Processed by
Barbara Zimmer
February 9, 2006
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
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VOLUME OF |
Manuscript Materials: 4 boxes, 5 oversize folders |
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COLLECTION |
1903 – 1988 |
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PROVENANCE: |
Kenny Washington, Indianapolis, Indiana, April 2005 |
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RESTRICTIONS: |
None |
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COPYRIGHT: |
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REPRODUCTION |
Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained from the Indiana Historical Society. |
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ALTERNATE |
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RELATED |
Fall Creek YMCA, M 0849; Flanner House, M 0513; Lionel Artis M 0762 |
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ACCESSION |
2005.0205 |
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NOTES: |
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John A. Patton was born December 10, 1883 in Topeka, Kansas. After obtaining his embalming license in Illinois, he came to Indianapolis in 1920 with his wife, Lillian. He subsequently established the John A. Patton funeral home at 1936 Boulevard Place, later selling the business to Mark A. Batties, who moved it to 2357 Northwestern Avenue.
Patton was active in the Methodist Church, serving as Treasurer of the Simpson Methodist Church in Indianapolis and later as the first lay member to serve as treasurer of the General Conference. He was also nationally engaged with the missionary movement and served on the Board of Home Missions and Church Extensions. Lillian joined John in his church work and was one of the founders of Simpson’s Bishop Jones Circle, serving as president for 24 years.
During the 1930s, Patton actively engaged in YMCA work. For six years he was General Chairman of the Senate Avenue YMCA membership campaign which annually met or exceeded its goal. Through the Pioneer Boys Club, he financed the first memberships in 1928, and continued that generosity throughout the 1930s. He also helped several young men further their education.
The Patton’s had a son, John A. Jr., and later adopted Joseph Mason, one of the young men whom John Sr. helped during the depression.
Lillian Patton died in March, 1952, and in 1954, John married Georgia Martin, a neighbor in the summer home at Idlewild, Michigan, and in Indianapolis, and the widow of Oliver T. Martin who died in May, 1949. John Patton had become a notary and real estate broker in 1949. He continued his work on behalf of the financial health of the Methodist Church well into the 1950s. John A. Patton died in January, 1971.
Sources:
Materials in the collection
Indianapolis Recorder, March 22, 1952 and Jan. 23, 1971.
The collection is divided into four series, the first being
John Patton’s correspondence and other materials. From 1903, when schoolmates
were writing him condolence notes on the death of his father, to the 1968 legal
notice from Methodist Hospital regarding a new addition, Patton corresponded
with a wide-ranging group of people. Contained in the collection are letters
from missionaries in Africa, correspondence to and from Robert
De Frantz in the New York office of the YMCA, and communication to volunteers
in YMCAs around the country. Also included is correspondence with Methodist
churchmen Bishop Robert E. Jones and Reverend Mathew W. Clair. Controversial
matters are discussed in his correspondence about the Simpson Church in 1939 and the B.H. Austin Co. stock deal. His eloquence in thanking the volunteers in
the membership campaigns he ran is only surpassed in the hand-written courtship
letters he wrote to Georgia, who became his wife in 1954.
Series 2 contains some organizational materials from the Methodist Church and the Senate Avenue Y. Box 2, folders 15–17 provide an overview of the YMCA and its place within the Indianapolis African American community. With the help of captains and their teams, General Chairman, John Patton, led several successful membership campaigns. Folder 16 includes solicitation letters, lists of prospective workers and contributors, progress reports, and agendas for campaign meetings. Other prominent Indianapolis organizations represented in the series are Flanner House Homes, Inc., the Community Hospital Association, and the Indianapolis Public Schools. Flanner House Homes, Inc. was formed as a way to address a critical housing shortage for African Americans in Indianapolis after World War II. An agenda from an organizational meeting held on November 8, 1945 and the by-laws of the organization are contained in the collection. The collection includes photographs of Idlewild, Michigan, and fishing trips as well as snapshots of friends.
The third series, Georgia Martin Patton, contains her correspondence and financial and real estate records. There are materials related to her son, James O. Martin, and her daughter, Emma Gee Washington, along with their IPS report cards. The fourth and final series includes Oliver Twist Martin’s papers. During their marriage, he and Georgia owned several real estate parcels, along with the Martin Coal Company, and these records make up the bulk of this section.
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CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
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Correspondence, 1903–1929 |
Box 1, Folder 1 |
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Correspondence, 1930–33 |
Box 1, Folder 2 |
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Correspondence, 1934–35 |
Box 1, Folder 3 |
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Correspondence, January – July, 1936 |
Box 1, Folder 4 |
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Correspondence, August – December, 1936 |
Box 1, Folder 5 |
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Correspondence, January – June, 1937 |
Box 1, Folder 6 |
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Correspondence, July – December, 1937 |
Box 1, Folder 7 |
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Correspondence, 1938 |
Box 1, Folder 8 |
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Correspondence, January –May, 1939 |
Box 1, Folder 9 |
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Correspondence, June – July, 1939 |
Box 1, Folder 10 |
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Correspondence, August – October, 1939 |
Box 1, Folder 11 |
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Correspondence, November – December, 1939 |
Box 1, Folder 12 |
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Correspondence, January – May, 1940 |
Box 1, Folder 13 |
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Correspondence, June – December, 1940 |
Box 1, Folder 14 |
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Correspondence, 1941 - 1944 |
Box 1, Folder 15 |
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Correspondence, 1945 – 1949 |
Box 1, Folder 16 |
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Correspondence, 1952 - 1953 |
Box 2, Folder 1 |
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Correspondence, 1954 -1959 |
Box 2, Folder 2 |
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Correspondence, 1961 – 1968 |
Box 2, Folder 3 |
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Correspondence, no date |
Box 2, Folder 4 |
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Drafts, Correspondence |
Box 2, Folder 5 |
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Drafts, Story |
Box 2, Folder 6 |
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Embalmer’s License, 1920 |
OM 0431, Folder 1 |
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Real Estate License, 1949 |
Box 2, Folder 7 |
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Notary Public, 1949 |
Box 2, Folder 8 |
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[Senate Avenue] YMCA Service Award, 1928 Plaque |
Artifact: R2115 |
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CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
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Membership cards and receipts |
Box 2, Folder 9 |
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Medical reports, 1942-45 |
Box 2, Folder 10 |
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Methodist church committees |
Box 2, Folder 11 |
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Methodist church Central Conference, 1940 |
Box 2, Folder 12 |
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Community Hospital Association, no date |
Box 2, Folder 13 |
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Flanner House Homes, Inc., Organizing Meeting, 1945 |
Box 2, Folder 14 |
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Senate Avenue YMCA Campaigns, 1933-36 |
Box 2, Folder 15 |
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Senate Avenue YMCA Founders |
Box 2, Folder 16 |
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The “Y’s Man, 1931-1959 |
Box 2, Folder 17 |
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Forty-Fourth International Convention, YMCAs, 1935 |
Box 2, Folder 18 |
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Publications and Programs |
Box 2, Folder 19 |
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Color, October, 1953 [national in scope, magazine published in Charleston, WV] |
OM 0431, Folder 2 |
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Clippings, Personal |
Box 3, Folder 1 |
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Clippings, General |
Box 3, Folder 2 |
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Mortgage and Loan Papers |
Box 3, Folder 3 |
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Mortuary Inventory |
Box 3, Folder 4 |
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Patton Funeral Home Blueprints |
OM 0431, Folder 3 |
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Invoices |
Box 3, Folder 5 |
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Real Estate Tax Receipts, 1955-1966 |
Box 3, Folder 6 |
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Real Estate Tax Receipts, 1967–1971 |
Box 3, Folder 7 |
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Real Estate and Banking, Michigan |
Box 3, Folder 8 |
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Insurance |
OM 0431, Folder 4 |
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Last Will and Testament |
Box 3, Folder 9 |
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IPS Conferences, 1952-54 |
Box 3, Folder 10 |
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Individuals Identified |
Photographs: |
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Individuals, Unidentified |
Photographs: |
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Groups, Unidentified |
Photographs: |
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Places Identified |
Photographs: |
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Places, Unidentified |
Photographs: |
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Fishing Vacations |
Photographs: |
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CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
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Correspondence |
Box 3, Folder 11 |
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Finance |
Box 3, Folder 12 |
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Real Estate |
Box 3, Folder 13 |
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Insurance |
Box 3, Folder 14 |
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Will and Personal Property |
Box 3, Folder 15 |
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James O. Martin Finance |
Box 3, Folder 16 |
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James O. Martin IPS report cards |
Box 3, Folder 17 |
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James O. Martin, School 23 Review, June 1931 |
Box 3, Folder 18 |
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Emma Gee Washington Finance |
Box 3, Folder 19 |
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Emma Gee Washington Correspondence |
Box 3, Folder 20 |
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Emma Gee Martin IPS report cards |
Box 3, Folder 21 |
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Kenneth Washington |
Box 3, Folder 22 |
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CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
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Sympathy Notes, May 1949 |
Box 4, Folder 1 |
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Banking |
Box 4, Folder 2 |
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Legal and Real Estate, 1900-1931 |
Box 4, Folder 3 |
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Legal and Real Estate, 1932-37 |
Box 4, Folder 4 |
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Legal and Real Estate, 1938-1948 |
Box 4, Folder 5 |
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Life and Casualty Insurance |
Box 4, Folder 6 |
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Real Estate Insurance, 1932-1943 |
Box 4, Folder 7 |
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Real Estate Insurance, 1945-1953 |
Box 4, Folder 8 |
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Real Estate Tax Receipts, 1968-72 |
Box 4, Folder 9 |
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Real Estate Title, Charles Post Guardian, 1st Addition (Indianapolis) |
OM 0431, Folder 5 |
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Martin Coal Company |
Box 4, Folder 10 |
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Wills |
Box 4, Folder 11 |
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://opac.indianahistory.org/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, M 0845).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.