Thomas Bogle Rader Funeral 17 June 1904

 

The National Democrat, Jeffersonville, Indiana, Friday June 17, 1904 Front Page

 

DEATH OF EX-MAYOR THOMAS BOGLE RADER

 

MOST PROMINENT CITIZEN PASSES QUIETLY INTO REST

 

Public and Private Life of Deceased Display Many Qualities Which Made Him Valuable Citizen and Close Friend To Many Acquaintances.

 

Body Will Lie In State At City Hall And Many Orders Will Have Part In Greatest Funeral Witnessed In This City For Very Many Years.

 

ALL CLASSES UNITE IN MOURNING DEATH.  SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.

 

After many alternations between hope and despair Thomas Bogle Rader passed away Tuesday night at 11:10 in the presence of his family and some of his closet friends, the end coming peacefully.  All day long he had lain quietly, at times half conscious and again arousing and greeting his friends and many callers with vivacity and warmth, sinking back again into the same quiescent attitude.  Death was due to uremic poisoning caused by Bright’s disease, and his condition became critical on Monday.  Monday night his end was looked for and the first question in the city Tuesday morning was whether “Tom” Rader was still living.  All day Tuesday inquires and callers poured into the house on Spring hill where the sick man was living out the last few hours of his life.  Dr. O. P. Graham was in constant attendance through the day and did all that could be done for him but his condition was recognized as hopeless.

 

It was about 11 when it was seen that the end was coming.  Only a few minutes before he breathed his last he opened his eyes and requested Fielding Wilson to hold his had and in that attitude after a few minutes he died.  The message was quickly flashed all over the city that the end had come.  The news was early sent to the Knights of Pythias with which, of all the orders in which he was interested, his connections were closest.  The funeral arrangements will be in their hands.

 

The illness which has proven fatal to Mr. Rader began last March and was brought on by campaigning when he was a candidate for the nomination for Joint Senator from Clark, Scott and Washington.  Soon after he received the nomination of Clark county he fell sick and had a very bad spell.  For a time it was feared he would not get up but he rallied, his heart which had been effected, improved, and at the end of April and beginning of May he was down in the city once more and was warmly greeted by his friends.  After only two weeks he as again obliged to take to his bed which caused his friend and the public at large the most profound anxiety.  The condition of his heart was shown by his nervousness, as previously to his sickness he was one of the nervy men in the city.  Two weeks ago every one expected that the end was a matter of hours but once more he rallied, heart and kidneys improved and it was thought that he would perhaps be in the city again before long.  Then came the relapse of Sunday night and the rapid end.

 

The active life of Thomas B. Rader has been spent in Jeffersonville to whose citizens his was one of the most familiar figures, his name one most often on their lips.  He as regarded as one of the best assets of the city’s business and political life and in him the Democratic party had on of its staunchest, most untiring and indefatigable workers.  Since 1878 he had been identified with the interests of the city and his term as mayor showed more than any other part of his life of what stuff he was made.

 

Mr. Rader was born at Henryville Christmas Day, 1859, and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Perry Rader.  His father has been dead many years, his mother dying more recently.  He was educated at that town and found the earliest outlet for his energy in teaching school.  He taught at the country school near Roswell for two years and then moved to this city becoming the deputy of Dr. H. H. Ferguson who was elected to the office of County Treasurer.  When the latter’s term of office expired he went to work for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in Louisville and later engaged in the insurance and real estate  business in this city in which he continued until the time of his death.  He was an expert accountant and made a good record in business.  Later he again became Deputy County Treasurer, serving under Al Jenkins and filling out his unexpired term.  He entered the race for election at the close of that term but withdrew from the race.  With the exception of the four years he was Mayor this is the only office ever held by Mr. Rader, a remarkable things having reference to the activity he always displayed in the political field.

 

In 1896 he was County chairman for the Democrats during William Jennings Bryan’s first campaign and in 1898 he entered the field as a candidate for Mayor.  He had a hard fight for the nomination which he secured by a large majority and then entered into the fight against Mary Whiteside whom he defeated in a square battle.  His victory was largely due to the splendid organization which he effected and it is probable that he could foretell the result within very few votes before the election on account of the manner in which he had his finger on the public pulse.  For four years he held office and Jeffersonville has not often experienced such a time of municipal activity.  Whether he was always wise will be a matter of opinion on which there is room for difference, but none will dispute that he threw himself heartily into the work of governing the city.  To him is due the credit of refunding the city debt thereby saving thousand of dollars a year in interest and providing for the gradual lessening of the debt.  He was in favor of municipal ownership believing that this would prove beneficial to the city.  His strenuous policy roused many interests against him and lead to his defeat in 1902 by present Mayor Schwaninger.

 

Since 1902 Mr. Rader has given himself heartily to business and was engaged with Eli M. Lindley in doing street work for the city, Maple street contract being secured by them.  Early in this year he had determined to enter the race for Joint Senator and went after the nomination with his characteristic energy.  He secured a majority vote in this county and would have had the nomination if the joint convention had been held, but a date for it was never set.

 

Socially Mr. Rader was one of the most agreeable men and numbered his friends by the hundreds.  The best illustration of the fact is the number of order with which he was identified, sixteen different lodges claiming him as a member.  With all of these his connections was that of an active member, but the Knights of Pythias was his particular chosen order and the Uniform Rank more than all lay near his heart.  On this account that body will have immediate control of the funeral by his dying wish.  From its commencement he was it Captain and gave ungrudgingly of time and ability and energy to its success, achieving the result of making it one of the more successful organization in the city and a sure prize winner in any state contest.  He was repaid with the undying devotion of every member of the order.

 

The following list includes the whole of the sixteen that claim him a member.

 

He was a member of Hope Lodge, No. 13, Knights of Pythias, a Past Chancellor and at the time of his death a Trustee; Captain of Company 9, Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias, since its formation; belonged to the Dramatic Order Knights of Korassan and the Rathbone Sisters, adjuncts of the Knights of Pythias order.  He was a charter member of Jeffersonville Lodge, No. 362, B. P. O. E.; a Past Master of Jeffersonville Lodge, No 340, F. and A. M.; a member of Jeffersonville Commandery, NO. 27, Knights Templar; Horeb Chapter, No. 66, Royal Arch Masons; the Scottish Rite and the Noble Order of Mystic Shriners.  He was an Odd Fellow and belonged to Jefferson Lodge, No. 8, Daughters of Rebekah.  Other orders he was affiliated with were Clark Council, No. 1,216, Royal Arcanum; Clark Commandery, No. 57, United Order of the Golden Cross, and was at one time an officer in the Grand Commandery, Eden Lodge, No. 240, Knights and Ladies of Honor; Hoosier Camp, No. 3,594, Modern Woodmen of America.

 

Mr. Rader leaves a family, consisting of a wife and five children, one of them married.  Other near relatives he has none.  His wife was Miss Lotta Butterfoss to whom he was married in this city by Dr. W. H. Sheets on May 8, 1882.  The children are Thomas R, Edwin, Ralph, Claud and Mary Rader.  The eldest was born during the fold of 1883 at the time the water was highest, the family being o of those that took refuge in the Rose Hill school building.

 

Of Mr. Rader it seems impossible to say much at this time.  He was too well known to need a newspaper panegyric.  Perhaps the best and truest thing that can be said is that more than any other man in Jeffersonville his death will come home to every member of the community.  In every section of society it will be felt as a calamity and high and low will feel they have lost a friend.  His chief characteristic was his loyalty to his friends and they repaid his faithfulness with the warmest affection.  His qualities were such as endeared him to those who knew him and such a man cannot fail to be missed when his time comes to tread the valley of the shadow.  Mr. Rader was a strict temperance man and never touched intoxicating liquor.  He as not identified with any church until recently, when he joined Morton chapel.  He as much touched when Mr. Butler called to see him at the time of his sickness and soon after gave in his adherence to the church.

 

Mr. Rader’s funeral will be the great4es ever seen in Jeffersonville.  It will include a lying in state at the City Hall and there will be a few who neglect the opportunity to look their last upon him.  It is probable that every lodge will have part in the funeral, passively or actively, and the crowd of mourners will be immense.

 

The funeral will leave the house at 9:30 o’clock under the care of Uniform Rank, No. 9, K. of P., and will proceed to the City Hall where the body will lie in state from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., after which it will be removed to Morton chapel for the service of the church which will be conducted by the Rev. J. B. Butler.  The latter will return specially from his Kentucky home, where he is visiting, for that purpose.  All fraternal orders will muster on Market street, Prof. F. E. Andrews acting as chief marshal and will accompany the remains to the church.

 

W. W. Cain will speak at the funeral for the fraternal life of the deceased, Thomas J Brook will speak for his public life, while the church will be represented, as aforesaid, by the Rev. J. B. Butler.  The pall bearers will be as follows:

 

Honorary—Mayor Abram Schwaninger, Judge James K. Marsh, Henry Nachand, Eli M. Lindley, Dr. O. P. Graham, Al Mahaffey, M. Z. Stannard, Ward H. Watson.

 

Active---Uniform Rank, No. 9, K. of  P., Charles Antz, Fielding L. Wilson, Lee Sylvester, W. B. Thornley, James Applegate, O. L. Chandler.

 

Mr. Rader’s last wish was that Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias, should take chare of the remains, and that all lodges of which he was a member should participate at his funeral, and also all city officials.  He felt that no fraternity of which he was a member would feel hurt at his selection of the Uniform Rank to take immediate charge of his remains if they would stop to consider that he ad been Captain for so long a time.

 

The ordering of the funeral procession will be entirely in the hands of the marshal, Prof. F. E. Andrews.  The precedence desired by the dead man will be given to the Uniform Rand both in this and in the services.  Opportunity will be given to every order to which Mr. Rader belonged to conduct their own services at the grave and it is probably that some at least of them will conduct their own ritual in accordance with this liberty.  Not one will be shut out from doing so if it is desire.