lived happily for many years, until her death in 1890. She was a woman of much intelligence, very kindly and helpful, and was loved by everyone in the neighborhood, the name by which she was affectionately greeted on all sides being Aunt Ibby. Eight children were born to their marriage. The son Melvin T., the oldest, was for several years associated with his father in the mercantile business, married, and all his seven children but one are living. The second child, Melvina, became the wife of James H. Malott, and they had four fine sons, three of whom are living. Claude G. Malott is a resident of Bloomington, where he is active in civic affairs and state politics and is now a member of the State Senate. Noble Malott acquired the old Guthrie homestead and has been honored with a number of terms in the Indiana Legislature. Ray Malott, a very gifted lawyer, is located at Globe, Arizona, and has among his clientage many of the mining companies in that region. The mother of these sons, Mrs. Melvina Malott, died in 1922. The oldest living daughter of the family is Dr. Lillie M. Collyer, widow of the late Dr. Frank M. Collyer. He is a graduate osteopath, as is also his widow, and both practiced for many years at Louisville Kentucky. She now lives at Indianapolis. Two of the sons of Alfred Guthrie, Marshall and Millard, died in infancy. The daughter Carrie is the wife of Dr. L. A. Crim and lives in Indianapolis. Ella, the youngest daughter, who died September 15, 1929, was the wife of John D. Moorehead. The youngest son is Alfred H. Guthrie, whose home is at Cincinnati. For several years he was cashier of the Stone City Bank, of Bedford, Indiana, and for about twenty years has been one of the ablest traveling representatives of the Lewis Publishing Company of Chicago. He is married and has two sons, Alfred H., Jr., and Harvey. He also had one son by his first wife but who died in San Francisco at the age of thirty, on June 2, 1928.
In 1894, after the death of his first wife, Alfred Guthrie married Miss Belle Isenhour, and they had a son, Blaine, who is a rising young lawyer in Louisville, where his mother also lives.
At the time of his death the late Alfred Guthrie was president of the Stone City Bank at Bedford and the majority stock owner of that institution. He never joined a church, but leaned strongly to the faith of the Christian denomination, of which his wife, Isabelle Ann, was an ardent member. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, and a Republican of such partisanship that he would never vote for a Democrat. He was elected to the State Legislature and was on the building committee that erected the present State House at Indianapolis. He also served as county Commissioner, but never had time for many offices. Throughout his life he seemed to be confronted by a constant succession of important duties, and he was almost tireless in his working habits. At one time he was estimated to possess a fortune of a quarter of a million of dollars. During the last several years of his life he was unable to carry on his regular program of business responsibilities, and his chief delight was in visiting his old friends and personally comforting those members of his community who lay sick.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
