Clifton J. Phillips Essays On the History of Greencastle And Putnam County, Indiana These essays on Greencastle and Putnam County, Indiana history were written by Professor of History, Clifton J. Phillips, between 1989 and 1995. DePauw University Archives Roy O. West Library Greencastle, Indiana 2017 Table of Contents Alexander R. Brattin, Jeweler ………..……………………………………………………….……………………….……… 5 Benjamin Franklin Hays …………………………………………………………………………….……………………….…… 6 Captain William H. Thornburgh …………………………………………………………………….……………………..... 7 Charles J. Kimble, Greencastle Manufacturer ……………………………………….…………………………….…. 11 Charles Lueteke , Greencastle Merchant …………………….…………………………….….……………….………. 12 Chinese Students at DePauw University, 1896 – 1940 ……………………………….…………….….………... 13 Cyrus Nutt, Indiana Asbury University Professor ……………………………………….……………..……………. 16 President Daniel Curry, President, Indiana Asbury University ………………………………..………………. 21 David L. Southard, Greencastle Merchant ………………………………………………….………….………………. 25 David McKendre Spurgin, Jeweler and Photographer ……………………………….………….……………….. 27 Dudley Rogers, Physician, Druggist and Street Railway Owner ……………………..………….……………. 29 Early Movement Towards a Chamber of Commerce in Greencastle ………………………………………. 31 Elijah T. Keightley ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 32 Emanuel Marquis ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 33 Enos Lowe and Greencastle’s First Physicians ……………………………………………………..….………….... 35 Ephraim and Rebecca Dukes, Founders of Greencastle …………………………………………………………. 39 First African-American Students at DePauw ………………………………………………………………………….. 41 Gaspar Renick, Greencastle Manufacturer ……………………………………………………………..…………….. 45 General John Standeford, Early Greencastle Businessman ………………………………………..………….. 46 Great Greencastle Fires of the 1870s ………………………………………………………………………..……..…… 48 Greencastle Banks ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 71 Greencastle Hotels ……………………………………………………………………………………………….………………. 76 Greencastle on the Eve of the Civil War ………………………………………………………………….……………. 81 Greencastle’s Opera House / Granada Theatre ……………………………………………………….……………. 85 Gustavus Lilly …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…… 89 James Taylor, Early Greencastle Merchant ………………………………………………………………….…….…… 91 Jerome Allen, Druggist and Banker …………………………………………………………………………….……….…. 93 Joel R. M. Allen, Merchant Tailor ……………………………………………………………………………….……….…. 95 John F. Jones, Hotelman ……………………………………………………………………………………………..………… 97 Joseph Percival Allen ……………………………………………………………………………………………..……………… 99 Joseph Tingley, Professor of Natural Science ………………………………………………………………………... 100 Levi Cohn, Greencastle Clothier ……………………………………………………………………………………..…..… 106 Louis Weik, Greencastle Grocer and Baker ……………………………………………………………………..……. 108 Lucien Lemon and M. K. Lemon, Early Greencastle Merchants ………………………………………..……. 111 Lucien W. Berry, President, Indiana Asbury University ……………………………………………………..…… 112 Stephen Bennett Vancleave, Meat Market Proprietor …………………………………………………..…..…. 117 Miles J. Fletcher, Indiana Asbury University Professor ……………………………………………………….…. 119 Military Training at DePauw University, 1876-1899 ………………………………………………………….…… 122 New DePauw: Evolution of the Campus ………………………………………………………………………..….….. 125 Other Jewish Clothing Merchants in 19th Century Greencastle ……………………………………..….…. 140 Putnam County Black Community ………………………………………………………………………………….…..… 142 William M. C. Blake ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..….…. 153 GREENCASTLE JEWELERS ALEXANDER R. BRATTIN A.R. Brattin, as he was usually known, was born in Ohio on November 15, 1835, the son of Thomas S. and Sarah A. (Wiseman) Brattin. He learned the watchmaking trade in Cincinnati, where he married Emma D. King on October 10, 1855. While traveling on business, he was so favorably impressed with Greencastle that he opened a watchmaking and jewelry store there in February, 1862. Located first on the east side of the public square, he moved to the south side, where he was burnt out in the fire of March 8, 1875. He then reopened his business in the half-basement of the First National Bank on the side facing Washington Street. He later removed to a new store on the south side of the square, which is pictured in the 1879 Atlas of Putnam County. Widely recognized as a fine watchmaker and jeweler, Brattin was awarded three diplomas at the Indianapolis Exposition. From his Greencastle location he carried on a region-wide business at both the retail and wholesale levels. He was a Free Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He died in Greencastle on March 27, 1897. Clifton J. Phillips Greencastle, Indiana May, 1993 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HAYS One of Greencastle’s leading 19th century merchants, Benjamin Franklin Hays, was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, May 4, 1810. He grew to manhood in Mt. Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky, where his parents moved when he was six years old. On November 9, 1837, he married Mary E. Hanly and moved to Putnam County, Indiana in September, 1850. He first settled on a farm about five and a half miles north of Greencastle and joined the Christian Church at Somerset in 1852. In 1853, he moved to Greencastle and soon established a grocery and provisions shop on the east side of the public square. By 1862 he was apparently a member of the firm of Hays & Sloane, a general store located on the north side, according to the Indiana State Gazetteer for that year. Shortly afterward, he established a clothing store on the south side of the square which remained in business until 1891. This eventually became B.F. Hays & Co., Merchant Tailors, a firm which included two of his brothers and Arthur O. White. Hays was a charter member of Greencastle Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons, founded in 1851, and Greencastle Commandery No. 11, Knights Templar, established in 1867. He died on March 4, 1893, in the 74th year of his life. Sources: Indiana State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1862-1879; Greencastle Banner Times, March 10, 1893. Clifton Phillips Greencastle, Indiana May 1, 1993 CAPTAIN WILLIAM H. THORNBURGH William H. Thornburg was born in Washington County, Virginia, on February 5, 1804. As a very young man he is supposed to have been a captain of a steamboat on the Mississippi River, from which occupation he derived the title that clung to him for the rest of his life. In 1824 he “drifted” to Putnam County, teaching school in the country a few miles southwest of Greencastle and then at Goodman’s Mill in Clinton Township. After his wife Elizabeth died, he returned to his old trade, captaining a steamboat plying between Louisville and New Orleans. In 1830 he settled in Greencastle permanently, establishing himself in business as the proprietor of a general store on the public square. He spent the next thirty years as one of the town’s most successful and respected merchants, operating stores with a series of partners, including Joseph Thornburgh, who may have been his brother. In 1835 he erected the first brick commercial building on the square at the southwest corner of Washington and Indiana Streets, long known as “Thornburgh’s Old Stand.” In an advertisement in the Greencastle Visitor in 1841 he listed some of the diverse assortment of goods offered for sale: silk and cotton handkerchiefs, hosiery, gloves, plain and striped ginghams, boots and shoes, books and stationery, coffee and tea, queens ware, hardware, knives and forks, powder, lead and shot, willow baskets, palm hats, straw bonnets, umbrellas and nails—all sizes. In 1858 Thornburgh sold this building and built a large three-story brick structure that covered the northern third of the west side of the square. Here, in one of the rooms on the first floor of the Thornburgh Block, as it was called, he began a new dry goods establishment under the name of the Rainbow Store in partnership with Thomas Robinson, a Kentuckian who had operated a similar business in the mid-1830s with John M. Allison and later by himself. In a newspaper advertisement soon after opening, Thornburgh appealed to former customers: “It will be exceedingly gratifying to the elder partner of the firm to meet his old and tried friends in this new and commodious room.” His own residence, located at the corner of Franklin and Locust Streets, was one of the most magnificent in town. Captain Thornburgh was a faithful member of the Methodist Church and took an active part in the erection of that denomination’s new brick meeting house on the corner of Indiana and Poplar Streets, to which he also built a plank sidewalk leading from his place of business on the square. He also played a major role, along with other local merchants and professional men, in bringing Indiana Asbury University to Greencastle in 1837 and served on its Board of Trustees for many years, including two terms as president that stretched from 1843 to 1848. Named a trustee of the local Methodist congregation in 1847, he was involved in the movement to replace its smaller building with the more commodious Roberts Chapel in that year. He was reputed to have made contributions to most other Greencastle churches as well. Apparently the only elected office that Thornburgh held was secretary of the Board of Town Trustees in 1836. Having in his place of business the only money safe in the county, he acted as a sort of banker for the community, whose members could find a secure place of deposit for their funds. One of his contemporaries later said of him: “We of the present, with our banks and multiplied facilities of