USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois : a tale of its evolution, settlement, and progress for nearly a century, Volume II > Part 38
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WILLIAM RAY JEWELL.
William Ray Jewell, son of Benson and Martha Mckinley Jewell, was born in Spencer county, Kentucky, August 7, 1837, and was brought to the new home of his parents in Curry township, Sullivan county, Indiana, in his third year. There he had a happy childhood, roaming and hunting small game and wild fruits in the magnificent forests, fishing and bathing in the streams, attend- ing school, spelling and singing schools and church in the old log meeting and school houses. With those pleasures was mingled much hard work in aiding to conquer a farm from the primeval forest; like other children of that region and time he was set to work very young in picking up chips, trash and brush and feeding it into the big log heaps to be burned, often working ten and twelve hours per day. There were no child labor laws in those days to prevent chil- dren from doing pretty hard work; but each child had a law in his own being called "shirk," which was a pretty good protection against overwork. From light work he was advanced to the hardest of work in felling great trees, mak- ing them into rails, aiding to roll them into heaps to be burned, working in the harvest fields, and all that was done on a rooty, stumpy farm, where roots bruised the shins and horseflies tormented the best of men to strong words.
W. R. JEWELL
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Out of that toil and play of childhood come bright memories of faces, voices and songs which will cheer the heart in all work, joy and suffering to the last hour.
At fifteen Mr. Jewell went to Terre Haute to learn to be a printer in the Wabash Courier office of Judge Cunard. He had longed to be a printer since reading in childhood a sketch of Ben Franklin, The Printer. He soon became both local editor and typesetter. That is, he was sent out to gather items, told to set them up without copy, "out of memory," as the editor-in-chief put it, and read proof in the stick. While at this work he studied law under the tutelage of Colonel Richard W. Thompson, "Old Man Eloquent," and was admitted to the bar. He took Colonel Thompson as his model in oratory and genteel deport- ment and remembers him with veneration to this day. Mr. Jewell truly says that the printing business, in all its departments, has been made over since that day.
When he aspired to a college education he consulted Colonel Thompson, who said, "Well, my boy, you can make it and there is nothing that you can do that will pay you better." He then took a preparatory course of that pioneer Yankee teacher and noble man, Professor Moses Soule, of Terre Haute, who was as much help of all that is inspiring in young manhood, as he was an aid to book learning. In Terre Haute Mr. Jewell lived much in the family of H. H. Teel, in which temperance, morality and good literature were cultivated; and to that family, especially to Mrs. Emma Ross Teel, he has always felt much indebted for moral and intellectual culture, only less than to his own home and parents.
By hard work in the printing office and reporting, and by sowing wheat on rented ground in the fall, and getting it harvested by swapping work with the farmers to get it cut and threshed, he made his way to the beginning of his last year in what is now Butler College, Irvington, near Indianapolis, Indiana. Then the great war of the '6os burst with fiery fury upon the country. From that hour Mr. Jewell gave his time to the cause of the Union. Being a persuasive speaker, he was busy with the work of recruiting until 1862, when President Lincoln made a call for three hundred thousand more men. Mr. Jewell worked with all his force in recruiting several regiments, himself enlisting as a private in Company G, Seventy-second Indiana Infantry, which rendezvoused at La Fayette, of which Abram O. Miller was made colonel, one of the bravest and ablest commanders ; the regiment was part of Wilder's famous brigade, mounted and armed with seven shooting Spencer rifles. He was made orderly sergeant of his company and soon promoted to lieutenant. He was one of six brothers who were in the Union army at the same time, three of whom fell in the service and one of whom died after the close of the war of disease contracted in the service.
In 1863, after the hard battle of Stone River, discontent became so keen among the soldiers that many were deserting, and the morals of the army was much depressed. This was caused by the persistant misrepresentation of news- papers and speakers, who paused at no falsehood against President Lincoln and commanders in the field. Such writers and speakers asserted in every possible
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distortion, that Lincoln's sole purpose in carrying on the war was to free the "niggers." To prove this they used the President's emancipation proclamation of January Ist, 1863. They insisted that Lincoln loved the "niggers" so well that he would sacrifice thousands of white men's precious lives to free them contrary to the constitution and the laws. "What are the lives and limbs of thousands of white soldiers to Lincoln, compared to the freedom of the niggers ! Nothing!" With that sort of writing and speaking all those who had soldiers in the army were advised to write them and urge them to get out of the army at once, and in any way.
Many relatives and friends were in deepest grief over soldiers slain in the ter- rible battle of Stone River. Other great battles must follow. Many of the soldiers who received such letters deserted and others took them to their officers. The discontent in the army and at home became so acute that Governor Morton decided to have a host of men to come home from the army, go among the people and speak to them kindly (not calling them discontented "rebels" and "butternuts,") but friends and fellow citizens, and refute the falsehoods of dis- loyal writers and speakers. The two main arguments used were Presidents Lin- coln's famous letter August 22, 1862 in reply to Horace Greeley's letter of August 19, 1862, criticizing the Presidents's delay in emancipation, in which the President forcefully sets out, "What I do as to the negro and slavery, I do to save the Union." Second, that in his emancipation proclamation of January Ist, 1863, the President left slavery undisturbed in all states and parts of states not in rebellion against the United States authorities, where it would have been easiest to set the slaves free.
Mr. Jewell was chosen as one of such speakers, and took some of those let- ters into the homes of the soldiers to whom they had been written. Some of the letters had been forged, and the relatives of the soldiers knew not that they had been sent. The parents of other soldiers frankly acknowledged that they had written or dictated some of them, because they felt that their sons were being sacrificed for the freedom of the negro, in gross violation of the constitu- tion.
"We are willing our sons should die for the Union; but that they should die to free the 'nigger,' we are not willing," they sobbingly said as they trembled with emotion. Those men and women were not rebels, not butternuts, but mis- led patriots. The men and papers they had trusted had deceived them. Surely all who have sympathy for parental love can understand and forgive such ag- grieved ones. In all cases but a few they were reconciled and wrote to their boys to stay in the army, when the explanation was made from President Lin- coln's letter to Greeley, and his proclamation, and when it was added that the President was enlisting negro troops to serve on front under white officers, so that our soldiers would not have "to eat from the same dishes and sleep in the same beds with stinking niggers" as the falsifying writers and speakers put it; for negro equality was then a bug-bear with many good people.
Thank God those days are long since passed. The boys and their loved ones became reconciled and endured hardness like good soldiers. Those letters are mostly ashes and dust, and the names of their writers hidden from citicism, and we have but one country, and one flag.
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When the work named above was done, Governor Morton commissioned Mr. Jewell captain of a company at Indianapolis, which did not want to go to the field and got permission to remain at home on duty. Captain Jewell desired to go to the field, and Governor Morton commissioned him as a staff officer of Colonel Ira G. Grover, of the Seventh Indiana Infantry, which belonged to the Iron Brigade, commanded by Colonel Wadsworth, and after he was killed in the Wilderness by General Bragg, of Wisconsin, and in this command he concluded his ser- vice. After the expiration of the time of the Seventh Indiana, Mr. Jewell as- sisted in recruiting the One Hundred and Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteers, of which Major M. C. Welch was made colonel, and Captain Jewell made a staff officer. The new regiment went into the field but saw little service on account of the end of the war.
He completed his course in Butler College, lived for a time in Danville, Indiana, then went to LaFayette for a few years, where he was partner with Morely and Marsteller in the lumber business, looking after collections and legal matters for the firm; and there he was again admitted to the bar, as the records of Vigo county had burned in the courthouse at Terre Haute. From LaFayette, nearly forty years ago, he came to Danville for the purpose of entering the print- ing business, and with Colonel Richard H. Johnson, of Roselawn, this city, established the Danville News, which became part of the Illinois Printing Com- pany, which Mr. Jewell aided to establish, and of which he was an officer, as well as editor of the News for many years. He sold his interest in the Illinois Printing Company, and bought the News which he continued to edit for some years, when he aided to merge it with the Commercial of this city as the Com- mercial-News, and after aiding to edit it for three years he sold his interest to John Harrison and W. J. Parrett, having been on the tripod in this city for a generation, and for fifty years in all, with but little time off since he began in his boyhood in Terre Haute. He has also edited the history of the Seventy- second Indiana, said to be one of the best of its order, and aided in the history of the Seventh Indiana, published by Captain Orville Thomson, of Greensburg, Indiana. He is now the historian of Wilder's famous brigade, and has always been a favorite with the soldiers with whom he served, an officer of their or- ganizations, and steadily their reunion speaker.
Mr. Jewell has been a political speaker from boyhood, making his first speeches for John C. Fremont, in 1856, before he was old enough to vote. He was presidential elector for Garfield, 1880, for Harrison, 1888, and for Mc- Kinley, 1896. He has attended state conventions as a delegate for many years and has been on the resolutions committee so much that he is often dubbed as "Old Resoluter." He cast his first and second presidential votes for Abraham Lincoln, and his last one for William H. Taft. He is the close and almost life- long friend of Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, whom he regards as one of the ablest and purest statesmen that the nation has produced.
Thirty odd years ago the majority of the republican party in Vermilion county ran down to a very narrow margin on account of the unsystematic and what many thought unfair method of nominating candidates. Mr. Jewell was urged to take the chairmanship of the county committee and accepted on condi-
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tion that the party leaders would aid in adopting and enforcing fair primary elections. By aid of Hon. J. G. Cannon, Judge O. L. Davis, Judge R. W. Han- ford, John W. Dale, George Dillon, Hon. John G. Holden, Hon. Milton Lee, State Senator George Hunt of Edgar, and others, an excellent system was framed by which primaries in the county were held under the forms of the regular election laws, for over thirty years, during which the republican major- ities so increased as to make this county one of the foremost republican coun- ties in the state. Many other counties in the state and from other states sent for copies of Vermilion's primary and adopted it; and this primary system was among the first, perhaps the first in this state, or in the Union, held under the forms of law, and was far better than the present primary law of this state.
In politics and all relations of life Mr. Jewell is a reconciler, a harmonizer, a peace-maker. His motto is: "Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press forward. Look forward and fight forward." He adds that "only savages look backward and fight backward, instead of reconciling, uniting and fighting for- ward, and that is what keeps them savages, and that too, is the cause of so many failures in politics and in all walks of life." "If a man is not with you in this election, have him with you in the next, if fair, cordial means will avail, as they generally do. Forget the past but remember whom to trust."
One who has known Mr. Jewell well for many years says: "A clear voice, distinct articulation, an excellent presence, a perfect command of words, a limit- less store of information which he focuses with powerful logic, a clear mind, quick to see the relation of things, a wit which with a flash withers or illuminates, a poetic imagery, and remarkable mental alertness, combine to make Mr. Jewell an orator of distinction. He is always in sympathy with the occasion, whether serious or festal, and always compels attention. He commands alike the tears and smiles of his hearers and never permits things to become dull.
It is often remarked that Mr. Jewell might be called at any time without a moment's notice and he would make a good talk on any subject. There are several occasions which come to mind where men of national reputation as speakers who have been engaged for a long period ahead in order to insure a fitting address for an important occasion, have been unable to keep their en- gagement and at the last moment have telegraphed that fact; when Mr. Jewell was called upon and within the hour began an address which when finished not only met the situation but was the occasion of expressions of satisfaction that the original plan had miscarried."
General Wilder says: "At a recent campfire at a meeting of the society of the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mr. Jewell showed his power as a speaker in a marked manner. When the campfires were almost out on account of dull speeches and inapt allusions, Comrade Jewell was called on. After a few sentences all were laughing at the apt wit of the speaker, and after getting the attention of all present Mr. Jewell in burning words recounted the struggles of the great armies of as brave men as ever met in battle, on the classic fields about Chattanooga, where tens of thousands literally melted into the sod, consecrating it forever. Where troops on both sides met one another in manly contest for what they believed to be right, fought it out like men and
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like men ceased to fight, and were so magnanimous, wise and brave as to have but one country, one flag and one destiny when the fight was done. Veterans of both the Federal and Confederate armies roared with patriotic applause."
General and Ex-Congressman Charles H. Grosvener was called on to speak after Mr. Jewell and said, "I cannot follow Comrade Jewell's cheerful, wise and timely address; it was so replete with charity and loyalty that it reminds one of the broad charity of the Apostle Paul. I think that Comrade Jewell should be sent over the Union to melt and fuse men in good-will and for the right."
Everyone who has been in touch with the political situation in Vermilion and surrounding counties for the past forty years knows that Mr. Jewell's power as a speaker has been a constant force in building up and maintaining the re- publican majorities which his county and the fifteenth congressional district have always rolled up. And Mr. Jewell has often in the hard political battles of the past four decades responded to calls to go over the state and into other states to help hold things in line.
Mr. Jewell's position as a speaker has always been wholesome and hopeful. He believes that the world is good now and is getting better all the time. In his heart there is no place for a philosophy which is not large enough to save all that nature has created.
Many offers have come to Mr. Jewell to devote himself to the lecture field, while he has filled many engagements of this character at chautauquas and with other organizations, he has refused all engagements that would take him from home any considerable length of time.
Mr. Jewell has also been postmaster for several years, having been appointed by Presidents Arthur, Harrison, Mckinley, Roosevelt and Taft. He is a sort of general pastor and often speaks at the funerals of those of liberal mind, al- ways with some regular preacher, seeking to set forth no new doctrine, but speaking of the deceased and striving to give peace to those in sorrow by words of faith, hope and charity.
He has lived at 210 Robinson street, for almost forty years. His ambition has been to rear a good family, and by the aid of the most excellent motherhood seven children have come to adult age, all of whom are industrious, sober, and respectable. To stay with his family and aid in their training, he has gladly sacrificed all prospects of official promotion that would break up his home and family.
ED HUSHAW.
Ed Hushaw operates an excellent farm of two hundred and forty acres in Ross township on the Bethel road about four miles from Rossville, and in its further cultivation and improvement is busily engaged, his labors bringing him a substantial return in large and abundant harvests. He is yet a young man and if he pursues in the course that he has already marked out and followed, he will undoubtedly win greater success as the years go by.
He was born in this county on the 5th of October, 1883, and is a son of T. J. and Fannie (Seymour) Hushaw, well known and representative residents
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of this county. Upon the homestead farm Ed Hushaw was reared, pursuing his education in the schools of Ross township until he had mastered the branches of learning that constitute the curriculum. He worked upon the home farm through the periods of vacation and early became familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. Therefore he was qualified by broad practical experience to begin farming on his own account after attaining his majority. His work is conducted along practical and progressive lines and he is systematic in all that he does, so that there is no loss of labor or material. He recognizes the fact that unabating industry, intelligently directed, is the only sure foundation on which to build success, and he is therefore diligently prosecut- ing his labors in the cultivation of an excellent farm of two hundred and forty acres.
On the 24th of October, 1906, Mr. Hushaw was married to Miss Maud Miller, a daughter of George and Anna (Haas) Miller. This marriage has been blessed with one child, Charles Franklin, who is the life and joy of the house- hold. The parents belong to the United Brethren church and are highly esteemed in the community where they reside, the hospitality of the best homes being freely accorded them.
RICHARD PUZEY.
Richard Puzey, one of the large landowners and substantial farmers of Cat- lin township, was born in that township on the farm which is yet his home, on the 26th of October, 1849. His parents were Richard and Amelia Jane (Cork) Puzey, both natives of England, whence they came to America in 1847. They were married in Catlin township, Vermilion county, Illinois, and here the father engaged in farming upon a tract of land which he had entered the year following his arrival in this country and upon which their son Richard now resides. Their remaining days were passed upon that farm, the mother dying there in 1867. Mr. Puzey survived his wife many years, his death oc- curring in 1900, when he had attained the remarkable old age of ninety-four years and eleven months.
Richard Puzey, the only son of the family, was reared upon the old home- stead and acquired his education in the country schools of the district. Dur- ing the periods of vacation he assisted in the work of the fields, early becoming familiar with the tasks that fall to the lot of the country lad, and as he grew in years and strength aided more and more largely until he had thoroughly mastered the branches of farm work from early spring plowing to the late autumn harvest. Upon attaining his majority he took full charge of the old homestead and he has since directed his energies to its further development and improve- ment. He began his independent business career well prepared by thorough training and previous experience, and his farming has ever been carried on ac- cording to modern and progressive methods. That his efforts along agricultural lines were calculated to bring good results is indicated by the fact that he is now the owner of seven hundred acres of fine farm land, all located in Vermilion
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county and all under a high state of cultivation, constituting him one of the large property owners in his district. In addition to raising the cereals best adapted to soil and climate, he has also engaged extensively in the raising and feeding of stocks of all kinds, and he has found ready sale and good prices for his product, owing to its good quality.
It was on the 24th of March, 1871, that Mr. Puzey was united in mar- riage to Miss Elizabeth Sarah Church, who was born in Catlin township and is a daughter of G. W. F. and Sarah E. (Jones) Church. Both parents were born in England and came to America in 1848, where they were married and where their remaining years were spent. Mrs. Puzey was one of a family of eight children born to her parents, and by her marriage became the mother of six children, as follows: Alice E., the wife of James H. Graves, of Georgetown township; Matilda M., the wife of Thomas A. Hinton, of the same township; George R., a resident of Catlin township; Florence E., the wife of L. V. Jones, of Georgetown township; Ernest A., who married Myrtle Smith and lives across the road from the old homestead; and Elsie A., yet at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Puzey are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Cat- lin, the teachings of which constitute the guiding force in their lives. He is a member of Catlin Lodge, No. 538, I. O. O. F., in which he has filled all of the chairs, and his political support is given to the republican party. For nine years he served as road commissioner and for twenty-three years as a school director, and has ever been a stanch advocate of progress and reform, doing all in his power to further the influence of those measures which have for their object the development and upbuilding of the community. He is one of the directors of the First National Bank of Catlin, and the prominent place which he has attained in the business circles is indicative of the upright methods and honorable deal- ings which have ever governed his relations with his fellowmen. Having passed his entire life within the borders of this township, his record is well known to the residents of this locality, and the fact that many of his warmest friends are those who have known him from his boyhood days indicates that his salient characteristics are such as awaken confidence, respect and good-will.
B. B. BROWN.
One of the most enterprising business firms of Bismarck is that of E. D. and B. B. Brown, brothers, who are conducting important commercial and in- dustrial interests as dealers in hardware, implements and lumber. They have built up an extensive trade and their enterprising methods and careful manage- ment promise further success in the future. B. B. Brown has always lived in Vermilion county, his birth having here occurred April 15, 1875. Mention of his parents is made elsewhere in this connection with the sketch of E. D. Brown. From the time he was six years of age until he attained his majority, B. B. Brown lived with his brother-in-law, William M. Stevens, and during that period mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools, thus becoming well qualified for active and onerous duties of business life. On reaching man's
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estate he began work at the carpenter's trade in connection with his brother, E. D. Brown, and three years later they formed a partnership for the conduct of a lumber, hardware and implement business, in which they have since con- tinued. They are accorded a liberal patronage in each line and their business is annually growing in volume and importance. The success of the undertaking is attributable in no small measure to B. B. Brown, whose careful and systematic methods and keen business discernment constitute important elements in the at- tainment of prosperity.
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