Processed by
Barbara Quigley
6 July 2004
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 |
1 folder |
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COLLECTION |
1857–ca. 1901 |
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PROVENANCE: |
Portraits of Charlotte and Katie from Dorothea H. Miller of Noblesville, Ind., received in 1964. Other photographs from Robert Cathcart Martindale, received 7 June 1976. |
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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 |
Alice M. Cathcart Scrapbook: BV 1873. Cathcart–Morrison Papers: SC 1721. |
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ACCESSION |
1964.0074, 1976.0633 |
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NOTES: |
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Robert Weir Cathcart (born ca. 1843 in Ohio) married Alice Morrison (born ca. 1844 in Indiana) on 11 May 1871 in Marion County, Indiana. Alice was the daughter of John I. Morrison and Catherine Morris. Robert was the son of Andrew and Ellen Cathcart (both born ca. 1807 in Scotland).
John Irwin Morrison (born ca. 1806 in Pennsylvania) graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. At the age of nineteen years, in 1825, he took charge of the grammar school in Salem, Ind. In 1828 he became the principal of the then new seminary of Washington County, Indiana, over which he presided many years. He married Catherine Morris (born ca. 1812 in North Carolina) in Salem, Ind., in 1832. In 1840 he was hired as professor of Greek and Latin in the area’s state university. He resigned in 1844, but remained with the university as a trustee. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1850. In 1864 he was elected state treasurer and moved to Knightstown, Ind., where he lived until his death at age seventy-six on 17 July 1882.
Robert and Alice had two daughters, Katherine M. “Katie” (born ca. 1875) and Charlotte “Pink” (born 22 June 1877). The family lived in Indianapolis, Ind., at 439 North Pennsylvania Street, on the southeast corner at Pratt (now Ninth) Street. The cottage there had been bought by John I. Morrison as a wedding present for Alice and Robert, and was later converted to a three-story house.
Robert had been a Union soldier in the Civil War. At age seventeen he joined Company K of the 70th Indiana Infantry (under the leadership of Brigadier General Benjamin Harrison) as a corporal, and was later discharged as a sergeant. After the war, Robert went into business with an army friend, John E. Cleland. The two opened a bookstore called Cathcart, Cleland & Co. at 26 East Washington Street in Indianapolis. James Whitcomb Riley and J.K. Lilly were among those who frequented the shop.
The Cathcart girls, Katie and Pink, attended the Girls’ Classical School on Pennsylvania Street, founded by May Wright Sewall. In her late teens, Katie worked for the Indianapolis News drawing fashions and writing the Woman’s Page. Pink got a summer job there as Society Editor at age fifteen, on her sister’s recommendation. Katie married Clarence Martindale on 9 October 1901, and later lived in Europe.
In 1917, Pink joined the staff of the Colonel Eli Lilly Base Hospital, which became an army unit designated as Base Hospital No. 32, to aid the wounded of World War I. On 27 October 1917, she entered the army as a stenographer for the hospital, and served at Contrexeville in the Vosges Mountains of France. After the war she worked at the Fletcher American Bank in Indianapolis, where she was in charge of the travel department. She left that position to accompany her mother to Europe, where she was going to be with Katie. In her later years, Pink continued to live at the corner of Pennsylvania and Pratt streets. She died in August 1964.
Sources:
Items in the collection.
Cathcart, Charlotte. Indianapolis from Our Old Corner. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. 1965. Reference Collection: F534 .I55 C3 1965
Civil War Service Records (http://www.gale.ancestry.com). Accessed 15 June 2004.
Henry County Biographies (http://members.tripod.com/~debmurray/henry/heninbio-2.htm).
Excerpt from History of Henry County, Indiana.
Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884.
Accessed 16 June 2004.
Indiana Marriages, 1845–1920 (http://www.gale.ancestry.com). Accessed 15 June 2004.
Indianapolis, Indiana Directories, 1887–90 (http://www.gale.ancestry.com). Accessed 15 June 2004.
U.S. Census, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1920 (http://www.gale.ancestry.com). Accessed 15 June 2004.
This collection consists of five photographs of members of Charlotte Cathcart’s family and one half-tone image of Pennsylvania Street in Indianapolis in 1857. Those pictured include Charlotte “Pink” Cathcart, her sister Katie (Mrs. Clarence Martindale), their father Robert Weir Cathcart (with friends and associates), and Charlotte and Katie’s maternal grandfather, John I. Morrison. The Cathcart family lived at 439 North Pennsylvania Street.
The portrait of John I. Morrison is an original cabinet card from 1879. One group photo that includes Robert Weir Cathcart is an original mounted photo from ca. 1889–1893. The other portraits are mid-twentieth-century reproductions of images from the late nineteenth century and 1901.
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CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
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Charlotte “Pink” Cathcart, dressed in her outfit for her sister Katie’s wedding. Indianapolis, 9 October 1901. |
Photographs, Folder 1 |
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Katie Cathcart (Mrs. Clarence Martindale), in her wedding outfit. Indianapolis, 9 October 1901. (Photo printed by Wilhite & Holloway, 1902.) |
Photographs, Folder 1 |
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Robert Weir Cathcart with his business partner, John E. Cleland, and other associates in the Cathcart, Cleland & Co. bookstore at 26 East Washington Street, Indianapolis, n.d. |
Photographs, Folder 1 |
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Reunion group photo of 70th Indiana regiment gathered at the time of Benjamin Harrison’s presidency. Robert W. Cathcart and his friend, Andy Graydon, are identified. Washington, DC, ca. 1889–93. (Photo by Langill & Darling of New York.) |
Photographs, Folder 1 |
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The Honorable John Irwin Morrison. Indianapolis, 31 January 1879. |
Photographs, Folder 1 |
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“Pennsylvania Street in 1857” – half-tone image shows the auction house of Thomas Gott and William Featherston at the northeast corner of Washington and Pennsylvania streets (identified in “Death of Wm. E. Featherston < http://www.featherstone-society.com/Indexes/usa/featherstone%20findings/ volume%2012/page%2015.htm>, accessed 16 June 2004). |
Photographs, Folder 1 |
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, P 0434).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.