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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties,
Indiana;
their people, industries and institutions.
Publ. Indianapolis, Ind. - B. F. Bowen & Co.,
1914
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WALTER
E. WOODBURN. The success of men in business or
any vocation depends upon character as well as knowledge, it
being a self-evident proposition that honesty is the best
policy. Business demands confidence and where that is
lacking business ends. In every community some men are
known for their wealth or political standing. Their
neighbors and acquaintances respect them, the younger
generations heed their example, and when they "wrap the
drapery of their reverence to the story of their quiet and
useful lives. Among such men of a past generation in
Indiana was the late Walter E. Woodburn, of
Bloomington, Monroe County, who was not only a progressive man
of affairs, successful in material pursuits, but a man of
modest and unassuming demeanor, well educated, a fine type of
the reliable, self-made American, a friend to the poor,
charitable to the faults of his neighbors and who always stood
ready to unite with them in every good work and active in the
support of laudable public enterprises. He was proud of
Bloomington and of the grand state of Indiana and zealous of
their progress and prosperity. He was a man who in every
respect merited the high esteem in which he was universally
held, for he was a man of public spirit, intellectual
attainments and exemplary character.
Walter E. Woodburn was born in Bloomington,
Monroe county, Indiana, on February 7, 1848, and was the son
of James and Martha (Hemphill) Woodburn. James
Woodburn was a man of splendid character and fine
intellectual attainments and at the time of his death, which
occurred in 1865, he was a teacher in the Bloomington public
schools and for two years was a student in the State
University, being compelled to relinquish his studies there on
account of the death of his father, when he became the chief
support and reliance of his widowed mother and the younger
children. He nobly assumed his full share of the burden
thus thrown upon him and from that time to the close of his
life his record was one of unceasing activity. For
practically a third of the century he was connected with the
First National Bank of Bloomington, and during the greater
part of this time he was at the cashier's desk, rendering
honest and faithful service to the institution and doing much
to keep it among the leading banking institutions of this
section of the state. In evidence of the exalted
position Mr. Washburn held in the minds of those
familiar with his history, the following lines are quoted from
the Bloomington press: "There was no man who made more
impression upon the community than Walter E. Woodburn.
For over thirty-five years he has been an active and energetic
part of the city, known of all men and in all avenues of trade
and professions as the soul of honor. For over thirty
years as cashier of the First National Bank he has been the
fountain head of reliable information; a statement quoted as
being from him passed as an accepted fact. Mr.
Woodburn was not radical in word, but he was firm in
belief and no one needed to ask his position on any question
of right or any policy that meant the welfare and best
interests of the city. As a banker almost all his
business life, money was a sacred trust to him and, without a
seeming thought of taking credit for the statement, he often
said that in the thirty-two years of his work as a cashier he
never touched a cent of the money or knowingly violated the
laws of the institution. It was a life principle with
him not to speculate and, though he was in a position where
information was first-hand as to trades and prospects, these
things were no temptation. No man could have been more
faithful to the work before him. His view of business
was that his time and energies all belonged to the bank and,
though often importuned by the officials to take rest and
recreation, he always refused, and it is doubtful if any man
in the city for so long a time has such a faithful record of
duty well performed. In all these thirty-two years he
has probably not been absent from his place in the bank a
month all told until the breakdown in his health last summer.
He applied himself constantly to his work and in these few
statements is told the life's story of an honest and faithful
man." Mr. Woodburn died at his home in Bloomington on
May 4, 1906.
On November 27, 1878, Walter E. Woodburn was
married to Anna K. Arnott, the daughter of
Rev. Moses and Mary (Pollock) Arnott, the former a native
of New York state and the latter of Pennsylvania. At the
time of his death, Rev. Arnott was pastor of a
Presbyterian church at Hanover, Jefferson county, Indiana.
He was a man of good education, high intellectual attainments
and was a successful and popular minister of the gospel.
To Mr. and Mrs. Woodburn were born the following
children: Laura, who became the wife of Prof. D. O.
Mcgovney, who is connected with Tulane University, at New
Orleans, Louisiana; Walter F., who is connected with
the Collins & Seidel grocery store in Bloomington, married
Helen Marshall and they have three children: Frank,
John and Margaret; Arnott, who lives at home in an
invalid; Mary and Martha, twins, who remain at
home, were students in the same class in the State University.
The family home is most beautifully situated on North College
avenue, comprising ample grounds, from which may bee had an
inspiring view of the surrounding country in all directions.
Politically, Mr. Woodburn was an earnest
supporter of the Republican party, especially in its views of
financial affairs and performed his full duty as a citizen,
attending his party conventions and primaries, but he never
aspired to fill any public office, though in his earlier days
he had served as treasurer of Bloomington and as a member of
the school board, where he rendered efficient and appreciated
service. At the time of his death he was treasurer of
Indiana University and also treasurer of the Bloomington
National Building Association. Mr. Woodburn had a
deep and conscientious regard for the spiritual verities and
for many years was a leading member of the United Presbyterian
church, of which he was a member of the official board and
treasurer for twenty-five years. He was a regular
attendant at the various services of the church and by his
daily life he set an example of correct living well worthy of
emulation. Always calm and dignified, never
demonstrative, his life was, nevertheless, a persistent plea,
more by precept and example than by written or spoken word,
for the purity and grandeur of right principles and the beauty
and elevation of wholesome character. He had the
greatest sympathy for his fellow men and was ever willing to
aid and encourage those who were struggling to aid themselves
against adverse fate, yet in this, as in everything else, he
was entirely unostentatious. To him home life was a
sacred trust, friendship was inviolable and nothing could
swerve him from the path of rectitude and honor.
(pg. 524 History of Lawrence & Monroe Counties, Indiana) |
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