USA > Indiana > Decatur County > A Genealogical and biographical record of Decatur County, Indiana : compendium of national biography > Part 16
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lost much prestige and Mr. Debs, in company with others of the officers, being held as in con- tempt of the United States courts, he suffered a sentence of six months in jail at Wood- stock, McHenry county, Illinois. In 1897 Mr .. Debs, on the demise of the American Railway Union, .organized the Social Democracy, an institution founded on the best lines of the communistic idea, which was to provide homes and employment for its members.
JOHN G. CARLISLE, famous as a law- yer, congressman, senator and cabinet officer, was born in Campbell (now Kenton) county, Kentucky, September 5, 1835, on a farm. He received the usual education of the time and began at an early age to teach school and, at the same time, the study of law. Soon opportunity offered and he entered an office in Covington, Kentucky, and was admitted to practice at the bar in 1858. Politics attracted his attention and in 1859 he was elected to the house of rep- resentatives in the legislature of his native state. On the outbreak of the war in 1861, he embraced the cause of the Union and was largely instrumental in preserving Kentucky to the federal cause. He resumed his legal practice for a time and declined a nomina- tion as presidential elector in 1864. In 1866 and again in 1869 Mr. Carlisle was elected to the senate of Kentucky. He re- signed this position in 1871 and was chosen lieutenant governor of the state, which office he held until 1875. He was one of the presidential electors-at-large for Ken- tucky in 1876. He first entered congress in 1877, and soon became a prominent leader on the Democratic side of the house of rep- resentatives, and continued a member of that body through the forty-sixth, forty- seventh, forty-eighth and forty-ninth con-
gresses, and was speaker of the house during the two latter. He was elected to the United States senate to succeed Senator Blackburn, and remained a member of that branch of congress until March, 1893, when he was appointed secretary of the treasury. He performed the duties of that high office until March 4, 1897, throughout the en- tire second administration of President Cleveland. His ability and many years of public service gave him a national reputa- tion.
F FRANCES E. WILLARD, for many years president of the . Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and a noted American lecturer and writer, was born in Rochester, New York, September 28, 1839. Graduating from the Northwestern Female College at the age of nineteen she began teaching and met with great success in many cities of the west. She was made directress of Genesee Wes- leyan Seminary at Lima, Ohio, in 1867, and four years later was elected president of the Evanston College for young ladies, a branch of the Northwestern University.
During the two years succeeding 1869 she traveled extensively in Europe and the east, visiting Egypt and Palestine, and gathering materials for a valuable course of lectures, which she delivered at Chicago on her return. She became very popular, and won great influence in the temperance cause. Her work as president of the Wo- man's Christian Temperance Union greatly strengthened that society, and she made frequent trips to Europe in the interest of that cause.
RICHARD OLNEY .- Among the promi- nent men who were members of the cabinet of President Cleveland in his second administration, the gentleman whose name
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heads this sketch held a leading place, oc- cupying the positions of attorney general and secretary of state.
Mr. Olney came from one of the oldest and most honored New England families; the first of his ancestors to come from Eng- land settled in Massachusetts in 1635. This was Thomas Olney. He was a friend and co-religionist of Roger Williams, and when the latter moved to what is now Rhode Island, went with him and became one of the founders of Providence Plantations.
Richard Olney was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, in 1835, and received the ·elements of his earlier education in the com- mon schools which New England is so proud of. He entered Brown University, from which he graduated in 1856, and passed the Harvard law school two years later. He began the practice of his profession with Judge B. F. Thomas, a prominent man of that locality. For years Richard Olney was regarded as one of the ablest and most learned lawyers in Massachusetts. Twice he was offered a place on the bench of the supreme court of the state, but both times he declined. He was always a Democrat in his political tenets, and for many years was a trusted counsellor of members of that party. In 1874 Mr. Olney was elected a member of the legislature. In 1876, during the heated presidential campaign, to strengthen the cause of Mr. Tilden in the New England states, it was intimated that in the event of that gentleman's election to the presidency, Mr. Olney would be attor- ney general.
When Grover Cleveland was elected presi- dont of the United States, on his inaugura- tion in March, 1893, he tendered the posi- tion of attorney general to Richard Olney. This was accepted, and that gentleman ful- filled the duties of the office until the death
of Walter Q. Gresham, in May, 1895, made vacant the position of secretary of state. This post was filled by the appointment of Mr. Olney. While occupying the later office, Mr. Olney brought himself into inter- national prominence by some very able state papers.
JOHN JAY KNOX, for many years comp- troller of the currency, and an eminent financier, was born in Knoxboro, Oneida county, New York, May 19, 1828. He re- ceived a good education and graduated at Hamilton College in 1849. For about thirteen years he was engaged as a private banker, or in a position in a bank, where he laid the foundation of his knowledge of the laws of finance. In 1862, Salmon P. Chase, then secretary of the treasury, ap- pointed him to an office in that department of the government, and later he had charge of the mint coinage correspondence. In 1867 Mr. Knox was made deputy comptroller of the currency, and in that capacity, in 1870, he made two reports on the mint service, with a codification of the mint and coinage laws of the United States, and suggesting many important amendments. These reports were ordered printed by reso- lution of congress. The bill which he pre- pared, with some slight changes, was sub- sequently passed, and has been known in history as the " Coin'age Act of 1873."
In 1872 Mr. Knox was appointed comp- troller of the currency, and held that re- sponsible position until 1884, when he re- signed. He then accepted the position of president of the National Bank of the Re- public, of New York City, which institution he served for many years. He was the author of " United States Notes," published in 1884. In the reports spoken of above, a history of the two United States banks is
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given, together with that of the state and national banking system, and much valuable statistical matter relating to kindred sub- jects.
N T.ATHANIEL HAWTHORNE .- In the opinion of many critics Hawthorne is pronounced the foremost American novelist, and in his peculiar vein of romance is said to be without a peer. His reputation is world-wide, and his ability as a writer is recognized abroad as well as at home. He was born July 4, 1804, at Salem, Massa- chusetts. On account of feeble health he spent some years of his boyhood on a farm near Raymond, Maine. He laid the foun- dation of a liberal education in his youth, and entered Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1825 in the same class with H W Longfellow and John S. C. Abbott. He then returned to Salem, where he gave his attention to literature, publishing several tales and other articles in various periodi- cals. His first venture in the field of ro- mance, "Fanshaw," proved a failure. In 1836 he removed to Boston, and became editor of the "American Magazine," which soon passed out of existence. In 1837 he published "Twice Told Tales," which were chiefly made up of his former contributions to magazines. In 1838-41 he held a posi- tion in the Boston custom house, but later took part in the " Brook farm experiment," a socialistic idea after the plan of Fourier. In 1843 he was married and took up his residence at the old parsonage at Concord, Massachusetts, which he immortalized in his next work, "Mosses From an Old Manse," published in 1846. From the lat- ter date until 1850 he was surveyor of the port of Salein, and while thus employed wrote one of his strongest works, "The Scarlet Letter." For the succeeding two 8
years Lenox, Massachusetts, was his home, and the " House of the Seven Gables " was produced there, as well as the " Blithedale Romance." In 1852 he published a " Life of Franklin Pierce," a college friend whom he warmly regarded. In 1853 he was ap- pointed United States consul to Liverpool, England, where he remained some years, after which he spent some time in Italy. On returning to his native land he took up his residence at Concord, Massachusetts. While taking a trip for his health with ex- President Pierce, he died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, May 19, 1864. In addition to the works mentioned above Mr. Hawthorne gave to the world the following books: " True Stories from History," "The Won- der Book," "The Snow Image," "Tangle- wood Tales," "The Marble Faun," and " Our Old Home." After his death appeared a series of "Notebooks," edited by his wife, Sophia P. Hawthorne; "Septimius Felton," edited by his daughter, Una, and "Dr. Grimshaw's Secret," put into shape by his talented son, Julian. He left an unfinished work called " Dolliver Romance," which has been published just as he left it.
A1 BRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth presi- dent of the United States, was born February 12, 1809, in Larue county (Har- din county), Kentucky, in a log-cabin near Hudgensville. When he was eight years old he removed with his parents to Indiana, near the Ohio river, and a year later his mother died. His father then married Mrs. Elizabeth (Bush) Johnston, of Elizabeth- town, Kentucky, who proved a kind of fos- ter-mother to Abraham, and encouraged him to study. He worked as a farm hand and as a clerk in a store at Gentryville, and was noted for his athletic feats and strength, fondness for debate, a fund of humorous
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anecdote, as well as the composition of rude verses. He made a trip at the age of nine- teen to New Orleans on a flat-boat, and set- tled in Illinois in 1830. He assisted his father to build a log house and clear a farm on the Sangamon river near Decatur, Illinois, and split the rails with which to fence it. In 1851 he was employed in the building of a flat-boat on the Sangamon, and to run it to New Orleans. The voyage gave him a new insight into the horrors of slavery in the south. On his return he settled at New Salem and engaged, first as a clerk in a store, then as grocer, surveyor and postmaster, and he piloted the first steamboat that as- cended the Sangamon. He participated in the Black Hawk war as captain of volun- teers, and after his return he studied law, interested himself in politics, and became prominent locally as a public speaker. He was elected to the legislature in 1834 as a " Clay Whig," and began at once to dis- play a command of language and forcible rhetoric that made him a match for his more cultured opponents. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1837, and began prac- tice at Springfield. He married a lady of a prominent Kentucky family in 1842. He was active in the presidential campaigns of 1840 and 1844 and was an elector on the Harrison and Clay tickets, and was elected to congress in 1846, over Peter Cartwright. He voted for the Wilmot proviso and the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- bia, and opposed the war with Mexico, but gained little prominence during his two years' service. He then returned to Spring- field and devoted his attention to law, tak- ing little interest in politics, until the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854. This awakened his interest in politics again and he attacked the champion of that measure,
Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech at Spring- field that made him famous, and is said by those who heard it to be the greatest speech of his life. Lincoln was selected as candidate for the United States senate, but was defeated by Trumbull. Upon the pas- sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the Whig party suddenly went to pieces, and the Re- publican party gathered head. At the Bloomington Republican convention in 1856 Lincoln made an effective address in which he first took a position antagonistic to the ex- istence of slavery. He was a Fremont elector and received a strong support for nomina- tion as vice-president in the Philadelphia convention. In 1858 he was the unanimous choice of the Republicans for the United States senate, and the great campaign of de- bate which followed resulted in the election of Douglas, but established Lincoln's repu- tation as the leading exponent of Republican doctrines. He began to be mentioned in Illinois as candidate for the presidency, and a course of addresses in the eastern states attracted favorable attention. When the national convention met at Chicago, his rivals, Chase, Seward, Bates and others, were compelled to retire before the western giant, and he was nominated, with Hannibal Hamlin as his running mate. The Demo- cratic party had now been disrupted, and Lincoln's election assured. He carried practically every northern state, and the secession of South Carolina, followed by a number of the gulf states, took place before his inauguration. Lincoln is the only presi- dent who was ever compelled to reach Washington in a secret manner. He es- caped assassination by avoiding Baltimore, and was quietly inaugurated March 4, 1861. His inaugural address was firmn but con- ciliatory, and he said to the secessionists: "You have no oath registered in heaven
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to destroy the government, while I have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.' He made up his cabinet chiefly of those political rivals in his own party ---- Seward, Chase, Cameron, Bates-and se- cured the co-operation of the Douglas Dem- ocrats. His great deeds, amidst the heat and turmoil of war, were: His call for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the blockading of southern ports; calling of con- gress in extra session, July 14, 1861, and obtaining four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars for the prosecu- tion of the war; appointing Stanton secre- tary of war; issuing the emancipation proc- lamation; calling three hundred thou- sand volunteers; address at Gettysburg cemetery; commissioned Grant as lieuten- ant-general and commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States; his second inaugural address; his visit to the army be- fore Richmond, and his entry into Rich- mond the day after its surrender.
Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in a box in Ford's theater at Washington the night of April 14, 1865, and expired the following morning. His body was buried at Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, and a monument com- memorating his great work marks his resting place.
S
TEPHEN GIRARD, the celebrated
philanthropist, was born in Bordeaux, France, May 24, 1750. He became a sailor engaged in the American coast trade, and also made frequent trips to the West Indies. During the Revolutionary war he was a grocer and liquor seller in Philadelphia. He married in that city, and afterward separated from his wife. After the war he again engaged in the coast and West India trade, and his fortune began to accumulate
from receiving goods from West Indian planters during the insurrection in Hayti, little of which was ever called for again. He became a private banker in Philadelphia in 1812, and afterward was a director in the United States Bank. He made much money by leasing property in the city in times of depression, and upon the revival of industry sub-leasing at enormous profit. He became the wealthiest citizen of the United States of his time.
He was eccentric, ungracious, and a freethinker. He had few, if any, friends in his lifetime. However, he was most chari- tably disposed, and gave to charitable in- stitutions and schools with a liberal hand. He did more than any one else to relieve the suffering and deprivations during the great yellow fever scourge in Philadelphia, devoting his personal attention to the sick. He endowed and made a free institution, the famous Will's Eye and Ear Infirmary of Philadelphia-one of the largest institu- tions of its kind in the world. At his death practically all his immense wealth was be- queathed to charitable institutions, more than two millions of dollars going to the founding of Girard College, which was to be devoted to the education and training of boys between the ages of six and ten years. Large donations were also made to institu- tions in Philadelphia and New Orleans. The principal building of Girard College is the most magnificent example of Greek architecture in America. Girard died De- cember 26, 1831.
I OUIS J. R. AGASSIZ, the eminent nat- uralist and geologist, was born in the parish of Motier, near Lake Neuchatel, Swit- zerland, May 28, 1807, but attained his greatest fame after becoming an American citizen. He studied the medical sciences at
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Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich. His first work was a Latin description of the fishes which Martius and Spix brought from Brazil. This was published in 1829-31. . He devoted much time to the study of fossil fishes, and in' 1832 was appointed professor of natural history at Neuchatel. He greatly increased his reputation by a great work in French, entitled "Researches on Fossil Fishes," in 1832-42, in which he made many important improvements in the classification of fishes. Having passed many summers among the Alps in researches on glaciers, he propounded some new and interesting ideas on geology, and the agency of glaciers in his "Studies by the Glaciers." This was published in 1840. This latter work, with his " System of the Glaciers," published in 1847, are among his principal works.
In 1846, Professor Agassiz crossed the ocean on a scientific excursion to the United States, and soon determined to remain here. He accepted, about the beginning of 1848, the chair of zoology and geology at Harvard. He explored the natural history of the United States at different times and gave an impulse to the study of nature in this country. In 1865 he conducted an expedi- tion to Brazil, and explored the lower Ama- zon and its tributaries. In 1868 he was made non-resident professor of natural his- tory at Cornell University. In December, 1871, he accompanied the Hassler expedi- tion, under Professor Pierce, to the South Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 14, 1873.
Among other of the important works of Professor Agassiz may be mentioned the fol- lowing: "Outlines of Comparative Physi- ology," "Journey to Brazil," and "Contri- butions to the Natural History of the United States." It is said of Professor Agassiz,
that, perhaps, with the exception of Hugh Miller, no one had so popularized science in his day, or trained so many young natural- ists. Many of the theories held by Agassiz are not supported by many of the natural- ists of these later days, but upon many of the speculations into the origin of species and in physics he has left the marks of his own strongly marked individuality.
W ILLIAM WINDOM. - As a prominent and leading lawyer of the great north- west, as a member of both houses of con- gress, and as the secretary of the treasury, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch won for himself a prominent position in the history of our country.
Mr. Windom was a native of Ohio, born in Belmont county, May 10, 1827. He received a good elementary education in the schools of his native state, and took up the study of law. He was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice of his profession in Ohio, where he remained until 1855. In the latter year he made up his mind to move further west, and accordingly went to Minnesota, and opening an office, became identified with the interests of that state, and the northwest generally. In 1858 he took his place in the Minnesota delegation in the national house of repre- sentatives, at Washington, and continued to represent his constituency in that body for ten years. In 1871 Mr. Windom was elected United States senator from Min- nesota, and was re-elected to the same office after fulfilling the duties of the position for a full term, in 1876. On the inauguration of President Garfield, in March, 1881, Mr. Windom became secretary of the treasury in his cabinet. He resigned this office Oc- tober 27, 1881, and was elected senator from the North Star state to fill the va-
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cancy caused by the resignation of A. J. Edgerton. Mr. Windom served in that chamber until March, 1883.
William Windom died in New York City January 29, 1891.
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D ON M. DICKINSON, an American politician and lawyer, was born in Port Ontario, New York, January 17, 1846. He removed with his parents to Michigan when he was but two years old. He was educated in the public schools of Detroit and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. In 1872 he was made secretary of the Democratic state central committee of Michigan, and his able man- agement of the campaign gave him a prom- inent place in the councils of his party. In 1876, during the Tilden campaign, he acted as chairman of the state central committee. He was afterward chosen to represent his state in the Democratic national committee, and in 1886 he was appointed postmaster- general by President Cleveland. After the expiration of his term of office he returned to Detroit and resumed the practice of law. In the presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. Dickinson adhered to the "gold wing " of the Democracy, and his influence' was felt in the national canvass, and especially in his own state.
J JOHN JACOB ASTOR, the founder of the Astor family and fortunes, while not a native of this country, was one of the most noted men of his time, and as all his wealth and fame were acquired here, he may well be classed among America's great men. He was born near Heidelberg, Ger- many, July 17, 1763, and when twenty years old emigrated to the United States. Even at that age he exhibited remarkable
business ability and foresight, and soon he was investing capital in furs which he took to London and sold at a great profit. He next settled at New York, and engaged ex- tensively in the fur trade. He exported furs to Europe in his own vessels, which re- turned with cargoes of foreign commodities, and thus he rapidly amassed an immense fortune. In 1811 he founded Astoria on the western coast of North America, near the mouth of the Columbia river, as a depot for the fur trade, for the promotion of which he sent a number of expeditions to the Pacific ocean. He also purchased a large amount of real estate in New York, the value of which increased enormously All through life his business ventures were a series of marvelous successes, and he ranked as one of the most sagacious and successful business men in the world. He died March 29, 1848, leaving a fortune es- timated at over twenty million dollars to his children, who have since increased it. John Jacob Astor left $400,000 to found a public library in New York City, and his son, William B. Astor, who died in 1875, left $300,000 to add to his father's bequest. This is known as the Astor Library, one of the largest in the United States.
S CHUYLER COLFAX, an eminent American statesman, was born in New York City, March 23, 1823, being a grand- son of General William Colfax, the com- mander of Washington's life-guards. In 1836 he removed with his mother, who was then a widow, to Indiana, settling at South Bend. Young Schuyler studied law, and in 1845 became editor of the "St. Joseph Valley Register," a Whig paper published at South Bend. He was a member of the convention which formed a new constitu- tion for Indiana in 1850, and he opposed
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the clause that prohibited colored men from settling in that state. In 1851 he was defeated as the Whig candidate for congress but was elected in 1854, and, being repeat- edly re-elected, continued to represent that district in congress until 1869. He became one of the most prominent and influential members of the house of representatives, and served three terms as speaker. During the Civil war he was an active participant in all public measures of importance, and was a confidential friend and adviser of President Lincoln. In May, 1868, Mr. Colfax was nominated for vice-president on the ticket with General Grant, and was elected. After the close of his term he re- tired from office, and for the remainder of his life devoted much of his time to lectur- ing and literary pursuits. His death oc- curred January 23, 1885. He was one of the most prominent members of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows in America, and that order erected a bronze statue to his memory in University Park, Indianapo- lis, Indiana, which was unveiled in May, 1887.
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