USA > Indiana > Public men of Indiana : a political history, 1890-1920, v. 2 > Part 1
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M. L
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02412 8867
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PUBLIC MEN of INDIANA
A Political History
By FRANCIS M. TRISSAL
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VOLUME II
1890 to 1920
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T73
Printed for the Author by W. B. CONKEY COMPANY Printers and Publishers HAMMOND, INDIANA
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1767814 An Acknowledgment
The author of this book is pleased is expressing his appreciative of the capable and cheerful assistance of Major Meade Vestal of the Judge Advocate Generals reserve Corps of the United States army in the Compil- -ation and Composition of parts of its chapter pertaining to Indianas part in the Worldwar.
MIrissal
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COPYRIGIIT, 1923 BY FRANCIS M. TRISSAL
Printed in the United States of America
FOREWORD
T O condense into a single volume the facts con- stituting three decades of historic information pertaining to a great state and its prominent actors, without incumbering them with non-essential de- tails, is the design of the chronicler.
This volume is complete in itself, as was the first that it follows.
The careers of many of the men herein men- tioned began during the period covered by the first volume and extended into the time covered by this, and the events with which they were identified were, in many instances, sequences of or connected with prior events in such a way as to make the two volumes together to constitute sixty consecutive years of history, containing a record of all impor- tant events of both State and National administra- tions and of men who were prominent participants in them.
It has been the unhappy fate of the State that so many of its noble sons were called upon to give their services, and in many instances their lives, to preserve its honor in the three wars that occurred between 1860 and 1920, and this volume would be far from complete in its etching if it did not con- tain the very full account of the State's part in the World War that appears in it.
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The great changes in conditions, the marvelous growth in industrial enterprises, and consequent increase of population and wealth of that part of the State bordering Lake Michigan, have made that section the subject of exceptional interest, both intrastate and interstate, and the facts pertaining to it and to the achievements of the men who have wrought these changes and successfully dealt with the difficult problems of eivilizing a cosmopolitan population were deemed worthy of record for his- torie preservation, and they are set forth in the pages that follow, supplemented by a description and pictures of the wonderful Indiana Dunes that in wealth of beauty and interest to artists, seientists and lovers of nature are not equaled anywhere in the world, and that travelers come from beyond the seas to visit.
In gathering his narratives the author has had no need of drawing upon his imagination in depicting events and giving eloquenee to the characters of his selection, and the many complimentary letters he has received from readers of the first volume have greatly encouraged him in the preparation of the second.
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Public Men of Indiana
CHAPTER I
A MID the vicissitudes of war and peace and periods of prosperity and adversity, the events that occurred between 1890 and 1920 were such as to cause an evolution from an agricultural State into one that now stands in the front line with others in manufacturing, industrial and commercial enter- prises, and at the same time its agricultural status and advancement has been well maintained.
It is fitting that a general statement of the changes that have occurred and of some of the high lights in the State's productive achievements should precede the record of political contests that have occurred during that period. As a sample of its agricultural progress a single county will be selected to show how one of the poorest and worst in repute has been so developed as to now give promise of its soon becoming among the best. This will serve as a description of much similar condi- tions in a number of others, and particularly of others in the northern part of the State.
The county selected is Starke. Its entire surface when it was organized was dotted over by unsightly sand elevations or dunes that were interspersed and surrounded by vast areas of sloughs and swamps
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that were seemingly not susceptible of drainage. From their underlying soil there emerged vigorous growths of aquatic plants that formed an almost impenetrable morass. The sand elevations were selected by early settlers as the only places fitted for habitation and crop production, and land ex- plorers were slow in discovering that this territory was suitable for any other purpose than indulgence in the sports of hunting and fishing. The lands generally possessed no market value, but many tracts were acquired by non-residents at the low prices that they could be obtained for to be used for trading purposes and became known as "to boot lands," that could be used by horse traders who in making their exchanges of horses instead of paying a cash difference would give a tract of Starke County land "to boot," and it was related that a view of the land usually produced a demand for the rescission of the trade. The swamp lands were all embraced in the grant to the State by the Swamp Land Act of Congress of 1850 and were generally acquired by land speculators that stood in favor by the State administrations of former Governors Ashbel P. Willard and Oliver P. Mor- ton. One of these speculators was Colonel John A. Burbank, of Richmond, Indiana, a relative of Governor Morton. Among his holdings was a tract of over a thousand acres two miles south from the town of North Judson that has now been drained . and is valued at about two hundred dollars per acre and excels in the production of vegetables and mortgages and has been the subject of many agri-
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MUCK LAND CORN PRODUCED BY H. P. SCHUYLER, NORTH JUDSON, IND.
cultural experiments and financial complications. The market value of most of the "to boot" lands mantained steady quotations at about fifty cents per acre until about 1876 and then gradually arose to the price of about seven dollars per acre in 1890, and since that date have steadily advanced to the figure of about one hundred dollars per acre and exceptional tracts far above that figure.
Mr. Rudolph D. Kline, of Streator, Illinois, a skilled botanist, agricultural chemist and gardener, in 1903 acquired several hundred acres of muck lands in this county for which he paid fourteen dol- lars per acre, and has for a number of successive years, by scientifie soil treatment and intense culti- vation, demonstrated that this land is worth at least five hundred dollars the acre based upon its actual productive power and earnings in the production of both staple crops and those of the garden class. A number of others have made similar demonstra- tions.
A sluggish stream, having its source in Pulaski County, passes in a northwesterly direction in a meandering course through Starke County and dis- charges its waters into the Kankakee River at Eng- lish Lake. It bears the name of Bogus Creek, derived from the supposed occupations of some early settlers along it who were suspected as horse thieves and counterfeiters. This creek and its tributaries were straightened and dredged late in the nineteenth century and their valleys now exhibit broad acres of productive soil similar to that of the fertile Bee Hunter Marsh of Greene County.
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The Kankakee River that forms the northwestern boundary of the county, after years of agitation, much litigation and legislation, has now been straightened and dredged so as to afford an outlet for the drainage of lands estimated at more than a million acres in the counties that border it, nearly three hundred thousand acres of which are located in Starke County, and are divided into prosperous farms of various sizes.
President Garfield was assassinated in July, 1881, by Charles J. Guiteau, who had a sister resid- ing in Chicago whose husband was George W. Scoville, an able lawyer who very much against his will was prevailed upon to attempt a defense of the murderer on the alleged grounds of insanity. His course throughout the trial manifested a fair degree of legal skill and brought him respect and sympathy in his hopeless task. He was so humil- iated and so keenly felt his humiliation that he sought a secluded spot where he would be isolated from and unseen by the outside world. His search for such a lonely place took him to a dense thicket on the shore of what was first known as Lake Winchetonqua, then called Cedar Lake, located eight miles east from North Judson, where his place of abode would probably never have been discovered but for the genius and energy of Jacob Keller, a real estate dealer and booster of North Judson, who changed its name to Bass Lake as a means of inducing visitors and land buyers to come to the county, and the consequence was the discovery of Scoville, who was soon forced from his position of
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ALFALFA PRODUCED ON SAND HILL BY C. W. WENINGER, NORTH JUDSON, IND.
obscurity to become one of the well known and highly respected citizens of the county. The orig- inal name Winchetonqua interpreted means Beau- tiful Waters and they well retain that description while its piscatorial qualities justified its change of name to Bass Lake. It contains seventeen hundred acres and is now surrounded by hundreds of cot- tages and palatial homes, and the picturesque country around it is freckled over with farm build- ings and is greatly admired by the many tourists who traverse it, reaching the lake over the numerous well-paved automobile roads, including the great State Highway numbered 50.
The seven steam railroads that traverse the county, four of which cross each other at North Judson, have greatly aided in its development. The railroads of the county pay 28 per cent of all its taxes.
The improvement of the Kankakee River became an accomplished fact largely through the legal work of Lem Darrow, a prominent lawyer of LaPorte and formerly mayor of that city, and former State Senator Abraham Halleck, of Rensselaer. This river has its source near the city of South Bend and in its winding course to the Illinois State line is 240 miles in length that has been reduced to eighty miles by straightening its channels, a work that was proposed by Governor Albert G. Porter in 1881 and was outlined in a survey made in 1882 by Professor John L. Campbell, of Wabash Col- lege. It unites with the Desplaines River in Grundy County, Illinois, to form the source of
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the Illinois River. The route of the long agitated Lakes to the Gulf Waterway follows from Lake Michigan by way of the Chicago Drainage Canal and the Illinois River to the Mississippi. The Kankakee, being so connected and a natural tribu- tary, is destined to become a part of this great waterway system when it is constructed, and may become as efficient for barge navigation as it has already been as an outlet for the drainage of the lands of the seven counties that border it in Indiana, the counties of St. Joseph, Starke, LaPorte, Porter, Jasper, Lake and Newton.
For many years the courts of these counties were engrossed with cases in which the titles to lands along this river were the subjects of controversy between riparian owners and the State, and many conflicting decisions were made. The largest body of lands involved was about 3500 acres located in the counties of LaPorte and Starke. The earlier decisions were in favor of the riparian owners, but after many judicial oscillations and seemingly in disregard of the doctrine of stare decisis these were finally overruled and the title of the State was estab- lished to this acreage, and then the important ques- tion arose as to what use the State had for the lands. It could not locate its penal or benevolent institutions upon them nor could it drain and farm them, nor could publie drains be located upon them without legislative permission. This permission was finally given but coupled with it was the pro- vision that they should stand the same assessments for benefits that individual owners had to bear.
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Provision was finally made for their sale to pay the drainage assessments that had been placed against them. Lem Darrow, who had represented the riparian owners in the long and stubborn liti- gation, determined that his clients should, if pos- sible, regain some of the alleged losses that they had sustained when they were denied the rights they were asserting, succeeded in having the legislature to allow them to be favored purchasers in the pro- posed sales, and at the time this is written they are co-operating with the State's Department of Conservation in having them set apart for a State Park.
The spirit of progressiveness did not move with exciting rapidity in the County of Starke until 1890, when a prize fight between champions Gil- more and Myers was staged and fought at North Judson that gave it a place on the map and much enviable notoriety, and so well known did it be- come as possessing superior advantages and attrac- tions for such sports that another fistic battle was arranged for in 1891 between Myers and McAuliff, when sixty-four rounds were fought and the battle declared a draw. Perennial excursions from Chi- cago and other cities and towns to attend the town's Bohemian picnics were the pleasurable attractions of after years until Governor J. Frank Hanley, in 1908, called the special session of the Indiana legis- lature to pass more stringent liquor legislation and they have not since been held, but in their place annual after-harvest jubilees have been held for many years at North Judson to exhibit the products
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of the surrounding country and to afford amuse- ment for the great crowds that always attend them.
Of the progressive citizens of this county is Lon E. Bernethy, the veteran agent of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad at North Judson. He is well known throughout the State, was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1884 that nominated Cleveland for President and Thomas A. Hendricks for Vice President, was twice elected as a member of the Indiana legislature, serving in the sessions of 1889 and 1891. He has been accused but has never denied that he planned the prizefights that put North Judson on the map.
The first practical step towards the drainage of the swamp lands of Starke County was taken by Henry R. Roblins, an attorney of Knox, that resulted, in the year 1884, in his establishing the drainage sys- tem that bears his name. The launching of his project immediately aroused so much opposition from landowners that the number of remonstra- tions threatened to quickly defeat it. To overcome this opposition he resorted to the plan of platting part of his lands into lots in an imaginary munici- pality called North Star City and donated them to all who would sign his petition for the drainage, and they with the owners of lots in cemeteries all counted as frecholders to overcome the remon- strances.
It is only doing tardy justice to his memory to say that the good he did fairly justified his methods in bringing it about. With its numerous branches and tributaries his ditch covers a distance of 200
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lineal miles, the main channel having a width of from 50 to 100 feet and a depth averaging 15 feet, and it is perhaps one of the largest and most effi- cient artificial drains in the State, and has made a garden spot of probably fifty thousand acres of land.
Mr. Robbins was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, in 1840, from whence his father moved to Monroe County, Michigan, where the son received his elementary education and attended the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, and later graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He practiced law successfully in Starke and other counties for forty years and died with the good will of all the opponents of his drainage work and their descendants.
John L. Moorman, of Knox, well known in political circles of the State as a member of the Republican State Central Committee and delegate to a number of National Republican conventions, has been a large contributor to the agricultural advancement of this county. He foresaw the great advantages that were sure to be realized by pur- chasing and improving a large body of lands in the Yellow River Valley near Knox, which he now farms successfully and profitably. In 1898 he became the purchaser of the Starke County Republican newspaper that he managed and edited until 1921 when he relinquished control of it to give attention to his farming and other enterprises. He was born in Paulding County, Ohio, in 1869, and
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a year later was brought by his parents to Carroll County, Indiana, where he attended public schools and in his years of early manhood engaged in news- paper work and for a number of years edited the Idaville Observer.
The counties of Pulaski and Starke compose the 44th Judicial Circuit of the State that is now pre- sided over by Judge William C. Pentecost, of Knox. When counties other than these were in- cluded in the circuit it was presided over by such prominent men in the judicial history of the State as Judge Andrew L. Osborn, of LaPorte, and Elisha C. Field, of Lake. Judge Pentecost has well maintained the judicial standards of these able men. He was elected in 1914 and re-elected in 1920 and is now rendering decisions with justice and impartiality, and is most highly respected by all lawyers who have had business in his court, because of his excellent judicial temperament and his great care in investigating and considering the many legal problems that are presented to him. He was born at Greencastle, Putnam County, in 1874, graduated from the high school of that city in 1892, then graduated in the classical course at the Valparaiso University as a member of the class of 1895. Studied law at the Georgetown University of Law at Washington, D. C., graduating there in 1901 with the degree of LL.B. Before taking up the study of law and in connection with his college work, he taught school for five years. He took up his residence at Knox in 1897 and was actively engaged in the law practice until his election as
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judge in 1914. It has been the observation of the writer that fully ninety per cent of the lawyers of Indiana taught school for a few years preceding their entrance of the legal profession, and that the one who has had that experience and becomes a judge is usually very successful in disciplining lawyers into good behavior without resorting to extreme measures.
The general progress of the State in crop pro- duction can be indicated by the results of individual activities and experiments as well as by those obtained through instructive courses given at Pur- due University, the State's great agricultural col- lege. An instance of individual achievement in corn breeding and production is related in the career of Leonard B. Clore and his family. He is a native of Franklin County, born in 1866, who from his youth showed an unusual interest in agricultural work. When he was seventeen years of age he pre- vailed upon his father to allow him to gather ten ears of corn from a field he had cultivated and exhibit them at the county fair, where he won the first prize of seventy-five cents. This honor was so greatly appreciated as to stimulate him to enter con- tests at State fairs where he always won first prizes and then extended his displays in other states, and at the first National Corn Exhibit that took place in Chicago won the highest award and established the fact of Indiana's supremacy as a corn producing State. At this exposition one ear of his seed corn sold for $250. His wife won the highest award in the woman's class and his son in the boys' class.
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At the second exhibition held in Nebraska he won the first prize. At the fourth exposition held at Columbus, Ohio, his son won the first prize. He made an exhibit at the Paris Exposition in France where he won a bronze medal, and again won the grand prize at the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904. His fame as a corn breeder has extended beyond the seas. He was offered a position by the Russian Government to propagate varieties of corn that would ripen in Southern Russia, and prizes highly the many testimonials he has received in letters from foreign countries.
He won distinction as a member of the Indiana legislature where he was the author of the bill that was enacted into a law providing funds to carry out the work of the Agricultural Extension De- partment of Purdue University. Was a member and president of the Indiana State Board of Agri- culture and an organizer of the Indiana Corn Growers' Association; was the first County Agri- cultural Agent appointed in the State, serving in LaPorte County. He was appointed Treasurer of the Federal Land Bank of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1916, and is now Secretary of that institution. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party, and he is a member of the Christian Church and a Masonic Shriner.
In the year 1920 what is called a "Farmer- Labor" party, composed of farmers and labor unionists, came into existence and placed a can- didate for President in the field. Since that time this organization has seemingly gained many
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adherents and met with success in elections in other states than Indiana and its propaganda has now also reached this State. To an outside observer, identified with farming operations, the alliance of farmers with labor unions seems most inconsistent and irreconcilably incompatible. Their respective interests are in direct conflict. The acts of the labor unions in fixing and maintaining high wages that draw laborers from the farms have had the effect to practically put the farmer out of business. His greatest concern just now is not in the amount of freight rates on his grain or whether it shall be handled by agents of the railroad corporations or the Government, but whether he can produce any to be hauled, under existing conditions. And it is a curious fact that this same powerful instru- mentality that fixes wages numbers among its mem- bers so many advocates of government ownership of railroads, and has persuaded some farmers to believe that they will in some way be benefited by such a consummation, in the face of the fact that government ownership implies and requires that the Government must first purchase the railroads, and no matter upon what basis the purchase price may be fixed, the farmer's products and lands must be taxed directly or indirectly to pay the many billions of dollars required for their purchase, while the labor unions with which they are so associated in political companionship, having no tangible property to be taxed, are exempted entirely from making any contributions to bring about the changes for which they clamor. It would also fol-
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low from government ownership that the burden of taxes now paid by railroad companies would be shifted from them to the shoulders of the farmers and other taxpayers, since all government property and instrumentalities of government are exempted from taxation. The railroads in Indiana, and prob- ably in other states, are assessed and pay taxes on a mileage basis and the amounts that go into every county, city and town treasury from this source are enormous.
Associated in sentiment with the advocates of government ownership are the socialistic radicals called "reds," who would have everything under government control and at the same time would, if they had their way, overthrow the system of gov- ernment whose powers and protection they invoke. These "reds" are closely related to Russian Bol- shevists and it is not believed that American farmers would be very proud of such an associa- tion or would advocate a recognition of the Soviet government of Russia.
These "reds" and a revolutionary movement that they attempted to inaugurate in the Calumet dis- trict at the time the armistice was signed that ended the World War will be given further notice on other pages. It is a strange fact that William English Walling, a grandson of William H. Eng- lish and nephew of William E. English, whose public records as adherents of our representative system of government are mentioned in the first volume of this work, is a prominent socialistic writer, but not of the extreme Bolshevist type.
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CHAPTER II
T T HE discovery of natural gas in Indiana was made in the year 1887 in the counties of Black- ford, Delaware, Grant, Hamilton, Howard, Madi- son and others. This discovery at once brought to the State manufacturing plants for the production of steel, glass, tinplate and other articles of com- merce, and with them the quick growth of towns and cities peopled by classes of workmen previously unknown to the people of the State, whose em- ployers numbered men of great wealth and enter- prise from other sections of the country, and many previously obscure citizens of the State, quick to seize the advantages, also suddenly became mil- lionaires. Among these Daniel G. Reid and William B. Leeds, two small salaried clerks of Richmond, Indiana, whose suddenly acquired mil- lions brought them fame in the financial world and membership in the so-called higher classes of society to become contributors to the domestic seandals that are so common, and that furnish proof that money doesn't make happiness or encourage morality. Leeds was divorced from or by the wife of his youth and married another upon whom he lavished his millions and who inherited thirty mil- lions of his money and became a social leader in European society soon after his death in 1908. The
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