Bartholomew County IN Archives Biographies.....Drake, Lester 1862 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/in/infiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 20, 2007, 11:18 pm

Author: B. F. Bowen (1904)

p. 184-186
LESTER DRAKE.

   In this era of vast enterprise and close competition business life means a
"battle of the strong," and the "survival of the fittest." The man who rises
above the surface possesses an integral quality of superiority, a power plus an
individual force and resistance that sways men and modifies circumstances. Among
the sons of Indiana who have contributed to the dignity, progress and
development of the state none can excel in business acumen, moral worth and the
qualities that contribute to make the ideal man, the subject of our sketch,
Lester Drake, junior member of the firm of Caldwell & Drake, builders, and one
of the most prominent of the younger citizens of Columbus, Indiana, who is a
native of Bartholomew county, having been born there on January 3d, 1862, the
son of John W. and Emeline (Bonnell) Drake, both members of representative
families of the county, the Bonn ells being among the pioneers of southern
Indiana. John W. Drake was born in Ohio, near Cincinnati, in 1831, and when only
a boy moved with his parents to Bartholomew county. His father, Henry Drake,
entered land at Flat-rock township, and farmed successfully up to the time of
his death, 1872, owning at that time a large tract of land. John W. Drake, the
son, also entered land at Flat-rock and prospered. In 1880 he moved to Columbus,
and continued to farm successfully until his death in 1886. Elizabeth Bonnell
Drake, the mother of Lester Drake, still lives. She was born just north of
Columbus, Indiana, and has always lived in Bartholomew county. She is a daughter
of Thomas Bonnell, a prosperous and successful farmer and a native of North
Carolina, who came to Indiana from Kentucky in the early twenties.

   Lester Drake was reared on the farm, attended the common schools, finished a
course at high school and spent one year at Hartsville College. When his family
removed to Columbus in 1880 he engaged in farming, and later entered the
insurance and real estate business.

   In 1892 he organized, with George W. Caldwell, the firm of Caldwell & Drake,
since which time he has been actively engaged in looking after and promoting the
extensive operations of the co-partnership, which has steadily increased its
operations and multiplied its enterprises until they embrace building, the
manufacture of farming implements, an iron works and holdings in various trust
and insurance companies. In the building line the firm has made a specialty of
public work, and have erected some of the handsomest state and county buildings
in the states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and West Virginia.

   The high reputation of the firm and their well-known ability to handle work
with dispatch won for them, without competition, the contract for the West Baden
Springs hotel, West Baden, Indiana, the largest contract ever let in this
country without competitive bids. This absolutely fire-proof building,
constructed of brick, stone and cement, was erected in the remarkably short
period of eight months. The building contains seven hundred rooms and includes a
novel and difficult engineering feature in the mammoth dome, which has a clear
span of two hundred feet without supports, the largest dome in the world.

   Recently the firm has been prominently identified with the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition work at St. Louis, Missouri, where they erected the Palace of
Agriculture, the largest of the fair buildings, in so short a time as to attract
the notice of every periodical devoted to building in the country. They also
constructed the Palace of Horticulture and twenty-one other smaller buildings on
the fair grounds; the contracts aggregating one million six hundred thousand
dollars.

   At present the firm has under construction the Hammond, Indiana, Superior
Court House, the Putnam County Court House, Greencastle, Indiana; Perrysville,
Missouri, Court House, five state asylum buildings at Gallipolis, Ohio; the
state capitol annex, Charleston. West Virginia, and the state capitol building
of Arkansas, a two-million-dollar contract.

   In addition to the above enterprises Mr. Drake, like his forefathers, is
interested in farming, being the owner of a good farm in the northern part of
Bartholomew county.

   Mr. Drake is a Knight Templar, a Scottish Rite Mason, a Shriner, a Red Man,
an Elk, a member of the Travelers' Protective Association, holds membership in
the Indiana Democratic Club of Indianapolis, Indiana, and is a member of the
Monongahela Club of Pittsburg. Pennsylvania. He is treasurer and director of the
National Machine Works, treasurer and director of the Caldwell & Drake Iron
Works, trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of Illinois, stockholder of
the Federal Union Surety Company of Indianapolis and the Citizens' Guarantee and
Trust Company of Parkersburg, West Virginia. With so many duties and interests,
Mr. Drake still has a little time for politics, and with his partner, George W.
Caldwell, was in 1892-3 first to represent the fifth ward in the Columbus
council, being elected on the Democratic ticket in a Republican ward.

   On March 21, 1904, Mr. Drake married, in Washington, D. C, at the Church of
the Epiphany, Mrs. Minnie Hogan Jamesson, daughter of Judge John Hogan, of
Parkersburg, West Virginia.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
INDIANA

INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA

ILLUSTRATED

1904

B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/bartholomew/bios/drake675gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/

File size: 6.1 Kb