Howard-Miami County IN Archives Biographies.....Sweeney, Edward 1859 - 
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Author: Jackson Morrow

EDWARD SWEENEY.

   Edward Sweeney is a name known to every one who has the slightest
acquaintance with the business history of Kokomo and Howard county. During his
active life he filled a large place in the industrial affairs of the city, and
as an energetic, enterprising and far-sighted man whose judgment and discretion
were seldom at fault and whose influence made for the substantial upbuilding of
the community he earned a reputation second to none of his contemporaries. Mr.
Sweeney was born at Salamanca, New York, June 12, 1859, and spent his early life
in his native place, receiving his education in the public schools. By reason of
a change in the domestic affairs of the family, caused by his father's second
marriage, the lad at the tender age of eleven years left the parental roof to
carve his own way through the world, going first to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,
where he made his home with an aunt and turned his hands to various kinds of
employment. When about sixteen years old he assisted in drilling gas and oil
wells, and finding the work to his taste soon began the business upon his own
responsibility in the Ohio field, operating for some time near Lima and Findlay,
where he drilled a number of wells and met with encouraging success. Later he
became a leading promoter of the oil industry, and after doing a thriving
business in various parts of Ohio sank the second gas well within the limits of
Kokomo, doing the work for several local parties, whose influence did much
towards inducing him to make this his field of operations. Subsequently, in
partnership with Harry H. Stewart, he drilled a number of wells in the Howard
county field and soon established a reputation as one of the most enterprising
and successful men at the business in the northern part of the state. Pairing
the year 1887-88 he operated several strings of tools and in addition to
developing many producing wells in various parts of the country he drilled
during the time indicated for the Plate Glass Works of Kokomo, besides carrying
on his investigations in other and more remote territory.

   Mr. Sweeney continued his operations as long as the Indiana field proved
productive, but with the gradual decline of natural gas he turned his attention
to other lines of enterprise, purchasing an interest in the Globe Stove and
Range Company of Kokomo, of which he was made president and general manager, and
which under his able direction soon became one of the leading and best paying
industrial enterprises in the city. While giving his personal attention to the
large and important establishment he still kept up his interest in the gas and
oil business, and upon the discovery of oil in Miami county transferred his
operations to the Peru field, which he assisted in developing. Later he
gradually withdrew from the line of work with which he had so long been
identified and gave his entire attention to the building up of the stove
industry in Kokomo, in addition to which he was also interested in several other
concerns, having been a large stockholder in the Jenkins Plate Glass Company and
an oil company at Peru, acting as receiver for the latter when it ceased to be
profitable, and finally closing up the business.

   Mr. Sweeney was long a power in industrial and business circles and during
his residence in Kokomo did much to advance the material interests of the city
and promote the welfare of the populace. He was elected to the city council, but
did not take very kindly to the municipal legislation, which he found irksome
and by no means to his taste. Nevertheless he discharged his duty with
conscientious fidelity, which won the respect of his constituents and of the
city at large.

   In his young manhood Mr. Sweeney became identified with the great Democratic
party and in due time achieved considerable prominence as a shrewd and farseeing
politician, having been a judicious adviser in the councils of his party and an
earnest worker and able leader in a number of hotly contested campaigns. In
later years he gradually discontinued active political work, the better to
devote his talents and energies to his large and growing business affairs.
Nevertheless he always kept in close touch with the leading issues of the day
and fully abreast of the times in all that concerned the welfare of the public.
While head of the important manufacturing establishment in Kokomo, with which
his name is so intimately associated, he not only displayed executive ability of
the highest order, but so managed the business as to retain at all times the
confidence and good will of his employes, between whom and himself a mutual
interest ever obtained. During the years of his active connection with the plant
the most harmonious relations existed among all parties concerned, and while
many other establishments suffered more or less from disturbed conditions
resulting from friction between labor and capital, no dissatisfaction whatever
was manifested in the stove works, and such a thing as a strike or walkout was
never for a moment seriously contemplated. He made it a point to retain on the
payroll all of his old employes, and many of the latter refused advantageous
offers from other establishments in their desire to remain with the man who had
done so much to advance their interests and make them satisfied with their lot.

   Mr. Sweeney possessed a broad, inquiring mind and was keenly alive to
everything that tended to improve labor conditions and benefit those upon whose
shoulder fell the burden of making possible the phenomenal progress resulting
from the development and success of the industrial evolution in the central and
western states during the past third of a century. Although modest and
unassuming and always easily approachable, he had a strong and vigorous
personality and in the best sense of the term was a leader of men and well
fitted to manage large and important enterprises. He was phenomenally
resourceful, possessed boundless and tireless energy, and once finding the field
of endeavor which challenged his mind forces he displayed that tenacity of
purpose and unconquerable will power which led on to success and fortune. In the
prosecution of his business interests he was bold and daring and never hesitated
to move forward, though frequently confronted by obstacles that would have
discouraged many of a less determined, nature. He had a genius for large
undertakings, and what others would have deemed rashness was to him the safe and
sure way of reaching conclusions and achieving the results which made his name
familiar in business circles and gained for him the honorable reputation for
which he was long distinguished among the leaders of industry in his adopted state.

   Always a very busy man with large and important interests at stake. Mr.
Sweeney found time to devote to healthful sport and recreation, having been a
great admirer of the national game of baseball and a lover of the horse and a
patron of the race track. For a number of years he kept animals of good pedigree
and notable speed, and as a race starter he was quite popular on the circuits,
his fairness commending him to the leading turfmen of the country and his
decisions being satisfactory to all who made entries. He retained his interest
in these forms of sport to the end of his days, keeping in touch with the turf
throughout the entire country, and such was his liking and enthusiasm for
baseball that he seldom failed to be present whenever a first-class game was
played within a reasonable distance of his place of abode.

   Mr. Sweeney was married in Kokomo, Indiana, to Belle Elson on November 3,
1891. She was the daughter of William B. and Florence (Garr) Elson, of Howard
county, the father for many years a successful farmer but later a resident of
Kokomo, where his death occurred in 1893, at the age of fifty-five years. Mrs.
Sweeney was born and reared in Howard county, received her education in the city
schools and is a lady of high social standing, an esteemed member of the
Christian church, and is exceedingly popular in the circles in which she moves.
She bore her husband one child, Harry Lambert Sweeney, who is now a bright and
interesting youth of eleven years and a pupil in the schools of Kokomo.

   Mr. Sweeney was born and reared a Catholic and always retained a warm feeling
and abiding interest in the mother church, though by no means narrow or
intolerant in his religious views. He belonged to the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, in which he served as exalted ruler and was enthusiastic in all
matters concerning the society, contributing much to its popularity and strength
in the city of Kokomo. The death of this useful man and prominent,
public-spirited citizen occurred on the 5th day of October, 1907, and his
funeral was held under the auspices of the order with which he had long been
identified and the interests of which he had long been identified and had so
much at heart, being the occasion of a large gathering of his friends and fellow
citizens, by whom he was sincerely mourned and greatly missed. His passing
removed from the city one of its leading men of affairs and left a vacancy in
the business world which it will be difficult to fill. In the widest and best
sense of the term his life was a pronounced success, as he always measured up to
the high standard of citizenship required by men of his stamp, served well and
faithfully his day and generation, and the memory of his useful career and
honorable name will long remain in the hearts and affections of those with whom
his lot was cast and who was so greatly benefited by his example and influence.


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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