INDIANA-L Archives

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Subject: HAMILTON, Bond, Lowery, Hendricks, Vail, Row, Walbridge, Blanchard,
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 19:18:41 EST

This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it
just has the insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not
researching this family, just thought I would share. I do not know anymore about
these families or these surnames. NOTE: I don’t know if there is any additional
mention of this family in the book, it has no index. I do not want to sell
this book. I am typing the biographies from it.

Typed by Lora Radiches:



Surnames in this biography are: HAMILTON, Bond, Lowery, Hendricks, Vail,
Row, Walbridge, Blanchard,

SAMUEL HAMILTON. The career of Samuel Hamilton, of Shelbyville, has its
place among the important Indiana citizens of the nineteenth century. He laid the
foundation of his fortune as a merchant, then turned to banking, and for
many years his influence and enterprise were important factors in Shelbyville’s
development as an industrial and business center. Mr. Hamilton was born
December 16, 1812, in County Derry, Ireland. His birthplace was the Leek farm,
which have been owned by many generations of the Hamilton family. The Hamiltons
were Scotch people, who during the period of wars and religious troubles left
that country and established homes in Northern Ireland. They were
landowners, people of education and of social standing. Samuel Hamilton’s parents were
Samuel and Sarah (Bond) Hamilton. Samuel Hamilton had the school advantages
given to boys of his class in Ireland in the early part of the last century.
In March, 1832, when he was twenty-one years of age, he left Ireland for
America. He landed in New York in May and soon afterward came west to Rushville,
Indiana, where he joined an older brother who had been in this country for
several years and was then conducting a store at Rushville. Not long afterward
Samuel Hamilton was put in charge of a store at Arlington, in Rush County, and
when that business was sold he moved to Shelbyville. In May of 1848 Mr.
Hamilton was married to Elizabeth Lowery of Rushville, a native of Ireland. She
passed on March 19, 1882. Here he was in the general merchandise business for
about twenty years. In 1852 he organized a private bank, the Hamilton Bank,
and was president of that institution until his death on May 24, 1892. He
became a man of wealth, and his own resources through his bank were directed in
many ways to the enlargement of Shelbyville’s assets as a commercial center.
He helped start the local furniture factories, and it is said that he erected
more business blocks than any other one man in Shelbyville. His purpose went
beyond the factors of business and his generosity was extended to every
undertaking that would mean a broader and better life for the community, and he
gave freely to all religious denominations. He had himself been a member of the
Presbyterian Church since he was sixteen and for many years was an elder of
the church at Shelbyville. He was an associate of Elder John Hendricks,
father of Vice President Hendricks. He bought the old Hendricks homestead and
donated part of the land for the Gordon’s Orphan Home. Mr. Hamilton married July
31, 1884, Mrs. Emma Fay Hamilton, born October 28, 1852, in Cincinnati, but
was reared and educated in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her father, Anthony Fay, was
a native of Massachusetts, of Colonial New England and Revolutionary
ancestry. Her mother was Mary Vail, a native of Ohio. Anthony Fay was a timber buyer
and lumber manufacturer. Mrs. Hamilton’s first husband was Joseph Dunn
Hamilton, a nephew of Samuel Hamilton. Joseph Dunn Hamilton died in 1879, leaving
two children. The daughter, Mary Margaret, is the wife of Dr. G. S. Row, of
Indianapolis, and mother of two children, Dunn Hamilton Row and Margaret Row,
the latter being the wife of William Sinclair Walbridge, and they in turn
have two children, William Sinclair, Jr., and Mary Hamilton. The son of Mrs.
Hamilton is Joseph Beatty Hamilton, a Shelbyville businessman, who married Lucy
Blanchard, daughter of Frank Blanchard. Mrs. Hamilton after the death of her
husband succeeded him as president of the Hamilton Bank and conducted that
institution until it was reorganized as the Shelbyville National Bank. Another
fact that should be credited to the late Mr. Hamilton was his leadership in
bringing natural gas to Shelbyville for the benefit of local industries. Mrs.
Hamilton is well known in Shelbyville and Indianapolis social circles and is a
woman of very broad culture and refined tastes. She is a charter member of
the Catherine Merrill Circle, the local Literary Club, is a member of the
Missionary Society of the First Presbyterian Church and has been secretary of the
Woman’s Club. She continues to reside at the old Hamilton home in the heart
of the city.

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