Joseph K. English. There is no class of businessmen who more surely rear up visible monuments to their industry and their enterprise than the painters of the slightly structures which become a landmark not only locally but also in the historical sense in all our great cities. Among those who have for years devoted their attention to this line of work may be mentioned Joseph K. English, who was born in Frederick County, Maryland, in 1824, his father being King English, a native of the District of Columbia. The latter was reared in his native place and in Maryland and after reaching the age of sixteen years he made a permanent location in Maryland and turned his attention to tilling the soil, in pursuing which he met with reasonable success. He was a member of the militia and assisted in the defense of Baltimore when the British during the War of 1812 attacked it. In 1830 he came west and located on an eighty acre tract of land now bounded on the south by Seventh Street and on the west by the Lake Erie & Western Railroad, and all of which forms a part of the City of Indianapolis, and which at that time was covered with quite a heavy growth of timber. In the City of Indianapolis he died in 1864, when seventy-four years of age, having been a successful pioneer farmer. He was married in Frederick County, Maryland, to Miss Mary Brown who also died in Indianapolis in 1861, at the age of sixty-seven years. They were members of the English Lutheran Church and for many years the father was an elder in the same. He was first a Whig and then became a Republican in politics, but never aspired to public position, being content to pursue the even tenor of his way independent of the strive and turmoil of political life. Of the children born to himself and wife, the subject of this sketch is the only one now living, two members of the family having died in infancy. Joseph K. English received his education in the Old Seminary and from the early days of his youth until he reached the age of twenty-four years worked on a farm. He learned his trade under G. D. Statts who was probably the oldest painter in the place, and after becoming familiar with every detail of the business he worked at it alone until 1852 when he formed a partnership with his old instructor and the firm of Statts & English continued until 1860. He was elected City Treasurer in 1861, a position he held for four years during the war. At the end of that time he purchased a farm in Center Township on Fall Creek, on which he remained until 1871, when he returned to the city and engaged in the foundry and machine business as a member of the firm of Berner, English & Over and was associated with the last named gentleman until 1876 at which time he once more turned his attention to painting, in which business he was associated with his son, H. K. English. Mr. English was married in 1852 to Elvira, daughter of Henry Colestock, an old pioneer of the section and a stair builder by trade, some of his most important work being done on the Deaf and Dumb, the Blind and the Insane Asylums. Mrs. English was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1831, and has borne her husband five children: H. King and Frank C., who are painters by trade, and their daughters are Mrs. Frank Keegan, the wife of the druggist; Julia, a teacher in the public schools of the county, and Josie, who is still at home with her parents. Mr. English and his family are members of the Lutheran Church and he has been an officer in and is now a charter member of the Capitol Lodge of the I.O.O.F., in which he passed all the chairs many years ago, and also belongs to the R. A. Politically he has, like his father affiliated with the Republican Party. While residing in the county in 1866 he was a member of the Board of County Commissioners, in which he held the position of President at the time of the Courthouse plans were made and built. He was an active member of that body and was a moving spirit in the building of the Iron bridges in Marion County across the White River. In 1858 and 1859 he was a member of the City Council, in fact, he has been a wide awake and pushing man of affairs, and is with reason ranked among the upright and useful citizens of the county in which he has so long made his home. For many years, in the earliest history of Indianapolis, Mr. English was a member of the volunteer fire department and President of the Marion Fire Company and of the Fire Association. While a member of the City Council he was Chairman of the committee on Fire Department which disbanded the volunteer department, and drafted the ordinance replacing it was a paid steam department which has become one of the best in the country.

Submitted by: Marilyn Barber
From: Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana

Martin Seerley. He whose name heads this sketch is a native of Fredrick County, Maryland, where he was born November 15, 1818, being taken by his parents to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1824, which place continued to be his home until the fall of 1836, when he came to Marion County, Indiana, soon after which his father entered forty acres of land in Hancock County, but never lived on it.

He was a sicklesmith by trade, but had lost his eyesight before leaving Pennsylvania, therefore never afterward working at this occupation. After the arrival of the family in this section Martin and his brother rented eighty acres of land on Fall Creek which they tilled two years, then rented eighty acres on White River in Washington Township, which they farmed eight years. In 1855 Martin purchased eighty acres of Jesse Grace in Decatur Township, about one-half of which was cleared and in which they moved, settling in a little log house which had been erected thereon. In 1870 he purchased fifty-two acres more, and in 1872 made an additional purchase of sixty acres, and in 1877 of forty acres. Of this land thirty acres are in timber, twenty-five or thirty acres are cleared and 200 acres are under cultivation, averaging about eighteen bushels of wheat to the acre. Mr. Seerley has always been a Republican in his political views, and his first vote was cast for James K. Polk, notwithstanding the fact that his father was a Democrat. He belongs to the English Lutheran Church, in which he is an elder, and at various times has held township offices. October 31, 1844, he was married to Elcinda, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Bower, by whom he became the father of eight children, Martin L., who married Mary B., daughter of John M. Chamberlain, by whom he has seven children - Sarah F., Elizabeth, John M., Thomas W., Nellie B., Indiana and Victoria; Silas, who married Rhoda B., daughter of Thomas F. Armstrong, has two children - Mary M. and William E.; Julia A., who married Jonathan Foltz, has four children, Gertrude, Bertha F., Mary B. and Sarah; Joseph D. married Ruth E., daughter of John Scott, and has two children - Jessie and Ruth Etta; Mary, who married Elijah S. Miller, and has three children , Albert N., Harry and Lulu P.; and Sarah C., who married Perry F. Hurd, by whom she has a daughter, Mary E. Two children born to Mr. and Mrs. Seerley died in infancy. Joseph Seerley, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Pennsylvania in 1782, and was brought up in the state of his birth. He was married in 1817 to Elizabeth, daughter of George P. Brown, and died in Indiana in 1842, having been an active participant in the War of 1812.

His family consisted of six children, five of whom lived to grow up: Martin; Thomas, who married Eliza A. Smith, by whom he became the father of three children - Homer H., John J. and Frank N.; William, who married Mary Messersmith, became the father of then children - Marcellus, Bayard, Horace, Frank, Elwood D., Charles T., William, Flora, Grace and Ida; Elizabeth, widow of Peter Blue, has nine children - Indiana (who married Nelson Chamberlain), Rometa, Rachel, Charles (who married a Miss Lewis), Albert, Cortez and Kate (twins), George and Blanche. The grandmother of these children died in 1869 at the age of seventy-nine years and then months. The grandfather, Joseph Seerley, was born about 1760. Daniel Bower, the father of Mrs. Martin Seerley, was born in Frederick County, Maryland, February 4, 1800, and was married there in 1824 to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Ringer, and in 1828 they came to Indiana, and after one year's residence in New Harmony came to Marion County, Indiana, where they lived until their respective deaths, October 21, 1852 and December 23, 1872. Mr. Bower was a farmer, and had long been a member of the Lutheran Church.

To himself and wife eight children were given, the following of whom lived to maturity: Elcinda (Mrs. Seerley); Louisa; Mahala C.; Luther, who married Rebecca Smith, and is now dead; Ann E., married Samuel Harper; Emeline, who became the wife of Jacob Van Valkenburg, and is now no more. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Seerley was Jacob Ringer, who immigrated to America in his early manhood.

He was born about 1775, was married about 1796, and became the father of four children: Barbara (deceased), who married Conrad Ringer; Katharine (deceased), who married Henry Werstler; Daniel, who married Elizabeth Ringer; and Jacob (deceased), who married Maria Sn(m)ay. Mr. Bower died about the year 1843.

Submitted by: Marilyn Barber
From: Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana

George W. Spahr. The world was never presented but once with the spectacle of a great army composed of nearly 3,000,000 of men, who, after a war of unprecedented severity, were quietly mustered out and returned to the peaceful pursuits which had been interrupted by battle and the great struggle for the preservation of the Union. Never before, as in the late war, was there such spontaneous and general rallying to the support of the Government, and never before was there witnessed so many spectacles of men who had known absolutely nothing of military affairs, developing into strategic and brilliant commanders, and never before was there shown so many instances of individual bravery and patient endurance of the hardships and privations incident to and inseparable from war. No wonder that the Union soldiers perpetuate the memory of those days that tried the souls of men, by maintaining organizations composed exclusively of those heroes. The subject of our sketch was one of the grand army of brave men whose heroic deeds will never die but will be perpetuated in song and history and be perpetuated in enduring bronze and stone. He is also the Colonel Commander of Encampment No. 80 of that well known and popular organization, the Union Veteran Legion and past Commander of George H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in which are enrolled so many hundreds of thousands of names of the soldiers of 1861-1865. George W. Spahr is a well known, able and very popular member of the Indianapolis Bar. Mr. Spahr was born near Reading, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1839, being the son of Jacob and Maria (Miller) Spahr, the father a native of Switzerland and the mother of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The father came to America when a lad of nine years of age with his parents and grew to manhood in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, following, after attaining his majority, the construction of public works, and became a very prominent contractor, having erected, among other notable structures, a number of public buildings at Lancaster, the aqueduct at Reading, and the bridge across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the head of the tidewater. He was moneymaking man, but spent it freely, being possessed of a very generous nature and giving liberally. In politics he was a Democrat, and took a keen interest in the great contests in which the whole country engaged every general election. The father of our subject was killed September 24, 1873, by a collision with a passenger train on the Peru & Indianapolis Railroad. This active and energetic man came to Indianapolis in 1845 and then settled at Millersville, six miles north of the city, where he carried on an extensive flour and sawmill and a distillery and where he owned, from first to last, 700 to 800 acres of land. He shipped his products to Lawrenceburg by wagon, before there were any markets for them at Indianapolis. The mother of our subject is living in the eighty-fourth year of her age. She bore her husband three children, tow of whom are living: George W. and William H.; John M., deceased, served a short time in the late war, begin discharged on account of disabilities. Our subject was but six years of age when he came with his parents to Indianapolis, reaching here by the canal packet boat. He was educated in the common schools of the country, completing his course at the Northwestern Christian University, now Butler University, graduating July 1, 1861, and thirteen days later, July 14, 1861; he entered the army, thus literally stepping out of the school into the arena of battle. Mr. Spahr enlisted in Company F, Third Indiana Cavalry, and served three years and three months as a Private soldier and took part in every battle fought by the Army of the Potomac during that time, including South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and every engagement or skirmish in which his regiment took part except one, that of Beverley Ford, at which time Mr. Spahr was absent at Washington. He had a horse shot under him at Virginia in a cavalry engagement under General Wilson. He took part in what was called the great Wilson Raid, the latter part of June, 1864, when General Wilson, with his division of cavalry, and General Kautzes' brigade of cavalry went in to the rear of General Lee's army and cut off his supplies and destroyed his railroads from Richmond to the Roanoke River. This was undoubtedly the hardest and greatest raid of the war. In this raid General Wilson was hotly pursued by the cavalry of General Lee's army, and also by a large force of infantry, for fourteen days and nights. Mr. Spahr was mustered out in September 1864, at Indianapolis, Indiana, receiving an honorable discharge after thirty-eight months of active, continuous service in the field. He came home very much impaired in health by reason of the excessive hard service which he had seen, and went to his old home on the farm where he spent three years trying to regain his health, after which he entered the law school of Indianapolis, and graduated therefrom in 1869, when he began the practice of law in said city and has pursued it diligently ever since. Mr. Spahr has always taken an interest in military affairs. He was commissioned major and chief of Cavalry in the State Militia under Governor Porter. The army organizations growing out of the war are very near and dear to him. He earnestly believes in caring for the needy comrades, and the widows and orphans of those who fell in defense of our country. In politics he is a Republican, pronounced and positive, believing firmly in the principles, teachings and patriotism of his party, and has worked earnestly for the success of his party in numerous campaigns since the war. As a lawyer he has won a well deserved reputation, having had a number of very important cases, one of which began in 1858, three years before the war, and which had been pending twenty year before he went into the case, and which was appealed four times to the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois. He gives the cause of his clients close attention, and vigorous and determined effort. Our subject was married in 1866 to Miss Lizzie V. Root, of Rush County, Indiana, who has borne him two children, Mary and Florence, both graduates of the Indianapolis High School. Mr. Spahr was the General Assembly of Indiana, to mark the places on the battlefield of Gettysburg, occupied by the several regiments from Indiana in that great battle and to erect elected chairman, and in his report to the Governor he designated Gettysburg as the turning point in the war, the battle marking the high tide of the slave holder's rebellion. Mr. Spahr believes that the influence and presence of religious societies, checks and retrains the evil tendencies of the people, gives us better society, better laws, and better government, lifts the people up in to a higher and better life, and to that end he has worked and contributed of his means. Thus he has lived and is living a life of usefulness, with the motto ever in view that the purpose of the life of man is to be good, and to help one another.

Submitted by: Marilyn Barber
From: Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana

Philip Stoops. The calling of farmer is as old as the world, and the majority of the men who have followed it have led upright and blameless lives, and the career of Philip Stoops has been no exception to this rule. He was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, February 24, 1815, where he continued to reside until he was eighteen years of age, his educational advantages being quite limited in the meantime. For what few schools were there, were of an inferior kind. In the fall of 1833 he came with his parents to Indiana, locating in Marion County, where the father purchased 160 acres of land, the timber on a considerable portion of which had been deadened but not cleared. Here he erected him a house and on this farm made his home the remainder of his days, dying in 1859. Prior to this he had succeeded in clearing about eighty acres of land and also found time to serve his country in the Black Hawk War. He was early in life a Whig and then became a Republican and as such continued to the last. While living in his native state, Kentucky, he united with the Presbyterian Church but upon his arrival in Indiana, as there was no church of his denomination in his immediate neighborhood, he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was married thrice, first in Pennsylvania, to Nancy James, by whom he became the father of seven children: William, who married a Miss Graham and died leaving two children, McClellan and Susan; John' Philip; Betsey, who married Jacob Shearer and died leaving three children, John, George and Laban; Alexander, who married Elizabeth Rayburn and died leaving two children, Rufus, Nancy and Alice; Nancy (deceased), who married Andrew Shearer and became the mother of several children. For his second wife Mr. Stoops, Sr. took Rosanna Kephart and the following children were given them: Joseph (deceased); Polly, who married Nathan Davis; Samuel, Andrew, Ellen, who married Benjamin Springer; Sarah, who married Andrew Vansickle; Franklin, who died in the Federal service in 1863; Robert, who lives in Kansas, having served three years in an Indiana regiment during the war; Delilah, who married John Hanes, of Hancock County, Indiana; Martha who married Jeremiah Coffin, and Jacob. The father of these children died in 1855 at the age of sixty-three years, his birth having occurred in Pennsylvania. The paternal grandfather, William Stoops, was also a Pennsylvanian, born in 1750 and died in Kentucky about 1825, having been a soldier in the Revolution. Philip Stoops, the subject of this sketch, remained with his parents until he was about twenty-three years old and assisted his father in caring for the younger members of the family. In 1838 he entered eighty acres of land in Hancock County, which he kept for several years but never lived on, and finally sold it for $200. He next purchased eighty acres in Warren Township, Marion County, on which no improvements had been made and after his marriage in 1838 to Edith, daughter of John Vansickle, they settled on this land and began housekeeping in a little log cabin. At various times he increased his acreage until he was the owner of 140 acres, only ten acres of which were cleared, but since that time he has cleared eighty acres. In 1861 he purchased a 100-acre tract in Warren Township, and in 1866 bought eighty acres in Lawrence Township, and about 1889 forty more acres in that township. His entire land now amounts to 390 acres. To himself and wife the following children were born: Alexander, who married Catherine Morris, has four children: Mary, Elsworth, Frances and Sarah; John, who was three years in the Union Army, first married Sarah Marshall, by whom he has three children: Nora (who married Andrew Witte), Albert and Edna, and by his second wife, Nancy Baker, nee Carr, he had one child - Myrtle; Mary, who married Newton Ford, left two sons: Charles and Everett; Amanda J., who married Joseph W. Irwin in 1864 and became the mother of seven children: Charles (who died in 1873), Edgar (who died in 1871), Margaret (who died in 1873), Mary (who died in 1889), Laura (who died in 1890), Emma J. and Walter S.; Charles W. was in the Federal service about six months and died unmarried; Francis Marion married Anna Wilmington, and during the war served six months in the Union Army; Oliver married Elizabeth Beard by whom he has one child, Elsie Blanch; and Albert, who married Laura Hardesty. Mr. Stoops was left a widower in 1873. He has for many years been connected with the Methodist Church and politically is a Republican. His son-in-law, Joseph W. Irwin, was born in Butler County, Ohio, in 1841, and came to Indiana in the spring of 1861, locating in Marion County, where he enlisted in August, 1863, Company B, One Hundred and Seventeenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry from which he was honorably discharged on February 23, 1864, at Indianapolis. He is a son of Robert Irwin, and is a man of sound principles and much intelligence. Politically he is a Republican and he has long been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Submitted by: Marilyn Barber
From: Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana

Augustus E. Triesey. This gentleman is justly deserving the recognition of being one of the progressive and successful tillers of the soil of Marion County, for in this occupation he has attained a degree of success that can only be accounted for in the fact that to it he has devoted the greater portion of his life. He was born in Marion County, December 25, 1836, and this, no doubt, has had something to do with the great interest he has ever taken in the welfare of his section. His parents, Lawrence Frederick and Caroline (Boesenberg) Triesey, were born, reared and married in Germany, but soon after became residents of the United States, and in 1830 of Marion County, Indiana, at which time the father was a young man of twenty-nine years. Under the shadow of the "stars and stripes" all their children, three sons and four daughters, were born: Maggie, the eldest, has bee married twice, but is now a widow, residing in Indianapolis; Catherine died in 1891, unmarried; Andrew Jacob died while serving his country in the Civil War (he was married to Elizabeth Junkins, who, with is three sons and one daughter, survives him); Frederick William died at the age of twenty-one years; Christina married Henry Miller, and resided in Kansas until her death, which occurred in 1891, having become the mother of eleven children; Caroline, who died in infancy; and Augustus E., who was next to the youngest of the family. The early days of Augustus E. Triesey were spent like the majority of farmers' boys, that is, he assisted on the home farm and received such education as the schools of his day afforded. April 1, 1867, he was united in the bonds of matrimony with Miss Margaret Bosderfer, a daughter of Jacob and Margaret Bosderfer. She was born in the old country, but when a young woman came to this country alone, and here met and eventually married Mr. Triesey, the only fruit of which union is a daughter, Minnie, who was born September 15,1876, and who still makes her home with her father and mother. Mr. Triesey is one of those grand old soldier citizens who was with his country, heart, soul and body, during the troublous times of the Civil War. On June 12, 1861, he enlisted in the First United States Calvary, with which he served until 1865, when he was mustered out of the service and returned to his "ain fireside." He was in forty-two battles, prominent among which were Cold Harbor, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Cedar Creek, Winchester and others. While in the service he had two horses killed while he was riding them, but himself escaped with a few unimportant scratches, which were not sever enough to be kept from active duty. Since his return from the war his attention has been given to farming, in which he has been reasonably successful, being now possessed of a comfortable competence. He is highly regarded by all who know him, and has numerous friends.

Submitted by: Marilyn Barber
From: Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana