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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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A standard niston, of Elkhart County , Indians
A STANDARD HISTORY
OF
ELKHART COUNTY INDIANA
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Atten- tion to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational, Civic and Social Development
UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF ABRAHAM E. WEAVER
Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE AMERICAN IHISTORICAL SOCIETY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1916
Ic 977,281 W375 v. 2
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
1363790
History of Elkhart County
HON. EBENEZER M. CHAMBERLAIN. One of the earliest lawyers to practice law in Northern Indiana, including Elkhart County, for years a dignified and upright judge of the District Court, holding sessions over many counties, and riding circuit horseback and by other conveyance from county seat to county seat, afterwards a member of Congress, Judge Ebenezer M. Chamberlain was one of the most distinguished men of the state from the early '3os until about the time of the Civil war. Judge Chamberlain is remembered as a man of unusual intellectual endowment, of unimpeachable char- acter, with a thorough understanding of the law. and by his fidelity to every trust confided to his care, his life was lived as the highest type of Christian manhood. His career is a part of the history of Elkhart County, and for that reason this sketch belongs among those of Elkhart County's representative men of the past.
He was born at Orrington, Penobscot County, Maine, August 20, 1805. He grew up in the primitive years of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He attended common schools only during the winter months and worked almost continuously on the farm, giving his labor as a share to the support of his father's family. His father, Col. Joshua Chamberlain, of Brewer, Maine, was a ship- builder, and while serving in the War of 1812, as colonel, his ships, in which nearly all of his property was invested, were seized by the British and burned, which left him in straitened circumstances. At sixteen Ebenezer M. Chamberlain left the farm and worked in a shipyard for six years. However, his wages, according to the custom of the time, were paid to his father until he reached his majority.
After becoming of age he continued employment in the shipyard until he had saved enough to enable him to pass six months in an academy. He was ambitious for an education and for a sphere of usefulness commensurate with his excellent talent. For three years he was a student of law in the office of Elisha S. Allen at Bangor, Maine, and taught school in the meantime. At Bangor he was a member of the Forensic Club and in the debates among its members
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he found an excellent opportunity for training his talent for oratory and public speaking. During 1831 he made something of a local name and reputation for himself by his prominence in the debates over the subject of the Sunday mail question, a matter which en- grossed a considerable part of the public mind at that time. He argued against the prohibition of Sunday delivery of mail so ably . that those who favored his views printed them in a pamphlet form and this pamphlet was extensively circulated.
At that time the laws of Maine required seven years of prelim- inary study before admission to the bar. As already indicated Mr. Chamberlain's means were very limited, and rather than "mark time" during this long period of seven years, he determined to come west. In June, 1832, with only a few dollars which he had earned by a term of winter school teaching, he set out for Indiana, arriving in Fayette County a month later. Again he secured acceptance of his services as a school teacher, but soon entered the law offices of Samuel W. Park at Connersville, and on August 9, 1833, he was regularly admitted to the Indiana bar.
Northern Indiana at that time was still a sparsely settled wilder- ness. Elkhart County had been organized only two or three years, and it was to Elkhart County that the young attorney at law came to begin practice. He soon secured his own share in the litigation of the time, and also became a prominent figure in Indiana politics. In 1835 he was elected representative to the Legislature from the Northern Indiana District, and it shows how small a population there was in this part of the state when it is stated that his district com- prised in territory nearly one-fifth of the entire area of Indiana.
Early in his promising career and ascent to prominence Judge Chamberlain established a home' of his own by his marriage on November 28, 1838, to Phebe Ann Hascall, daughter of Amasa Hascall of Leroy, New York. In the following year, 1839, he was elected a member of the State Senate for a three year term, and was soon marked as one of the most influential leaders of the democratic party in Indiana. He was especially admired for the strength and eloquence of his oratory, and his reputation as an orator became a matter of state wide recognition through his anniversary address on the battle of New Orleans, delivered before the Democratic State Convention in 1841.
In 1842 the Legislature elected him prosecuting attorney of the old Ninth Judicial District. A year later he was chosen presiding judge of the same district. After eight years of service on the bench he was re-elected without opposition in 1851. That was a time of bitter partisanship in Indiana as elsewhere, and being a demo-
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cratic judge it was perhaps only natural that he should be made a target for criticism from the whig press. But this criticism was silenced by a remarkable unanimity of loyalty in behalf of the judge. The entire bar in attendance at courts united in signature to a letter testifying to the "creditable, dignified, courteous and satisfactory" manner in which Judge Chamberlain discharged the duties of his office. This testimonial was emphasized by the fact that the two associate judges, both of whom were whigs, also added their written statement of praise to the same effect. Judge Chamberlain was for nine years judge of the District Court, and in that time he made his office an instrument for upholding peace and order and justice over a large part of Northern Indiana.
Again and again the democratic party bestowed its honors upon him. In 1844 he was delegate to the Democratic National Conven- tion. In 1848 he was one of the senatorial candidates for presiden- tial elector, and aided in giving the vote of the state to General Cass. In 1851 Judge Chamberlain resigned from the bench to accept the democratic nomination to Congress in the reorganized Tenth Indiana District. Congressman Brenton was also a candidate for re-election and though an able and popular man the superior qualifications of Judge Chamberlain for the office were manifest, and the latter was elected by nearly a thousand majority.
FRANK G. HUBBELL. In a long and active lifetime which came to a close on August 23, 1909, Frank G. Hubbell helped and invig- orated many of the leading business interests of his home City of Goshen. He was a manufacturer and banker, was a man of the finest integrity and personal character, and was widely known and esteemed not only in his home county but over all Northern Indiana.
He spent nearly all his life in Goshen. He was born July 10, 1844, in Goshen, a son of Abijah L. and Sarah A. (Thomas ) Hub- bell. Reared in Goshen, he acquired his education in the grammar and high schools, and for a time was a student in the Notre Dame University at South Bend. His education was finished by a course in the Kalamazoo College at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and on leaving college he returned to Goshen and became a clerk in his father's general store. Abijah L. Hubbell conducted one of the largest stores at Goshen at the time, and the son had ample opportunities to master merchandising in every detail. The father and son were closely associated in business for a period of fifteen years and many of the old timers will recall the Hubbell store, which was one of the favorite shopping centers of the town.
After this business was closed out Frank G. Hubbell in 1884 became a member of the firm of Nash, Knox & Hubbell.
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Goshen's standing and importance as a manufacturing center owe much to the business judgment and energy of the late Mr. Hubbell. His firm manufactured furniture, making a specialty of fine tables, and built up a product whose standard of excellence helped give Goshen a reputation over the country at large.
In addition to his interests as a manufacturer Mr. Hubbell took an active part in building up Goshen's banking business. He became a stockholder and director in the City National Bank, later was made vice president, and still later president. He retired from that office about three years before his death on account of failing health.
In 1885 he married Miss Clara A. Chamberlain, whose father was Judge Ebenezer Chamberlain, one of the prominent attorneys of the Goshen bar. To their marriage were born two children. Ruth died December 6, 1891. Helen H., the only surviving child, is the wife of Orin Ragsdale and now lives in Indianapolis. Mr. Hubbell was buried in Oakridge Cemetery. A number of years ago he built the palatial residence in Goshen still occupied by Mrs. Hubbell, who in many ways has adorned that fine home and made it a center of culture. The house is surrounded by beautiful grounds, and one conspicuous feature is a catalpa tree whose towering proportions and beauty in flower and foliage attract attention from all tree lovers, and it is said to be one of the largest trees of its kind in this part of the state.
HON. ALBERT R. BEARDSLEY, prominent as a man of affairs, in- fluential and active in political circles, and a leading factor in the commercial and financial activities of Elkhart, is a conspicuous character in the history of Elkhart County, both by reason of his personal achievements along the lines just mentioned and because of his connection with a family name which is one of the first to be mentioned in recording the founding of Elkhart.
Born in Dayton, Montgomery County. Ohio, November 7, 1847. Mr. Beardsley is a representative in the eighth generation of the Beardsley family that was founded in America by William Beard- sley, who was born in England in 1605 and who landed among the Massachusetts colonists in June, 1635. From Massachusetts he transferred his home to the Connecticut colony, settling at Strat- ford, which town he assisted to establish and was named, probably. in honor of Stratford-on-Avon, where, according to tradition, was the original family seat of the Beardsleys. A man of ability and influence such as to mark him from his fellow citizens, William Beardsley became clerk of the general court at Hartford, serving as such thirteen years, was one of the founders of the first Congre-
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gational Church at Stratford, and in many material ways contributed to the growth and development of the new country. He was a pious Puritan, making his Christianity an integral part of his daily life, and in many of the old historical documents he is referred to as "the good man Beardsley." He died in 1661. His son Samuel was the first member of the family born on American soil. The inter- vening generations from this first American ancestor have each con- tained men prominent in industrial, professional and political affairs, a large number of the family having reached distinction in the pro- fessions of medicine, law and the ministry.
Capt. Phineas Beardsley, who was the great-grandfather of Albert R. Beardsley, was a captain in the Revolutionary war, having enlisted January 1, 1777, in the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, and serving three years. Under him, in the same regiment, was his son. Elijah Beardsley, who not only served throughout the Revolution- ary war, but was, according to family tradition, a member of the famous Boston Tea Party. The diary of this intrepid patriot, still preserved in the family archives, shows that he was with Washing- ton during the memorable winter at Valley Forge and that his mili- tary experience took him to many other places that have become famous in the history of our country.
In the westward expansion which was began soon after the close of the Revolution, and in accordance with the Beardsley characteris- tic to be pioneers, various members of the family took up their resi- dence in Delhi, New York, and Elijah Beardsley, in 1814, went still further west and settled in Delaware County, Ohio, whence he after- ward moved to Springfield, in the same state, where his death oc- curred October 2, 1826.
Elijah Hubbel Beardsley, a son of the Ohio pioneer just men- tioned and father of the Elkhart business man, and younger brother of Havilah Beardsley, was born at Delhi, New York, September 10, 1807, being the youngest of fourteen children. When a boy he ac- companied his parents to New Carlisle, Ohio, in 1837 went with them to Dayton, and in 1853 settled on Beardsley Prairie in the northern part of St. Joseph County, Indiana. Elijah H. Beardsley who was a wagon-maker by trade and followed that pursuit during much of his active business life, died at Buchanan, Michigan, Sep- tember 8. 1885, when seventy-eight years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Matilda Lemon, died in 1860.
It has been in keeping with such an honorable ancestral record that Hon. Albert R. Beardsley's career has been wrought out. The business career of Mr. Beardsley has been one of substantial success and progress from youth up. Equipped with a common
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school education, in 1864, at the age of seventeen, he became a clerk in an Elkhart store. In six years he had saved enough from his earnings, and with capital from his father, to establish himself in a merchandising business of his own, and he conducted a very success- ful business for six years. From then until 1890 he had an active interest in the Muzzy starch factory. In 1890 becoming a stock- holder, in the Dr. Miles Medical Company, he has since held the office of treasurer and has been active in the management of the business. He is a director in the First National Bank of Elkhart, and for a number of years he has been a factor in the business and financial enterprises of the city.
While almost constantly busied with the practical affairs of life, Mr. Beardsley has at the same time revealed a high degree of public spirit and loyalty to city, state and nation. One of the promi- nent and well known republicans of Elkhart County and of Indiana, he has for over thirty years taken a leading part in public and official life. In 1872 he was elected city clerk of Elkhart, was elected city treasurer in 1876, and from 1892 to 1896 was a mem- ber of the city council. In the wider sphere of state politics he was elected a member of the House for the sixty-first and of the Senate for the sixty-fourth general assembly, and took a very prominent part in the election of A. J. Beveridge to the United States Senate. In 1896 and again in 1898 he was sent as a dele- gate to the State Republican Convention. In 1897 Governor Mount appointed him to the position of colonel on the governor's staff, which rank he also held during the official term of Governor Durbin. Mr. Beardsley is a member of the Century Club and the Kenwood Golf Club of Elkhart, and has identified himself very closely with the business and social life of his city.
HON. JAMES STORY DRAKE. The annals of the Indiana bar con- tain no more highly honored name than that of Hon. James Story Drake, judge of the Thirty-fourth Judicial District of Indiana, who as lawyer, legislator, jurist and citizen has capably and faithfully discharged every duty which has devolved upon him in his long and distinguished career, and whose place in the confidence of the people is one that has been fairly and honorably won.
Judge Drake was born on a farm in Holmes County, Ohio, Feb- ruary 18, 1852, and is a son of James L. and Susan (Hayward) Drake, the former a native of the Buckeye State and the latter of New York. As a young man James L. Drake made the long and perilous journey across the plains to the gold fields of California, with the intrepid adventurers of the "days of '49." but prior to the
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Civil war returned to the peaceful pursuits of farming, in which he was engaged when the great struggle between the forces of the North and the South came to a head. In his home community of Holmes County, Ohio, he organized Company H, which was at- tached to the Twenty-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, an organization which became famous because of its eminent com- manders, these including William Starke Rosecrans, its first colonel, who subsequently became one of the famous generals of the Union army; Stanley Matthews, who was afterward a United States senator and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and who was its lieutenant-colonel ; its major, Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward President of the United States, and William Mckinley, . then a private, later destined to become President and one of America's greatest statesmen. At the bloody battle of Antietam, Captain Drake sustained a wound so severe in character that he was forced out of the active service at the front and resigned his commission, but was subsequently appointed provost marshal of the Fourteenth Ohio District and during his service in that capacity commanded the volunteers who put down the famous Holmes County rebellion. After the close of the war, in 1866, Captain Drake moved to LaGrange, Indiana, where he continued to reside until his death in 1886. His wife died in 1877, and he married in 1881. His second wife survived him. He was a stalwart republican in his political views. The father of a large family of children, two of his sons served as soldiers in the Union army dur- ing the Civil war, one of whom, Levi, died of starvation in the awful prison hole of Andersonville, while the other, Francis M., saw four years of service, was confined as a prisoner for a time in Libby Prison, and died in 1903.
James Story Drake received his early education in the Holmes County public schools, and was fourteen years of age when the family moved to LaGrange, where he was duly graduated from the high school. During 1870-1-2 he attended Hillsdale ( Michi- gan) College, and leaving that institution in his junior year spent two years at the University of Michigan, where he was graduated from the law department in 1874, when twenty-two years of age. He began his professional career at LaGrange in association with Judge Ferrall of the Circuit bench, and in 1878 was elected prose- cuting attorney for LaGrange and Elkhart counties, an office to which he was re-elected, being its incumbent in all for four years. In 1884 he was elected to the Indiana State Senate, in which body he served with fidelity for four years, and after his return to La- Grange took a prominent part in educational affairs and for several
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years was a member of the LaGrange Board of Education. Coming to Goshen in 1898, he began practice with C. W. Miller, and the firm later became Miller, Drake & Hubbell, which continued until 1910, when Judge Drake was elected judge of the Thirty-fourth Judicial District of Indiana, a capacity in which he has since served with dignity, impartiality and to the entire satisfaction of the people. He was renominated at the primary in March, 1916. He has always been a stanch republican and an active worker in the ranks of his party, and in 1888 was a delegate to the national con- vention held at Chicago which nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency. His fraternal connections are with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Masons. With his family, he belongs to the Presbyterian Church.
Judge Drake was married January 2, 1877, to Miss Amanda Clugston, of LaGrange, who died in February, 1904. In 1911 he was again married, when united with Miss Lillian Michael, of Goshen, who was superintendent of the Goshen city schools for five years preceding and who for many years preceding that was principal of the Goshen High School. Mrs. Drake is prominent in literary and social circles, and at this time is president of the Beacon Light Literary Club. The beautiful home is located at No. 114 South Seventh Street.
HON. JOHN H. BAKER. Among those predominating agencies which mould the inclinations and beckon most insistently to the mind of youth, none excel in puissance the example of those who fought their battles and reached distinguished success and posi- tion. The lesson presented in the life of a good man is the encour- agement disseminated by his rise from obscurity to prominence. These reflections are brought to mind in contemplating the career of the late Hon. John H. Baker, ex-judge of the United States Dis- trict Court, and at the time of his death, after a long, eminent and honorable career, living in retirement at Goshen.
Judge Baker was born in Monroe County, New York, and was an infant when he was brought to the frontier of Northern Ohio by his parents. His boyhood was passed in assisting to clear the heavy timber from his father's farm, and as a youth he accepted every opportunity that presented itself for an educational training, so that when a youth he was engaged in teaching in the district schools in the winter months, while spending the summers in the fields of his father's homestead. Later he attended Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, and when he entered upon the study of law was possessed of a fairly good academic education. After faithful ap-
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plication to his studies, he passed a satisfactory examination before the judges of the Supreme Court of Michigan, and when admitted to practice in the state courts as well as the Supreme Court of the state, came to Goshen, Indiana, a field that impressed him as being one in which his talents could find full play. His abilities were not long unrecognized and he soon became a factor in public life. In 1862 he was nominated by the republicans and sent to the State Senate, but the majority of the Legislature was opposed to Gover- nor Morton, with his ideas of a vigorous prosecution of the war, so that Judge Baker, himself a champion of the Union, found him- self surrounded by hostile influences, and his opponents soon found an excuse for his expulsion from the Legislature on the grounds that, as he held a commission as notary public for Elkhart County, he was holding two offices of profit and trust, a condition repugnant to the State Constitution.
Returning to his private practice Judge Baker continued to be engaged successfully therein and attracted to himself a large and representative clientage. He was not allowed to remain out of public life long, however, for in 1872 he was a candidate for the Congres- sional nomination in the republican convention of the Thirteenth District. Although he led the three other candidates from the start, and had more votes on every ballot, except the last, a combina- tion was effected by the supporters of his opponents which resulted in the nomination of Judge Saylor of Huntington. Two years later, in the democratic landslide that was the reaction from the tre- mendous republican success recorded in the second election of President Grant, and which bore down to defeat such men as Major Calkins of Laporte and Judge Burrows of Michigan, Judge Baker was nominated in the Thirteenth District and was subsequently elected by a majority of fifty-seven votes. In the Forty-fourth Con- gress he was a member of the Committee on Elections, having such associates as Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, and G. Wiley Wells of Mississippi, and was also a member of the Committee on Enrolled Bills, a position which brought him in contact with President Grant frequently and which resulted in a close friendship springing up between the two men. That Judge Baker's services in this session were appreciated was shown in his renomination in 1876 by acclama- tion and his election by 2,158 votes, and a second renomination, in 1878, by acclamation and his election over Hon. John B. Stoll, of South Bend, by 2,000 votes. In both the Forty-fifth and Forty- sixth Congresses he served on the Committee on Appropriations, to which he was appointed by Speaker Randall, and in the latter session stood first among the republicans of that committee, ranking such
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members as General Hawley, of Connecticut, and Mr. Hiscock, of New York, both of whom were later elected to the United States Senate.
An aversion to becoming a professional politician caused Judge Baker to decline a renomination, and at the close of his third term, in March, 1881, he left Congress with a record that compared favorably with that of any member of the House, and the hearty and sincere friendship of those who had been associated with him. His excellent services in Congress had given him an enviable prestige, and when he once more resumed his interrupted law practice he found awaiting him a professional business that reached from Illi- nois to Ohio in every county in the northern part of Indiana and placed him at once in the front rank of Indiana legists. His work in investigating the Star Route contracts while a member of Con- gress had made him thoroughly familiar with the most important branch of the postal service that is under the control of the Second- Assistant Postmaster-General, a position that was tendered him by President Garfield, who urged him to accept it, he having become acquainted with Judge Baker's absolute integrity and fidelity, but this honor, like others, he declined, preferring to continue in private practice.
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