Howard-Sullivan County IN Archives Biographies.....Draper, Isaac P. 1848 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 15, 2006, 12:28 am

Author: Jackson Morrow

ISAAC P. DRAPER.

   The prosperity and substantial welfare of a city are in a large measure due
to the enterprise and wise foresight of its business men. It is progressive,
wideawake men of affairs that make the real history of a community, and their
influence in shaping and directing its varied interests is difficult to
estimate. The well known gentleman of whom the biographer writes in this
connection has long ranked among the leading business men of Kokomo, and it is
to such enterprising spirits as he that the city is indebted for its recent
substantial growth and for the high position it occupies as a center of
industrial activity and progress. To Mr. Draper also belongs the credit of
having served his country faithfully during one of the greatest wars of which
history has made record and as a member of the gallant army that crushed the
hosts of treason-and made impossible any further recurrence of rebellion he is
entitled to the respect and honor of every citizen living under the folds of the
American flag.

   Isaac P. Draper is a native of Sullivan county, Indiana, where his birth
occurred on the 24th of May, 1848, being the son of John B. and Elizabeth
(Voorhees) Draper, the former born in Ohio, the latter in the Hoosier state.
John B. Draper came to Indiana with his parents in an early day and settled in
Sullivan county when that part of the state was on the verge of civilization.
His father took up and improved a large tract of land and in due time became one
of the most extensive holders of real estate in the county, the greater part of
his possessions being subsequently divided among his children, each of whom
received a farm. John Draper grew to maturity in Sullivan county and when a
young man accepted a clerkship in the town of Sullivan, his experience as a
salesman afterwards enabling him to engage in merchandising upon his own
responsibility. By energy and good management, together with his ability to
please his customers, he soon acquired a lucrative patronage, and in the course
of a few years his business house was the largest of the kind in the town, as
well as the most successful. He was identified with the commercial interests and
general growth and prosperity of Sullivan for a period of fifty-four years,
during which time he not only achieved marked financial success as a capable,
farseeing business man, but rose to an influential position as a public-spirited
citizen who ever had at heart the advancement of the community and welfare of
his kind. He lived to see his town transformed from a mere backwoods hamlet into
one of the most prosperous cities of its size in the state of Indiana, and after
a long and useful career, fraught with much good to his fellow men, he departed
this life on January 13, 1908, at the ripe old age of eighty-four years. John
Draper was married four times and became the father of sixteen children, several
of whom became actively identified with their own and other communities and
achieved honorable standing as citizens.

   Messick Draper, a brother of John, joined the army at the breaking out of the
war with Mexico and accompanied his command to the scene of hostilities, where
he participated in a number of battles, in one of which he fell pierced by a
musket ball, and expired on the field.

   Isaac P. Draper was five years of age when his parents left the farm and
moved to Sullivan, the death of his mother four years later leaving the lad
pretty much to his own resources. His advantages for obtaining an education were
limited. Nevertheless he acquired a fair knowledge of the common school
branches, but by far the greater part of his mental training consisted of the
practical kind such as schools and colleges fail to impart. On leaving home he
turned his hands to various kinds of employment until strong enough to do a
man's work, when he assisted in clearing and developing a large amount of land,
in this way becoming an expert in the use of an ax and crosscut saw and skilled
in all manner of woodcraft. Although a mere youth at the time indicated, he grew
up strong, athletic and splendidly developed, and while still young he was able
to make a full hand at almost any kind of physical labor. At the age of thirteen
he engaged with a manufacturer of staves, and during the ensuing three years
worked in the factory and became quite proficient at the business. Meantime the
national skies had been obscured by the clouds of civil war and on every hand
deep interest was manifested, many young men leaving their homes to assist in
crushing the rebellion and saving the Union.

   At the beginning of the great conflict and for several years thereafter Mr.
Draper was too young to enter the service, although exceedingly desirous of
doing so, but in due time he was enabled to carry his desire into effect. On
March 16, 1865, when but sixteen years of age, he enlisted in Company D, One
Hundred and Fifty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, but in the following July
while under orders and in the line of duty he contracted a severe cold in the
head which resulted in the loss of hearing in his right ear, the effects of this
and other disabilities which followed soon after remaining through life.
Notwithstanding this he saw considerable active service, principally in line of
guard duty and the guarding of prisoners in transit or between Alexander,
Virginia, City Point and Richmond. From April, 1865, to August following the
regiment was constantly on guard and garrison duty in the states of Virginia and
Indiana, and when the war closed it was mustered out of service on the 16th of
the latter month, although the men did not receive their final pay until a week
later.

   On leaving the service Mr. Draper returned to Sullivan, where he engaged in
the liquor business, which he conducted with marked success for several years,
and accumulated a handsome property, the meantime becoming one of the well-to-do
men of the place. Disposing of his holdings in Sullivan in 1890 he came to
Kokomo,, where some time previously he had bought considerable real estate.,
which was afterwards laid out in city lots and sold at handsome profits, the
proceeds from this source alone resulting in a competency. For a short time
after locating in the city Mr. Draper conducted a gents' furnishing
establishment, but this not being altogether to his liking he turned his
attention to the manufacture of soft and carbonated drinks, establishing the
Kokomo Bottling Works, of which he still is the head, which, under his able and
judicious management, has continuously grown in magnitude and importance until
it is now one of the largest and most successful enterprises of the kind in the
state, as may readily be inferred by the amount of business done, which has
steadily increased from fifteen thousand to the present large volume of one
hundred thousand dollars annually. Mr. Draper began the business alone, but in
1893 he took in as a partner his son Harry, and the same year moved to his
present location, which is admirably adapted to the purpose and which he at once
began to enlarge and otherwise improve in order to meet the rapidly growing
demand for his product. Still later, January 1, 1906, his second son, Frank C.
Draper, was admitted to the firm, the style of which from that time on has been
I. P. Draper & Sons, a name widely and favorably known in business circles
throughout Indiana and other states and second to none on its commercial rating.

   In the building up of this large and growing enterprise Mr. Draper has
displayed ability of a very high order and as a business man he easily ranks
among the most energetic and progressive in his adopted city. Industry and
probity have been the chief factors in his steady advance and his position in
the world of affairs is such as to reflect the highest credit upon himself and
to add to the reputation of Kokomo as an important business center. Manifesting
an abiding interest in the material advancement of the city, he has given his
influence and assistance to all enterprises with this object in view, and he
also takes an active part in promoting all worthy means and measures for the
welfare of his fellow men. All in all he is a worthy representative of the
sturdy, intelligent and progressive class that give stability to the body
politic and character to the community, being broad-minded, with wide views of
men and affairs, and a true type of the enterprising American citizen of today.

   Mr. Draper on August 17th of the year 1871 was united in marriage with Jennie
Earnest, of Sullivan county, daughter of Nathan and Margaret (Osborn) Earnest,
both parents natives of Indiana and for many years residents of the county of
Sullivan, in the soil of which their bodies now rest.

   Mr. and Mrs. Draper have two children, Harry L. and Fred C, both rising young
men of high social standing and fine business ability, and, as already
indicated, members of the firm of which their father is the head.

   Although deeply interested in business affairs, Mr. Draper has not been
unmindful of his duties to the public, being a careful observer of the trend of
events and an active participant in those affairs that relate to his own
community. A Democrat in all the term implies and in touch with the leading
questions and issues of the times he has never entered the political arena as an
office seeker, having no taste for such a life and no use for the methods of the
partisan. Fraternally he holds membership with the Grand Army of the Republic,
Post No. 30, at Kokomo, and is also identified with the Pythian brotherhood, in
which he has been honored with official positions from time to time.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)


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