William Fortune (May 27, 1863 – January 28, 1942) was a wealthy American businessman, journalist, and civic leader who was a prominent figure in the development of Indianapolis, Indiana, for more than five decades. Fortune is best known for his support of paved city and state roads as part of the Good Roads Movement and leading a thirty-year effort to elevate railroad tracks in Indianapolis, in addition to leadership in several civic organizations. In 1890 he helped establish the Commercial Club, the forerunner to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce; in 1916 he was a founder of the Indianapolis chapter of the American Red Cross; and in 1918 he led a local War Chest fundraising effort, which was a forerunner to the city's present-day United Way campaigns. In 1920 Fortune purchased the home where Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley once lived in Indianapolis in order to preserve it. Fortune retained the property, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, until the nonprofit James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Association was formed in 1922. Fortune also acquired and donated a site in Indianapolis in 1930 for a U.S. Veterans Health Administration hospital that was completed in 1931.
Fortune began his career in Indianapolis in 1882 as a newspaper reporter for the Indianapolis Journal (1882–88), worked briefly for the weekly Sunday Press (1888), and spent two years as a reporter and editorial writer for the Indianapolis News (1889–91). Fortune published Paving and Municipal Engineering (renamed Municipal Engineering in 1896), a paving industry trade magazine, from 1890 to 1911. Other business interests include serving as president (1910–24) of a group of independent telephone companies that later became part of Indiana Bell. Fortune was also member of the Eli Lilly and Company board of directors (1913–27). Fortune was an active promoter for the City of Indianapolis. He served as the Indianapolis Commercial Club's vice president (1894) and president (1897), as well as the first president of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce (1917). Fortune helped plan the construction of the Commercial Club's eight-story building, Indianapolis's first "skyscraper," which opened in 1893, the same year he served as executive director of the twenty-seventh encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, the city's first major convention. Fortune was also the first president of the Indianapolis Automobile Club (1904–06) and the first president of the Indianapolis chapter of the American Red Cross (1916–42). In his later years, he was active at the national level in the Chamber of Commerce and the American Red Cross. He died in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.
Early life and education William "Will" Fortune was born on May 27, 1863, in Boonville, Warrick County, Indiana, the oldest of Mary (St. Clair) and William Harrison Fortune's five children. William Harrison Fortune served as a corporal in the 1st Indiana Cavalry Regiment during the American Civil War and found work as a blacksmith and watchmaker after mustering out of the military, but he frequently suffered from ill health. The family also moved often. Mary and William Harrison Fortune divorced in 1877. After the divorce, Mary Fortune supported herself and her three surviving children by running a boardinghouse in Boonville and William Harrison Fortune had little to no further contact with his children and former wife.
During his youth, Will Fortune was largely self-taught through reading and work experiences. He received only a basic education before beginning an apprenticeship at the Boonville Standard at the age of thirteen. Fortune also developed an early interest in writing and interviewing people. At the age of seventeen, he wrote a history of Warrick County, Indiana, which was published in 1881. Fortune began a lifelong interest in studying the life of Abraham Lincoln while still a teenager. In late 1881 he joined General James C. Veatch in conducting interviews and taking notes of conversations with several people in nearby Spencer County, Indiana, who had known Lincoln during his youth.Latham, pp. 3, 8–9, and 137–40. Excerpts from Fortune’s history of Warrick County are included in Appendix A, pp. 161–63. Some of Fortune’s notes from the interviews he conducted are included in Appendix B, pp. 164–70.
Marriage and family On November 25, 1884, William Fortune married Mary Belle "May" Knubbe (December 23, 1865 – September 28, 1898), the daughter of Jerusha Ann (Perley) and Fred Knubbe of Michigan City, Indiana. May Fortune died of diabetes at the age of thirty-three. Fortune never remarried and spent the rest of his life actively involved in business and civic affairs, which included leadership roles in local and national philanthropies.Latham, pp. 24, 66, and 71. See also:
William and May Fortune had three children; a son, Russell Fortune Sr., and two daughters, Evelyn (Fortune) Lilly Bartlett and Madeline (Fortune) Elder. Russell Fortune Sr. (1885–1970) married Elinor Lemcke (1884–1954) and had three sons: Russell Fortune Jr., William Lemcke Fortune, and Robert Patrick O’Riley Fortune. A year after Elinor Fortune's death in 1954, Russell Fortune Sr. married Mary Pinnell.Latham, pp. 73–78. See also: The Fortunes' older daughter, Evelyn Fortune (1887–1997), married Eli Lilly Jr. (1885–1977), on August 27, 1907; they divorced in 1927.Eli Lilly Jr. was the grandson of Fortune's mentor, Colonel Eli Lilly, the founder of Eli Lilly and Company, and the son of Fortune's close friend, Josiah K. Lilly Sr., the company president and board chairman. The friendship between Fortune and the Lilly family became strained to the breaking point when Eli Jr. and Evelyn Lilly divorced in 1927. See: Peter Fortune, pp. 53, 56, and 74–75. Also: . Evelyn and Eli Lilly's only surviving child was Evelyn "Evie" (Lilly) Lutz (1918–70). Evelyn Fortune Lilly married Frederic Clay Bartlett in June 1931; he died in 1956. She later married Daniel Huger, but the couple divorced in 1969.Latham, p. 157. See also: Madison, pp. 26, 258–59. Madeline Fortune (1889–1992), the youngest daughter, married Bowman Elder (1887–1954). The couple had two children: a daughter, Ann (Elder) Schermerhorn, and a son, William Elder II.Fortune, pp. 63, 75–76. See also: Madison, p. 23.
The Fortune family's main residence was at Woodruff Place, a suburban neighborhood located east of downtown Indianapolis.Latham, p. 25. After the death of his wife in 1898, Fortune resided at homes on North Pennsylvania Street and on North Delaware Street. In 1931 he purchased a property at Trader's Point in New Augusta, Indiana, on the northwest side of Indianapolis, which he intended to use as a summer residence. The Fortune family also spent some of their earlier summers at Indiana's Lake Wawasee.Latham, pp. 63–65. See also: Madison, p. 20.
Career Fortune began his career in Indianapolis in 1882 as a newspaper reporter and later published a paving industry trade magazine. From 1910 to 1924 he served as president of a group of independent telephone companies. From 1913 to 1927 Fortune served as a member of the board of directors of Eli Lilly and Company. Fortune also took an active role in supporting and promoting the development of the city. Fortune was active as a member of the Indianapolis Commercial Club, led efforts to elevate railroad tracks in the city, founded a local chapter of the American Red Cross, participated in community fundraising efforts, and became an advocate for paving Indianapolis streets and the Good Roads Movement, among other business and civic interests.
Journalist, editor, and publisher Fortune began training for a career in newspaper publishing as a young teen when he apprenticed at the Standard, a Boonville, Indiana, newspaper. He moved to Indianapolis in 1882 to become a news reporter for the Indianapolis Journal. Fortune also worked as city editor at the Journal before resigning in 1888 due to poor health. During Benjamin Harrison's presidential campaign in 1888, Fortune worked as a local political correspondent for the New-York Tribune, the Philadelphia Press, and the Chicago Tribune.Latham, p. 24.
Through his work as a journalist, Fortune became friends with notable residents of Indianapolis that included writers such as James Whitcomb Riley and Meredith Nicholson and influential business leaders that included Colonel Eli Lilly and Josiah K. Lilly Sr. In 1888 Fortune continued a career in journalism during a brief stint as editor of the weekly Sunday Press before joining the Indianapolis News in 1889 as a reporter and editorial writer for the next two years. In 1890 Fortune and several other journalists founded the Indianapolis Press Club, which remained active for twenty-five years. Fortune also served as its first president.Latham, pp. 24, 29, and 31.
Fortune, a longtime advocate of civic improvement, became especially interested in paving city streets and municipal sanitation. From 1890 to 1911 he was publisher and manager of a paving industry trade magazine called Paving and Municipal Engineering (renamed Municipal Engineering in 1896). Fortune turned over the operations of the publication over to his son, Russell, in 1910; it was sold in 1918. Fortune also wrote an article on the subject of paving that appeared in the October 1892 issue of Century Magazine.Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., p. 595.Latham, p. 42 and 70. See also: Fortune and Balter, p. 5.
Telephone company executive From 1910 to 1924 Fortune served as president of a group of independent telephone companies that included Indianapolis Telephone Company and the New Telephone Company. The independent phone companies were later sold to Indiana Bell.Latham, p. 102.
On March 18, 1917, Fortune made the first Indianapolis Telephone Company call using an automatic dialing system that did not have to be routed through a central exchange (telephone operator). Fortune's call to the Indianapolis Star on a rotary-dial phone preceded the installation of the Bell Telephone's dialing system by several years. The Indianapolis Telephone Company's system was installed over a period of nine months at a cost of more than $1 million. Fortune also received the first incoming phone call over the Indianapolis Telephone Company's new system.
Eli Lilly and Company stockholder and board member In 1913 Fortune was invited to invest $100,000 in Eli Lilly and Company stock, becoming the first non-Lilly family member to become an investor.In 1913 Fortune was a close friend of Josiah K. Lilly Sr, the Eli Lilly and Company president and board chairman. Evelyn Fortune, his oldest daughter, had married Eli Lilly Jr., the oldest son of J. K. Lilly Sr., in 1907. See: Madison, pp. 74–75.Fortune borrowed the funds for the lucrative stock purchase from a local bank. See: Latham, pp. 105–06. Fortune also served on the company's board of directors from 1913 to 1927 and chair of its finance committee from 1916 to 1921.
Civic leader and philanthropist For more than five decades Fortune was an active promoter for the city of Indianapolis, where he was involved in civic affairs and philanthropic organizations, including several that he helped establish.