Courthouse Records
Partnerships / Trade Names
Businessmen of 1856
Around the edges or margin of this map are the business cards* of many who were actively engaged in mercantile and professional pursuits at that time. The list is as follows:
Ray & McFarland,----We are prepared to buy and sell eastern exchange, gold and silver, and uncurrent bank notes. Interest allowed on time deposits. Elliott, Hill & Co.
S. D. Lyon
Alfred Major,
Peaslee & McFadden,
Davis & Wright,
and James Harrison, Attorneys at Law.
Miller & James, Real Estate and Stock Agency;
David Adams, M.D., Physician and Surgeon, office in Odd Fellows' Building;
W. F. Green, M.D., Physician and Surgeon;
J. Y. Kennedy & J. S. Forbes, Physicians and Surgeons;
Dr. C. T. Rowell, Dentist, office with Dr. Kennedy on Franklin Street, opposite new seminary;
Milton Robins, M.D., dealer in Drugs and Medicines, northeast corner of the Public Square;
Hendricks & Morgan, Drug Store,
George Lupton, Surgeon and Dentist, all work guaranteed.
Streng & Frankel, wholesale and retail manufacturers of all kinds of gentlemans' wearing apparel; store north side of Public Square;
W. C. Miller & Co., retail dealer in foreign and domestic dry goods, groceries, hardware, boots and shoes;
James Thomas, retail dealer in foreign and domestic dry goods, hardware, etc.;
G. W. Toner & Co., dealers in dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, at I. Sorden's old stand;
J. & M. Levinson, manufacturers and retail dealers in clothing, then adjoining the Mason's and Odd Fellows' Hall;
W. H. Comingore, dealer in staple and fancy dry goods, boots, shoes, etc., east side of Public Square, one door south of Masonic Hall;
J. Freeman & L. Freeman, dealers in staple and fancy dry goods, ready-made clothing, hats, caps, boots, shoes, carpets, looking-glasses, etc., on Harrison Street opposite Sprague building;
F. J. Faivre, variety store and dealer in confectioneries, cigars and tobacco, fire-works and drugs; store in Iron Front Building, west side of Harrison Street, second block south of old Public Square;
Botts & Hubbell's family grocery and provision store, north side of Public Square;
N. Vanpelt, retailer of all kinds of family groceries;
Go to Blair & Elliott's for cheap dry goods, in Masonic Hall;
J. S. Campbell, merchant tailor and gent's finishing store;
M. D. Stacey, dealer in watches and clocks, north side of Public Square;
D. M. Burns, fashionable jeweler, repairing of all kinds done in the best style and shortest notice;
Stoves, Stoves, Stoves, at McElwee's, call for Climax, best in the market;
W. M. & I. T. Brown, stove dealers and manufacturers of all descriptions of tin, copper and sheet-iron ware, southwest corner of Public Square;
W. Browning, saddler and harness maker, south side of Public Square;
I. B. Wood, saddler and harness maker, northwest corner Public Square;
Cash for Hides and Leather, by George Kennedy;
W. M. Parrish, fancy and ornamental plasterer and cistern builder;
J. Cummins, furniture wareroom on Washington Street;
J. T. Ross, steam manufacturer of all kinds of furniture;
J. H. Sprague, manufacturer of flour barrel staves;
A. Wilkinson, picture gallery, over Gorgas' store;
Johnson & Letherman, ambrotype and daguerreau artists; life-like pictures taken as cheap as any artists in the United States; give them a call; Shelby Bank;
Of the above named business men the following are
dead, to-wit: Martin M. Ray and Thomas A. McFarland, law firm of Ray & McFarland; William
J. Peaslee, of the law firm of Peaslee & McFadden; Eden H. Davis and Cyrus Wright, of
the law firm of Davis & Wright; S. D. Lyon, attorney; Dr. W. F. Green, Dr. John Y.
Kennedy and Dr. J. S. Forbes, of the medical firm of Kennedy & Forbes; Dr. C. T. Rowell, dentist; Dr.
George Lupton, sugeon and dentist; Mr. Hubbell, of the firm of Botts and Hubbell, grocers; N. Vanpelt, grocer;
William Browning and I. B. Wood, saddlers and harness makers; Joseph Smithers, marble man; G.
W. Toner; James Thomas, J. Freeman, of the firm of J. & L. Freeman, general dry goods
merchants; Michael Levinson, of the firm of J. & M. Levinson; John S. Campbell, merchant tailors
and clothiers; A. Wilkinson, picture gallery artist; John Hendricks, of the firm of Hendricks &
Morgan druggists. Of the first named business men of 1856 the following are still living, to-wit: Mr.
Botts, of the Botts & Hubbell firm is in Kentucky; M. D. Stacey, jeweler is in Indianapolis; Alfred
Major, attorney and banker, resides in this city; Dr. Milton Robins, resides here, retired from business;
Dr. David Adams is practicing his profession with good success in Edinburg, Johnson County, Ind. Mr. McElwee,
our old time stove dealer, is in Wisconsin; John J. Blair, of Blair & Elliott, dry goods
merchants, lives in Ohio, and his whilom partner, Jesse W. Elliott, resides at Danville, Ill.; Joseph
Cummins still resides in this city engaged in the undertaker and funeral director's business. George
W. Kennedy, who formerly dealt in hides and leather, now owns and runs the Star Mills, near the C.,I.,St.L. &
C.R.R. depot; W. H. Comingore lives at Indianapolis; Joseph Levinson, of the old firm of J.&M.
Levinson, lives in this city, a kind of general purpose man who deals in anything and everything that brings the
cash in. Lafe Freeman, of the old firm of J.&L. Freeman, lives in Cincinnati, a genial commercial
tourist; F. J. Faivese [sic] is engaged in business in Kansas City, Mo.; William C. Miller,
of the firm of Miller & James, runs a real estate agency and is the oldest agent in that line of business in
the city; his old time partner, Thomas James, runs a notion and confectioner's stand on the Public
Square, and keeps a boarding house on West Washington Street; James B. McFadden, of the firm of Peaslee
& McFadden, attorneys, still lives here and practices his profession; James Harrison lives here and is
the oldest practitioner in the law at our bar; Mr. Newton Johnson, of the firm of Johnson & Letherman,
lives at Morristown, this county, engaged in the carpenter and builder business; Jasper H. Sprague
lives here, an old gentleman whose great age and invalid condition has compelled his retirement from all active
business pursuits; he was formerly a railroad surveyor and civil engineer. The old clothing firm of
Streng & Frankel were charged with shipping arms, principally revolvers, into the seceding states during the
war, and had to skip out in hot haste. They went to Louisville, Ky., where they engaged in business, and
toward the close of the war Streng returned to Shelbyville and very quietly made collections and accounts due the
firm; he then returned to Louisville, Ky.
History of Shelby County, Indiana, Chicago: Brant & Fuller, 1887, pg 405-07.
*The referenced business cards are NOT pictured in the Shelbyville-Shelby Co library's copy of this book.
Partnerships/Licenses Index Main Page