Biography of A. V. Bartholomew

Artillus Valerius Bartholomew, merchant, was born in Licking County, Ohio, November 26, 1818; one of six children of Jeremiah and Rebecca (Skinner) Bartholomew, natives of Pennsylvania and of English descent.

Jeremiah Bartholomew was reared a farmer, and came with his parents of Licking County in time to enlist in the War of 1812. He participated in a number of engagements, notably those of Fort Meigs and of the campaign along the lake shore. On his return (Jeremiah) married, in 1817, and in August, 1828 came to LaFayette, Ind., entered into mercantile pursuits, kept hotel, and laid off the northern and better part of the city. In September, 1833, he moved to Michigan City, then a hamlet of seven families, and kept public house until December, 1834, when he purchased 400 or 500 acres in Washington Township, and there settled and began farming. About a year after, he moved to Centre Township, which was his home till his death in 1841, his widow following in 1863.

A. V. Bartholomew, who was reared to the stern realities of farm life, was married April 7, 1844, to Elizabeth Stephens, and continued a farmer's life. Mrs. Bartholomew died in 1862, leaving a family of eight children - William M. (deceased), Mary A., Finette A., Rebecca R., Martha E., George F., Walter S. (deceased) and Elizabeth (deceased). In 1862, (Artillus) moved to Valparaiso and engaged in merchandising in the building he yet occupies (A. V. was the founding force behind the Specht-Finney-Skinner concern) being to-day one of the leading merchants, carrying a stock of dry goods, hats, caps, ready-made clothing, etc., valued at $22,000, manufacturing clothing to order, and doing an annual trade of $60,000 to $70,000. Mr. B. married Mrs. Emma (Benny) Marshall in April, 1864, both being members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. B. helped to organize the Republican party of Porter (County) in 1854, was elected to the Legislature, and served in the session of 1855; in 1857, he was elected (Porter) County Commissioner to fill an unexpired term; subsequently, he filled the office for twelve consecutive years. Besides valuable town property, he owns 640 acres in the county, the greater part of which he has earned by his industry.

Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 234

Thank you to Steven Shook for transcribing and sharing this history on his site at inportercounty.org.

EX-SIGNMAKER BUILDS PICTURES

Artistic Artisan Has Masterpiece

By Pat Piper of The Tampa Bay Times on March 10, 1965

Most people put aside the tools of their trade when they retire, but not Paul Magnor.

Magnor retired three years ago (1962) from the Spanjer Brothers Sign Company in Chicago where he used a jigsaw to cut letters for signs out of wood, aluminum, and plastic.

He uses his jigsaw now, along with a drill, sharp knives, pencils and glue to make inlaid wood pictures which he describes as “pictorial marquetry.”

Among his 30 to 35 pictures, made from various kinds of wood, is what he calls his masterpiece, “The Last Supper.”

It took Magnor three months to complete the picture in which he used 49 different kinds of wood (mostly imported), and more than 1,100 pieces.

“I stopped counting the pieces when I hit 1,100,” he remarked. He values this one picture at about $1,500 (approximately $13,000 in 2021 dollars). Others are from $20 up. The brilliant colors in the picture of “The Last Supper” are of dyed wood.

Magnor says he uses a magnifying glass in his work most of the time, “especially on the eyes.”

He takes his design from small pictures, outlines them and then enlarges them before tracing on the base for his picture. The various woods then are selected and cut to size, and glued to the base.

Magnor came to this country in 1913 and began work as a laborer in Duluth, Minn. HE served with the U. S. Army during World War I, spending 18 months in France. When he returned he worked in several woodworking shops in Chicago before going to work for Spanjer Brothers.

He has his wife live at 446 37th Avenue N. E., St. Petersburg. His pictures are on exhibit at the Florida Art Club sidewalk show at Bayshore Gardens which will continue through today.

CONDITION REPORT ON THE PORTER COUNTY JAIL: AUGUST 24, 1908

Porter County Jail, Valparaiso. Visited August 24, 1908. L. M. Green, sheriff. The capacity of the jail is 24, but there were only 5 prisoners at the time of this visit.

The building is constructed of brick, stone, and iron. The cell house is surrounded by an open yard with a high brick wall around it. Inside the cell house walls, which are of stone, is the iron cage with separate cells each large enough for six hammocks. There are also two cells for women and two to be used for children. These are within the cell house corridor, but with the doors closed they are out of sight of the men. The jail seems very strong and appears entirely safe. The ventilation is excellent. The building is well lighted during the day from large windows on either side and electricity is used at night. The jail is heated by a hot water plant and is supplied with city water. The jail is in excellent sanitary condition. The plumbing was recently put in good repair and the sewerage is excellent. There is connection with the city sewerage system. There is one bath tub in one of the women’s cells, which can be used by all prisoners almost all the time. The prisoners bathe weekly and change their underclothing once a week. The bedding is fairly good and is washed once in two weeks. Most of the hammocks are old and pretty well worn. There are a few wooden chairs about the jail. There are no rules. The prisoners could be classified. They are not occupied. Some reading matter is furnished. Religious services are held by the Salvation Army once a week. Tramps are admitted at the discretion of the sheriff.

If the floor in the cell cage were repaired and a bath tub placed in the men’s department, this jail would be in good shape. It is in good hands and seems to be well kept.

This information originally appeared on page 172 of Indiana’s Board of State Charities 1908 report.

ATTEMPTED 1946 JAIL BREAK-OUT FAILS

DIGS MORTAR LOOSE FROM STONE BLOCK

Bayard K. Lucas, 60, on trial in Porter Circuit Court on a charge of robbing the Valparaiso Lodge of Elks in October 1945, tried to break jail on the night of Sunday, February 10, 1946.

Sheriff Harry Borg said Lucas used a sharp piece of steel taken from a bed cot to remove the mortar from a large block on this south wall of the bull pen.

Julius Bornholt, living just across the alley from the jail made the discovery. He heard a scraping noise and notified the sheriff.

Investigation revealed the mortar from a large block of stone had been almost entirely removed. Lucas had turned on a faucet in the bull pen to drown any noise of his operations.

Under questioning of Borg and Chief of Police Jerome Frakes, Lucas at first denied he had tried to remove the stone. Later he admitted he planned a get-away. When questioned, Lucas’ hands and shoes were covered in limestone dust.

Lucas’ attempted escape did not speed up plans to remodel this jail. Even though the Porter County Council approved a funding request by the Commissioners to make needed changes, this three-foot-wide guard walk separating the bull pen from the outer walls wasn’t finished until late 1949.

TRI KAPPA POPCORN CONCESSION, 1944

“Tri Kappa Popcorn Concession.” Edna Agar. Watercolor on paper. Circa 1944.

This watercolor on paper by Edna Agar is the artist’s impression of the Tri Kappa’s Popcorn Concession on the midway at the Valparaiso Recreational Council’s July 4 celebration in 1944. According to an article in The Vidette-Messenger on December 4, 1946, Agar created this work for her Tri Kappa group and it was loaned for exhibit inside the Valparaiso Public Library, where it has presumably remained since that initial time. Now the Porter County Public Library System has loaned the work for display at the Montague/Urschel Gallery so the work can be added to “On the Scene: Selections from the Permanent Collection.”

Rex-Smith shares philosophy

Originally written by Pat Randle and published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on May 18, 1985.

Difference between artist, non-artist more than just talent

The difference between the artist and non-artist is not just talent, said artist Harriet Rex-Smith.

It’s fear.

“When people are afraid to risk, their art reflects it,” Rex-Smith said.

The Valparaiso native spoke before a workshop audience at The Art Barn. She will present another workshop Wednesday.

Rex-Smith, who is in town for a show of her paintings at The Art Barn, shared her philosophy on art and life.

“I go around and I see people’s paintings, and I know exactly what’s going on in their lives,” Rex-Smith said.

“I don’t want to know, but I know. I can see it in their art.”

“A person needs skills and practice to be an artist,” she said.

But what sets the artist apart from a good technician has less to do with talent than with the ability to express feelings.

“Everybody is creative. There’s no such thing as an uncreative mind. There’s just an inhibited mind.”

“If you get people so they’re unafraid, they’ll paint beautifully. If you want to be a good artist, go into therapy. It will help you paint well.”

“That’s not because therapy is magic,” she said, but because therapy and art aim to free the inner self.

“The whole point of art, or going to a shrink, or going to church, is to find your inner self.”

“In the case of art, what blocks you is generally fear.

“A lot of the students I have who are married tell me, ‘My husband won’t like it.’ They need a spouse’s approval. Or they need their parents’ approval, sometimes even after their parents are dead.”

“People have to escape that need for approval in order to connect with their inner selves and become creative,” she said.

“If you’re ever going to be an artist, you’re going to have to let go of that fear of disapproval.”

It was not until she let go of the need for approval that she starting painting the way she wanted to, she said.

Rex-Smith is a self-supporting artist. Her paintings are sold through prestigious galleries, such as the Chicago Institute of Art sales gallery, the Portland Museum, and galleries in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and at the Art Barn.

The 1939 graduate of Valparaiso High School has always been an achiever. She worked in advertising when she finished with art school.

“I was an art director at an agency in Chicago. Then I got married, and raised a lot of kids.”

When she divorced, she turned to teaching art and painting.

Whatever she was going, she always felt motivated to do well and please others.

“I spent a lot of years trying to avoid criticism. I felt like I had to be the best, so I couldn’t be criticized. To be beyond criticism, I felt like I had to be perfect.”

Trying to be perfect meant she was a striver, but it also meant not taking too many risks, for fear of failing.

“It helped me learn, but it wasn’t until I shucked it that I became a good painter.”

Despite a lifetime network of friendships - and the reputation - she had built up here, she decided to move away in 1977.

“I was just compelled to make a change. I think it’s healthy. Risk is good, and change is good. It’s what art and life are all about.

Now, she’s exploring art and expanding her philosophy of creativity.

“I’m very influenced by the new physics, especially the idea of the interconnectedness, the unity of things. I like the idea that each part is a reflections of the whole.”

“When Chinese landscape painters did a painting, it stood for the whole universe. Yin and Yang had to be balanced.”

“Every painting you do is like a little fragment of that unity of the whole universe,” she said.

“If I’m successful in a painting, it will reflect some of the energy of the whole thing it portrays.

“A painting is more than just a souvenir.”

ー

Photo Caption:

Harriet Rex-Smith demonstrates monotype painting during her lecture. Her philosophy combines the new physics, Chinese concepts on art, and psychology. She will be leading another workshop, where people will paint and participate Wednesday at the Art Barn.

Dr. Carl Davis To Be Honored

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger on June 25, 1971.

The Masonic 50-year Award for membership will be presented Saturday to Dr. Carl Davis for 45 years a Valparaiso physician. The award presentation at the Masonic Lodge, 113 Lincolnway, at 8 p.m., will be open to the public as a tribute to Dr. Davis.

John F. Taylor, master of the Porter Masonic Lodge, will serve as master of ceremonies, and the Indiana Grand Lodge will be represented by Past Master, Ralph E. Schenck, of this city. Music will be furnished by Ken Perkins, the lodge organist Chaplain Earl McCarty will deliver the invocation and benediction.

Prior to receiving a medical degree in 1926 from Indiana University School at Indianapolis despite extreme financial difficulties, Dr. Davis worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad in his native Logansport as a section hand, switchman and conductor. His meager finances were augmented by waiting on tables at the Lambda Chi fraternity house and by selling shoes on Saturday afternoons.

Armed with the coveted sheepskin, he initially went to Hammond, but established doctors there weren’t in need of an assistant. When he heard that Dr. E. H. Miller in Valparaiso needed someone to help him during vacation, he arrived on the local scene in 1926 and has been here ever since.

At that time, Dr. Miller was Porter County Coroner, and promptly designated Dr. Davis as his deputy. It was an era of Chicago gangster killings, rum running, Al Capone and his mob.

“They dumped many bodies, shot up and mutilated gangster-style, in our county,” Dr. Davis said. He recalled having to handle the case of murdered Capone hoodlum, Ted Newberry, whose body was found in Porter County still attired with his famed diamond belt buckle.

“They dumped bodies even in the Kankakee River with a hunk of cement or railroad rail to insure against resurfacing. I actually don’t know how many such murders I was called on to handle during the many years as coroner from 1928 to 1942.”

When he came to Valparaiso there were only a half dozen general practitioners serving the community and county. The Christian Hospital on Jefferson Street was the only such facility in the immediate area and “woefully inadequate. Most babies I delivered in the homes. I estimate in the years I’ve been here, I’ve delivered at least 1,000 babies.”

Since his speciality was anesthesiology, Dr. Davis said he performed at least 3,000 anesthesias for Dr. Miller, and in the neighborhood of 25,000 mostly at Porter Memorial Hospital, until his recent semi-retirement. He now holds part-time office hours in general practice.

Relative to need for the general practitioner in face of the rise of specialized medicine, Dr. Davis emphasized the dire need for the GP. “Specialists don’t go out on house calls. We still need doctors who can get out into the field, make house calls. I used to make them 12 to 15 hours a day. Go three or four weeks without a good night’s sleep. I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, but my wife (his first wife, the former Helen McNiece who died in 1963) wouldn’t cover up for me when calls came in. I've made thousands of house calls and I’ve never regretted any minute of this service to my community. I guess I’m about one of the last general practitioners around here today.”

Dr. Davis is a member of the American Medical Association, Porter County Medical Society and the American Anesthesiological Society.

His only child by his first marriage, Dr. Robert Davis, is teaching research chemistry at Purdue University, where he was named “Best Teacher For 1971”.

The Valparaiso physician resides with his wife: the former Bess Thrun, of Valparaiso, on U.S. 30, where he now finds time to enjoy his favorite hobby of painting.

He also collects news items concerning members of the Masonic organization, and has arranged them in documented scrapbooks.

MAXWELL BRINGS SIGNIFICANT HONOR

This story originally appeared as a V-M Viewpoint in The Vidette-Messenger on March 12, 1970.

A 35-year-old Morgan Township resident has brought significant honor to local agriculture and to Porter County.

Phillip A. Maxwell, who lives on Indiana 49 a mile south of U. S. 30, has just been acclaimed as Indiana Jaycees’ 1970 Outstanding Young Farmer. The award stamped the former Morgan Township High School athlete as the best in the state among an imposing entry list of 17 other statewide Jaycee club preliminary winners.

As recipient of the Indiana Jaycees OYF award, Maxwell will now represent the state at a national contest in Belleville, Ill., April 5 through 8, a distinct honor for any young man.

Winner of the local Jaycees’ first OYF award earlier this year, the judges at that time demonstrated their choice of Maxwell was no accident. This young farmer “works at his trade.”

To be eligible as a nominee for local, state, and national competition, participants had to be between 21 and 35 years of age, and derive a minimum of two-thirds of their income from farming.

Judging was done on the basis of progress in agricultural careers, soil, and natural resources conservation, and civic and social contributions to community, state, and nation.

The Porter County entry filled all these requirements admirably.

(Phil) was born into a farming family and was reared on the homestead he now occupies. Not content with getting by with the practical aspects of farming he had learned throughout his boyhood, Maxwell went to Purdue University, where he obtained a BS degree in animal husbandry.

In the 10 years he has solely operated a farm, Maxwell has consistently tried new ways to increase his profits. This includes a switch from dry to liquid fertilizer, for corn and beans; planting corn on unplowed ground; use of chemicals; and narrow plantings.

And, this young man has a goal; to expand hog production by investing in new buildings and automation.

Maxwell, operator of 1,130 acres of land, of which 1,053 are tillable, says he is farming “because I believe I can contribute more to a rural community, and feel there is no better place to raise a family and live a wholesome family life.”

He is raising a family, Cheri, 10, Debra, 8, and Mark, eight months, with his wife, the former Jane Smoker, of the prominent Wanatah area farming family.

His farming innovations hav been definite contributions to Porter County’s rural community.

Winner of the first two plateaus in local and state competition, Maxwell now goes on to the national event and possibly more honors next month.

He will take with him the best wishes of Valparaiso, Porter County, and the entire state.