On the 27th
of May in 1999, Barbara Brutus published an important article in the Review Republican. She advised to
readers to “take a moment to remember Rue J. Alexander.” Rue (James Ruevelle)
had direct influence on my life because, before World War II, he helped nudge
my grandfather Seymour Alfred Rhode into political posts in Indianapolis. Beginning
in the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, my grandfather later became an examiner for
the Indiana Department of Insurance. He was named Chief Examiner after fifteen
years in the department. Prior to his career in insurance, my grandfather had
taught school in Warren County, Indiana. I have the hand bell he rang to call
the students from the playground. For a time, he sold musical instruments in
Lafayette. A few years after his marriage to Kosie Ruby Cobb, he served on the
Board of Directors of Standard Live Stock Insurance Company of Indianapolis.
When he began accepting what were largely political appointments, he became
much more successful than he had been previously.
My blog is
not about my grandfather, though. It is about Rue J. Alexander. So who was he?
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| Lieutenant Governor of Indiana Rue J. Alexander |
Paraphrasing
Rue’s standard obituary, Barbara reported that Rue grew up on a farm in Benton
County. He was born in Talbot on the 4th of October in 1889. He
graduated from Lafayette Business College. In 1915, he quit farming to become
an automobile and tractor mechanic and salesman. Rue enlisted in the Army in
1918. He entered as a private in auto mechanics and was assigned to Company A’s
Truck Master School. He was trained at Purdue University. The Armistice was
signed just before Rue’s promotion to sergeant could be made official;
consequently, he was discharged as acting sergeant.
After the
First World War, he served as superintendent of the Boswell Water Works. He
then joined the sales force of the Cornbelt Feed Company, leaving that position
to open the Pine Village Feed Company. For a decade, Rue was Republican
chairman of the sixth district. He served two terms as Indiana’s secretary of
state (1943–1947). In April of 1948, Richard T. James resigned from his post as
lieutenant governor to become vice-president and treasurer of Butler
University, and Governor Ralph F. Gates appointed Rue to complete James’
unexpired term. Rue was nearing the end of his service as lieutenant governor
when he passed away at the age of 60 on the 2nd of January in 1949.
For a town with
a small population to have produced a lieutenant governor is a testimony to the
high values that Pine Village, Boswell, and neighboring hamlets upheld. When I
was a teenager, I spent a day as a page on the floor of the senate in the
Indiana General Assembly, and I can attest to the fact that, half a century
ago, the individual who held the office of lieutenant governor and, therefore,
served as president of the senate indeed merited respect!
People of
my generation who grew up in Pine Village will be interested to know that Mildred
McCoy was Rue’s daughter. Wilda Helmerick spent most of her youth and young
adulthood with her aunt Ella Helmerick, who was married to Rue. Only six months
prior to his death, Rue gave Wilda in marriage to Leroy Brutus.
I want to
thank Ann Miller Carr for researching Seymour A. Rhode’s obituaries in
Indianapolis.
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| Seymour Alfred Rhode Working in Indianapolis |
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