Picturing the Past The Ensley Family

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the departure of the Earl Ensley family from Princeton, who owned the Ensley Drug Store in the Kidd (Emerson) hotel on the corner of Hart and Broadway. The Ensleys, while only here for 12 years, are among a group of families that made big impacts in our small city despite their short tenure.

Earl Ensley, with wife Leland and son John (Jack), moved to Princeton from Owensville, in the winter of 1911. Earl purchased the Clark Brothers Drug Store in December of 1911. Leland’s family was very successful in the Southern Indiana lumber business and owned the former Grimwood Lumber Mill in Owensville, where Earl worked from 1909-1911.

In 1912, the Ensleys purchased an out-lot from Charles Brownlee to build a house on W. Spruce Street during a time when the city limits continued to expand in the area Northwest of the courthouse. The Ensleys’ contractors completed the construction of their home in February of 1913. After several years of running a successful downtown business and participating in many social circles, the Ensleys would announce their plans to move to Hollywood, California, with their departure from Princeton on March 20,1923. Their home at 410 West Spruce was sold to local attorney and former Judge Simon L. Vandeveer.

It is believed by surviving family members that one of the Ensley family had contracted tuberculosis, most likely, by interacting with TB infected patrons of the drug store. It was common in those days for tuberculosis patients to move to warmer, dryer climates. Earl Ensley wrote back to friends in Princeton that the odometer on the family car registered 5500 miles on their relocation to Southern California. This trip by automobile along the original Lincoln Highway was surely a story within itself. Earl and Leland would both succumb to their illnesses in the mid 1930’s, while their son Jack would eventually benefit from the cure of TB in the 1940’s, and find his way back to Indiana, owning many successful businesses in Indianapolis. Jack Ensley was also a race car driver winning several road races in his career. Jack Ensley partnered with the 1955 Indy 500 winner Bob Sweikert to place 3rd at the 12 hours of Sebring in 1956. Jack Ensley died of cancer in 1972, and was survived by wife Beni, daughters Robin and Holly, and son Jack. The Ensley Drug Store, purchased in October of 1922 by O.M. Anderson, would retain the ”Ensley” name until it became Cooper Drugs at the same location in the 1950’s.