Culver Military Academy
Culver Educational Foundation
Henry Harrison Culver
History Of Marshall County
(1907) Daniel Mc Donald
Chapter: LXVI. pages 349-357/8
Henry Harrison Culver, the youngest child of John Milton Culver and Lydia E. Howard,
was born near London, Madison County, Ohio, August 9, 1840. The other children of
the family were Lutellus, killed in the civil war; Wallace W., Lucius L., Ruth, and
Lucetta.
The father was evidently a Whig in politics; and what was more natural than that
he should name his son after the Whig candidate for the presidency, William Henry
Harrison, then in the heat of the wonderful "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign,
which swept the country like wild-fire, and at the November elections lauded, by
an overwhelming majority, the famous old Indian fighter in the White House at
Washington?
John Milton Culver was of Scotch descent and a native of Ohio. He was a farmer and
later became a railroad contractor in the rapidly developing new country in which
he lived. But in the early '50s he met with financial reverses, then so common in
the west, and with his large family to support he doubtless encouraged his sons to
strike out early for them-selves and begin their lives on their own responsibility.
It is not surprising therefore, that we find Henry, at the age of fifteen, with only
a meager common school education of less than twelve months, accompanied by his
older brother Wallace, in St. Louis, Missouri.
After varied experiences of a few months in St. Louis and western Illinois, working
at anything that came to hand, they met in Springfield, Illinois, John McCreary,
who, with his brother Joseph, was engaged in a general hardware business. The two
Culvers were at once engaged by the McCreary brothers, and were put to work at
selling cast-iron stoves to the farmers throughout the country.
In the course of his travels in northern Indiana Henry met at the home of her father
Miss Emily Jane, the daughter of William J. Hand, a well-known and unusually
intelligent farmer of Marshall county, and Sabrina Chapman, his wife, and in
September of 1864 they were married at her home near Wolf creek, a hamlet some
eight miles east of Lake Maxinkuckee.
Mr. Culver's proposition was generous and was promptly accepted, and on October 5,
1896, seventy-two Missouri military academy boys, with their teachers, were collected
from Denver to Pittsburgh, and were brought to Culver, where they were warmly welcomed,
and in a short time the two schools, with their respective faculties, were perfectly
united. Maj. Tebbetts resigned, and Col. Fleet was put in command, at the head of
100 cadets.
And now Mr. Culver began to realize the dream of thirty years before, and really
saw the beginning of a great school, the fame of which was to extend from ocean to
ocean, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
The new cadets filled the fireproof barracks and overflowed into a frame building
nearby, and Mr. Culver without delay began an additional barracks to hold forty more
cadets.
The catalogue of 1896-97, published in June 1897, the first catalogue with roster
of cadets theretofore published, showed 122 cadets, and a graduating class of seven.
But we must go back again for a few years before continuing our history of the school.
In 1888 Mr. Culver again took up the reins in the Wrought Iron Range Company, and
upon the retirement of his brother, L. L., there were thrust upon him greater
responsibilities and duties. His reappearance at the office with health much improved
and full of energy, gave a great impetus to the business, and a few years later,
in 1894, the capital invested in the manufacture of ranges was over $1,000,000.
It was about this period of prosperity that the republican party of his district
offered to Mr. Culver the nomination to congress, and for a short time he considered
the matter rather favorably, but later concluded that he could not accept the
nomination without seriously neglecting his engrossing business engagements, and
he declined the honor. It was in keeping with Mr. Culver's character that he made
no mention of this incident except to his closest friends.
His sons were now engaged with him in business, and, entrusting many of the details
to them, it was possible for Mr. Culver to spend much of his time at Maxinkuckee
in the years 1895 and 1896.
But in the latter part of 1896 his health began again to fail, and with some
fluctuations it soon became apparent that it was steadily growing worse, until
during the summer of 1897 his condition caused his friends the gravest anxiety.
Mr. Culver had lived at such a high pressure and with such extraordinary calls on
his mental and physical activity that he seemed at the age of fifty-seven to have
drained the powers of an exceptionally vigorous constitution, and, despite the
efforts of physicians, to have possessed no capacity for recuperation. But his
life, though by comparison not a long one, had in virtue of its achievements, a
rounded completeness such as the lives of few men present.
Most of this cottage on the lake, and when-ever he was well enough, he would pass
many hours each day on the porch, looking across at the beautiful buildings and
grounds of the academy, and was always delighted to hear reports of the progress
of the work in filling the now enlarged barracks with new and enthusiastic cadets.
He lived to see the school opened in September with every room filled and with
ample promise of the rapid and substantial growth, which has since been attained.
About the middle of September he was removed to his home in St. Louis, where he
died Sunday, September 26, 1897.
It is difficult to give an adequate picture of so many-sided a man as H. H. Culver.
It has been said of him that with his wide range of mental powers it would be hard
to name a sphere of action in which he could not have attained success. He was first
of all a wonderfully acute and successful man of affairs. He left property which
placed him high in the millionaire class of his city, and all accumulated by his
own efforts; but he was much more than a mere business man; he was an idealist and
a philanthropist. This is illustrated most strikingly in his relations with his
employees. At the time of Mr. Culver's death the Wrought Iron Range Company had
in its employment about 400 salesmen, and the same number of workmen in its factories,
and at the malleable and grey iron foundries, engaged in preparing material for
their ranges, about 300 more, or 1,100 men employed in their various industries
in St. Louis, Denver and Toronto, Canada. Mr. Culver was not content with merely
winning success for him- self; he aimed at encouraging and assisting others to do
the same. Few heads of large business enterprises have done as much for their
employees in the way of pushing them forward and urging them to win success for
themselves by strenuous effort. His relation with his employees was marked by the
greatest kindliness on his part, and by hearty respect and genuine affection on
theirs, and when he gave his confidence he gave it without reserve. One instance
of his dealings with his men will suffice to show the spirit, which always animated
him:
During the panic of 1893 the employees of the Wrought Iron Range Company agreed to
a Reduction of wages in order to enable the company to run continuously through
this period of depression without laying off any of their men. After the crisis was
passed, oil the payday before Christmas, there was placed in the envelope of each
employee a note of friendly greeting and an amount of gold equal to the entire
reduction of their pay during the panic through which they had passed. It was such
generous acts as these that bound to Mr. Culver as by hooks of steel the loyal
employees of the company.
Mr. Culver's benevolences were varied and extensive. It was his pleasure to
forward every worthy object; but to help young men struggling to rise under
difficulties and to gain an education, always appealed to him most strongly, and
it will never be known how many of these received assistance from him. It may
easily be imagined that his first conception of a school for the education of boys
came to him when he realized how great was the demand for such help by worthy young
men.
Mr. Culver was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of St. Louis, and was
always a liberal and generous contributor to its support He was also a Knight
Templar and a Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason. Mr. Culver was also a
charter member of the Masonic lodge at Culver, whose name was changed to the Henry
H. Culver Lodge after his death, in compliment to him.
In coming in contact with Mr. Culver personally, one realized most clearly what
is meant by the often-used phrase "personal magnetism”; nor in his case was it hard
to discover the sources of that power of attracting and holding the attention.
There was in him a natural flow of eloquent speech, a vivid imagination, and a
generous heartiness of manner of which everyone felt the fascination. No one who
met him could forget the sincerity and noble simplicity that characterized all his
words and actions, the quick response to every emotion, the spontaneous humor and
ready wit. Striking as were his powers of intellect, it was above all his
large-hearted- ness and sympathetic kindliness that one most admired and was
attracted by.
He was a most impressive talker; brimful of eloquence, by turns fiery and impassioned,
again humorous or pathetic. He seemed unconsciously to follow the poet's advice:
"If you would move me, first be moved your- self." His words came straight from
his heart, and he talked to convince and persuade. Nothing could be more picturesque
and vivid than the language he employed, entirely free from conventional or artificial
phrases, simple, direct, original.
Mr. Culver had at his command an inexhaustible stock of reminiscences, which he
would apply with admirable skill to the subject in hand. Nor less admirable were
those pithy sentences, full of practical wisdom, with which he would "point a moral
or adorn a tale." Among his favorite thoughts, to which he would return again and
again, were two which were most characteristic of the man, and furnished the keynote
of his success. These were: growth as the test of health in business; and character,
and the heart as being a more important factor of success in life than the intellect.
"Keep on growing, expanding," he would say, with that emphatic sweep of the arms,
"growth, no matter how little, that's the main thing." And again, "I believe that
though a man were as eloquent as Webster, and as great a general as Grant, he will
come to nothing if his heart is not right."
The Wrought Iron Range Company, after the retirement of Mr. W. W. Culver passed
entirely into the hands of Mr. H. H. Culver's family. It has continued to grow
and prosper under their management, as they have continued to build wisely upon
the foundation laid for them in the past. The five sons, W. L. Culver, H. H. Culver,
Jr., E. R. Culver, B. B. Culver, and K. K. Culver, with their mother, are also the
trustees of the Culver Military Academy, and most liberally and loyally have they
followed their mother's inspiration to build in the school which he loved, the
greatest and most enduring monument to his memory.
In twelve years, from a corps of thirty cadets, quartered in a frame building, and
scarcely known within its own state, to an enrollment within the year 1907-08
(winter and summer) of 677 cadets, over double the number receiving military
instruction in any other private school in the United States, with four splendid
fireproof barracks, a superb riding hall, gymnasium, and hospital, all built and
equipped at a cost of half a million, and officially designated by the war department
as one of the six distinguished institutions of the country, and recognized the
world over as the highest type of private military school-such in brief is the truly
remarkable history of the growth of the Culver Military Academy. In all the annals
of school history there is no other record such as this.
This great phalanx of turret red buildings that has sprung up as if by magic along
the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee is but the housing for executive and educational
experience gained through half a century under great divergence of place and
circumstances, and brought together by Providence for concrete expression in the
erection of a great school. The philanthropic plan of the founder was not the
impulse of a moment, but was the outgrowth of a desire that had been born of his
own youthful struggles against adversity, and the yearning of his magnanimous heart
to assist others in the pursuit of knowledge. The wisdom that chose so advantageous
a site was gained through many years of successful business experience. This wisdom
saw the gushing fountains of pure artesian water, and realized their relation to
the health of the student body; it took into account the exquisite lake and its
resources for healthful recreation; it considered the purity of the atmosphere,
the absence of temptation, and the beautiful surroundings with their unconscious
influence upon impressionable youth.
The knowledge of men that selected the educator under whose guidance the internal
machinery of the school was put in motion and perfected was gained through half a
century's experience with many men in many walks of life. The prudent business
sagacity that guided the great material growth, building for utility only, but
building for all time the best and the fittest buildings counted a model of their
kind, was an inheritance to young, enthusiastic, capable business men, building a
great monument to their father, its founder, stimulated by filial loyalty and
affection, and proceeding with judgment and foresight.
Behind the success of every school must lie the same simple causes, the excellence
of its training, and the adequacy of its equipment.
The original main barracks was built complete in itself, with quarters, class rooms,
and mess hall, to accommodate about the number to which a school in the ordinary
rtm of things would grow in the first ten years of its existence. With the absorption
of Col. Fleet's school from Missouri, this building at once became inadequate, and
Mr. Culver, without even waiting for the snow and ice of winter to pass, at once
constructed the west barracks to accommodate forty-four cadets and two officers,
and containing six section rooms, one physical laboratory and one chemical laboratory.
This was in 1897. This enlarged plant did not meet the entire demand for admittance
for even one year, and two years later, in 1899, another building was added, the
east barracks, to accommodate sixty cadets and two officers, with hospital of four
rooms, two laboratories, and library. The latter room made an important addition
to the academic equipment of the school. This has since been increased by adding
the adjoining laboratory, which was converted into a stack room, the original
library being now furnished as a comfortable and attractive reading room. The
library contains over 4,000 volumes.
In the year intervening between the construction of the west and the east barracks,
a building was erected which marked an epoch in the school's development, and was
an unmistakable indication of the unusually broad and comprehensive lines" along
which it was the intention of the trustees to develop the school. Many people wondered
at the time, and doubtless questioned the policy that erected as subsidiary equipment
to a comparatively small school, a riding hall which was finer than those built by
the national government for its cavalry posts or at West Point, and probably without
a superior in the world. This remarkable building, one hundred and four by two
hundred and twelve feet, of brick and stone, with great steel trussed roof, of
ornate architecture and incorporating every essential of the complete riding arena,
was erected at a cost of $50,000. Indeed it was a wonderful building for a private
school of 122 cadets; but time ha~ justified the policy that built it. No school
investment ever paid bigger dividends of benefit to its students. There are
strong-bodied, virile young men effectively fighting the battle of life today who
went into this laboratory of muscle and energy as spindling youngsters and who
came out of it strong and vigorous, with abounding energy stored in their fibres
that never could have been acquired throughout an ordinary school course.
So even in the infancy of the school the trustees gave it this wonderful source of
physical development, a splendidly equipped cavalry department, at once an assurance
of a broad policy, and an emphatic evidence of their confidence in the future, of
the school.
The additional barracks necessitated greater capacity for the heating and lighting
plant, and between January and May of 1899 the boiler room was enlarged, two additional
tubular boilers installed, and six rooms for employees were built over the engine
room, a brick stack one hundred feet high being also constructed. A powder magazine,
covered gallery for formations, and new walks in the grounds were other improvements
of that year.
Notwithstanding the addition of the east barracks to the school's capacity in 1899,
the fall of 1900 found the school again full to overflowing, and so large a waiting
list of disappointed applicants that it was decided to build immediately a third
story to the north wing of the main barracks. This was pushed as rapidly as possible,
and rooms to accommodate twenty- two cadets and two officers were added to the
school's capacity and at once filled.
Between the years of 1900 and 1904, despite a waiting list each fall, no additional
barracks were built, but an important addition was made to the academic facilities
of the school. In 1903 a fourth story was added to the large main barracks, this
being solely for academic purposes, and containing a drafting room, physical
laboratory, chemical laboratory, biological laboratory, Y. M. C. A. room, chemical
and physical lecture rooms, dentist's office, barber shop, and dark room for amateur
photographers.
This addition to the school's academic facilities made it possible to instruct
effectively an increased number of cadets, and opened the way for the construction
of new barracks. Consequently in 1904 the south barracks was built, with capacity
for ninety cadets and three officers.
During 1903-04 a splendid gymnasium was constructed. In its relation to the physical
training of the cadets this was as important and complete an addition to the school's
equipment as was the riding hall, erected some years previous, and was again a
demonstration of the school's policy to build only the best and fittest, and to
afford its cadets unequalled facilities in every department. This building was
destroyed by fire June I, 1906, but was immediately rebuilt. This is the largest
and most complete private school gymnasium in existence. It is constructed in the
Tudor Gothic style of architecture. The main gymnasium hall is seventy-five by one
hundred and forty feet. It has walls of white, enamel brick, capped by a heavy oak
rail, to which are fastened pulley weights and other wall apparatus. The floor is
of polished hard maple. A suspended running track-seventeen laps to the mile-and
gallery, skirt the four walls. The roof is supported by steel trusses, and no pillar
or post mars the ample floor space. Opening into the main hall are apparatus room,
measuring room, filled with the best anthropometric apparatus, director's room,
locker room, drying room, and baths. In connection with the latter is a system of
showers designed, or it might be said, invented, especially for this building. The
class, after exercising, marches around the shower room, and on completion of the
circuit has received a scientifically regulated shower bath, warm on entrance and
gradually, by an ingenious arrangement, decreasing in temperature so that the water
at the end is of an invigorating coolness.
In 1907 a separate hospital building was erected, of strictly fireproof construction,
and equipped with the latest sanitary appliances. It is two stories high, has a diet
kitchen, independent heating and lighting systems, and accommodations for twenty-five
patients. The style of architecture is the Tudor Gothic, which admits of highly
ornate trimmings and is peculiarly adapted to buildings for this purpose. The
architectural treatment combines the restful and quiet effect essential to hospitals,
with the massive and dignified appearance appropriate to military buildings. A
reception hall divides the first story longitudinally; this hall also serves as a
waiting room. On the left of the reception hall are located the surgeon's office
and chambers also the operating, sterilizing, and emergency rooms. On the right of
the reception hall is the contagion ward, with separate baths, nurse's quarters,
kitchen, etc. This portion of the building is absolutely isolated from the other
rooms for the purpose of safe quarantine in case of contagion.
And so from year to year the remarkable growth of the school has steadily continued,
until today an imposing group of eight large buildings " and numerous smaller
structures, with beautiful grounds and athletic fields, has stands as a monument to
Mr. Culver, perpetuating his name in connection has with the highest type of complete
mental, moral, and physical training that can be afforded to youth.
The following table shows the attendance of the school from year to year:
| Year |
Cadets |
Year |
Cadets |
| 1896-97 |
122 |
1902-03 |
279 |
| 1897-98 |
158 |
1903-04 |
327 |
| 1898-99 |
171 |
1904-05 |
386 |
| 1899-00 |
242 |
1905-06 |
529 |
| 1900-01 |
260 |
1906-07 |
514 |
| 1901-02 |
49 |
1907-08 |
677 |
The school has been from the first distinctly a: military school. Its uniform has
been no mere idle sham to tickle the fancy, but has stood for the highest standard
of honor and discipline. The fact that this twelve year-old school, out of the
hundreds of military schools in this country, is today designated by the war department
as one of the six distinguished institutions of the United States indicates at once
the superiority of its methods.
The school has appreciated from the start that the best results could be obtained
from a military system that was as real and as thorough as if the making of soldiers
were its chief and only aim. Such a system enlists at once the boy's pride and
interest, and impresses him with its force and reality. It strips him of every
artificial garnishment of parental wealth or social or political prominence, puts
him absolutely on his own merits; garbs him in the same uniform, locates him in the
same sort of room, and affords him exactly the same opportunities as his fellows;
places him in an atmosphere where he learns to know and respect true merit for its
own - sake, and where he will make the best of himself.
The school has realized also that interest and variety must furnisl1 the incentive
in a military course in a private school, and has provided facilities for a range
of military instruction, which approximates in the scope and extent of its practical
features the course at West Point, and is equaled by that of no other private school.
Infantry, cavalry, artillery, signaling, first aid, and military engineering, all
contribute their quota to the training of the Culver cadet.
The cavalry school was added in 1898, and was at once provided with the splendid
riding hall, already described. The first mounts for the cavalry department were
purchased from the famous Troop A, of Cleveland, and were the handsome blacks on
which the troop rode when they acted as President McKinley's escort at his first
inauguration. This is a department that makes a powerful appeal to a boy's interest,
and every facility has been provided to contribute to his full enjoyment and benefit.
The result has been that the cadets have acquired a proficiency in their riding
that has given the Culver cavalry department a world-wide reputation. They have
distinguished themselves as the official escort of Gov. Mount and a Gov. Durbin,
of Indiana, as Admiral Dewey's escort in the Dewey parade in St. Louis; in the
jubilee parade in Chicago; and on various other public occasions. At the World's
Fair in St. Louis they attracted especial attention, and many foreign correspondents
gave them prominence through the periodicals of their various countries. The stimulus
to the esprit de corps of such widespread praise is easily imagined, and has furnished
an incentive to continued and even greater excellence.
The infantry battalion also has gained an enviable reputation for the precision of
its drill, and for the splendid set up and military bearing of its cadets. Various
officers from the war department who have inspected the battalion have accorded it
the highest praise. Maj. John S. Mallory, in his report of May 13 and 14, 1906, states:
"It is in fact a splendidly equipped up-to-date military school, and shows what can be
accomplished at a private military institution when supplied with abundant capital."
And Capt. J. A. Penn, in a report dated May 9 and 10, 19°7, says that, the cadets
at the Culver Military Academy "would compare most favorably with the cadets at the
United States Military Academy."
Returning to Mr. Culver's original idea and in order to afford an opportunity for
an organized vacation, and to avoid the undesirable effects of a summer aimlessly
spent, the school in 1902 started its summer naval school. Through the efforts of
the Indiana delegation in congress, a law was passed authorizing the loan to the
academy of man-of-war cutters for the practical instruction of cadets, in a course
of boat drills similar to those given to the fourth class at Annapolis.
The naval course, with its wholesome, open-air exercises, its picturesqueness, and
its touch of romance, has proved an ideal solution of the summer problem, giving
boys a change of thought and action, a coat of an tan and the hardened muscles that
every boy considers a necessary part of a successful vacation. At the same time,
the school has retained during the summer its experienced staff of teachers, and
has afforded to those cadets who desire it an opportunity for careful tutoring in
their studies. The summer school has grown rapidly, and in five years has increased
from an attendance of twenty-two cadets to 345.
In 1907, the summer cavalry school was also started, in order to afford every, boy
who were fond of riding an opportunity of taking the cavalry course during the
summer months. This bids faIr to be as successful as the naval feature.
During the summer session of 1907, the cadets of both the naval and the cavalry
schools made an extended excursion to the east, visiting the James- town Exposition,
Washington, and Annapolis. Their work was highly, complimented by distinguished
officers of both the army and the navy.
It has been thought proper, in connection with the sketch of Mr. Culver's life, to
insert this much of the history of the Culver Military Academy, which was his gift
primarily to Marshall county and the state of Indiana, and because its success has
been largely due to his wisdom in its location and to the plans laid by him for its
future development.
H. H. Culver
Although, in the broad sense of the word Mr. Culver was not a citizen of Indiana, his name must hereafter
be linked with Indiana history, and he be given a place among her philanthropists. Mr. Culver was born new
New London, Ohio, in 1840. He received a common school education, and upon arriving at his maturity entered into
business at Springfield, Illinois. He afterwards went to Mattoon and then to Kansas City, and from there, in 1873,
to St. Louis. He was a most successful business man, and rapidly accumulated money. He was one of those who believed
that education is the best start in good citizenship, and his help in this direction was freely extended. It is said he
assited more than a score of young men to a collegiate course. He married and Indiana lady, and this became indentified
with this state. Her home had been on Lake Maxinkuckee, the beautiful lake in Northern Indiana, where the Culver Military
Academy is now situated. On this lake Mr. Culer had a summer home, and to it he was wont to repair to rest from the cares of
business. He was large-hearted, large brained, and he conceived the idea that on this beautiful lake was the ideal spot for an
academy for young boys. He was also a believer in discipline, and that discipline was the actual foundation of character, and
his mind turned to making the school he contemplated one to be conducted on the same theoried and practice as the great military
school of the Government.
In 1894 the new shool was opened, but the first buildings were destoryed by fire, and newer ones had to be erected. Thes he
determined should be as near fire proof as it was possible to make them, and that they should be fitted up with every
convenience to make school life not only comfortable but attractive in the highest degree. Such buildings were at once
erected, and the new school began its career under the finest of auspices. The United States Government has fitted the
Academy out with the finest and most improved arms and military science is now taught in every branch. Mr. Culver only lived to see
his great scheme get fairly underway, when death came to him. He died at St. Louis, September 26, 1897.
The history of the state of Indiana : from the earliest explorations by the French to the present time : containing an account of the principal civil, political, and military events, from 1763 to 1897
Indianapolis: B.L. Blair Co., 1897,
In the late 1880s, retired businessmen living in Webster
Groves began to subdivide their estates and build large,
_ame Queen Anne houses for their children or as leculative
ventures to airact other successful businessmen to
Webster Groves. Webster Groves was becoming a suburb.
Commuter trains made it possible to work in St.Louis,
yet escape the dust, smoke and cholera epidemics that
plagued the city each summer. In the 1890s, other St. Louis businessmen bought lots
in Webster Groves subdivisions and hired Webster Groves
carpenters like John Prehn and John Berg to build
Queen Anne and American Foursquare houses for them
so they could raise their children in the country...
131 South Gore Ave.
Henry H. Culver House (1896, Queen Anne)
This house was built for H. H. and W. W. Culver, who
founded the Wrought Iron Range Company in 1881 with
their brother L. L. Culver. Henry H. Culver developed
the land around Lake Maxinkuckee in Indiana and
founded the Culver Military Institute there. Culver, Ind.,
was named for him. W. W. Culver became a millionaire
as president of the W. W. Culver Real Estate and
Investment Company. The Culvers sold the house in
1899 to Charles Clear. Clear was a department manager
of the Wrought Iron Range Company
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