Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

NATALIE BRUSH GATES
PAPERS, 1901-1935

Collection #
M 0351

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Charles Latham
23 April 1991

COLLECTION INFORMATION

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Natalie Lombard Brush (ca 1895-ca 1975) was the daughter of John Tomlinson Brush (1845-1912) and Elsie Lombard Brush. Mr. Brush was founder and president of the When Clothing Company in Indianapolis, and owned first the Cincinnati Reds baseball team and then the New York Giants. Mrs. Brush had been on the stage in New York. With its New York connections, the Brush family was in the "social swim" in Indianapolis. They had a large estate on East Washington Street.

Natalie Brush attended the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pa. She made her debut in [?1915], then attended Columbia University, the New York School for Social Research, and City College of New York. She was very active in the Junior League of Indianapolis in the 1920s, and became vice president of the national Junior League.

In 1926 she married hotel owner A. Bennett Gates (1885-1956) of Dayton, Ohio, and lived there. They were later divorced. In 1965 she married Rene de Gendron; they were divorced. In 1967 her novel, Hush Hush Johnson, was published by Holt.

Sources: Materials in collection
Indiana Biographical Series, Vol. 47 p. 102
Contemporary Authors, Vol. 24 p. 158
Indiana Scrapbook Collection, Vol. 1 pp. 54-55

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection, filling one manuscript box, contains five letters, a scrapbook of clippings and invitations, and photographs.

In Folder 1 are two letters from John T. Brush, and three from Harry S. New ("Uncle Harry"), Postmaster General 1923-1929, dated 1929-1933. Of these the most interesting is a letter from New bemoaning the fate of Harding Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, who in 1932 had just published The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy. As New saw it, Daugherty's life had been ruined by the work of Senator Burton K. Wheeler, "a bolshevik and an enemy of organized government," and by the testimony of Gaston. B. Means, "a convict, a wife-beater, the most conscienceless liar I ever knew," and of Nan Britton-- "how on earth could anybody believe anything such a creature says?"

Natalie Brush Gates's scrapbook, in Folders 2-7, contains memorabilia of her career in society and in the local and national Junior League, from about 1915 to about 1935 (most dates are missing). There are lists of flowers sent, and of ladies assisting at social occasions, as well as clippings from the social columns. Among the events described is the wedding at Laurel Hall about 1919 of Mrs. Stoughton Fletcher's sister, Martha Henley, to W. J. Holliday-- Miss Brush was an attendant.

In Folder 8 (stored in Visual Collections) are photographs of John T. Brush, of Mrs. Brush in her open electric runabout at the gates of the Brush estate, of the When Building, and of Natalie Brush at her debut and later.

CATALOGING INFORMATION

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
2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END