USA > Indiana > Decatur County > A Genealogical and biographical record of Decatur County, Indiana : compendium of national biography > Part 6
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Mr. Booth's work was confined mostly to Shakspearean roles, and his art was characterized by intellectual acuteness, fervor, and poetic feeling. His Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III, and Richelieu gave play to his greatest powers. In 1865, when his brother, John Wilkes Booth, enacted his great crime, Edwin Booth re- solved to retire from the stage, but was pur- suaded to reconsider that decision. The odium did not in any way attach to the
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great actor, and his popularity was not affected. In all his work Mr. Booth clung closely to the legitimate and the traditional in drama, niaking no experiments, and offer- ing little encouragement to new dramatic authors. His death occurred in New York, June 7, 1894.
JOSEPH HOOKER, a noted American officer, was born at Hadley, Massachu- setts, November 13, 1814. He graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1837, and was appointed lieutenant of artillery. He served in Florida in the Seminole war, and in garrison until the outbreak of the Mexican war. During the latter he saw service as a staff officer and was breveted captain, major and lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at Monterey, National Bridge and Chapultepec. Resigning his coinmission in 1833 he took up farming in California, which he followed until 1861. During this time he acted as superintendent of military roads in Oregon. At the outbreak of the Rebel- lion Hooker tendered his services to the government, and, May 17, 1861, was ap- pointed brigadier-general of volunteers. He served in the defence of Washington and on the lower Potomac until his appointment to the command of a division in the Third Corps, in March, 1862. For gallant con- duct at the siege of Yorktown and in the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Fra- zier's Farm and Malvern Hill he was made major-general. At the head of his division he participated in the battles of Manassas and Chantilly. September 6, 1862, he was placed at the head of the First Corps, and in the battles of South Mountain and An- tietam acted with his usual gallantry, being wounded in the latter engagement. On re- joining the army in November he was inade brigadier-general in the regular army. On
General Burnside attaining the command of the Army of the Potomac General Hooker was placed in command of the center grand division, consisting of the Second and Fifth Corps. At the head of these gallant men he participated in the battle of Fred- ericksburg, December 13, 1862. In Janu -. ary, 1863, General Hooker assumed com- mand of the Army of the Potomac, and in May following fought the battle of Chan- cellorsville. At the time of the invasion of Pennsylvania, owing to a dispute with Gen- eral Halleck, Hooker requested to be re- lieved of his command, and June 28 was succeeded by George G. Meade. In Sep- tember, 1863, General Hooker was given command of the Twentieth Corps and trans- ferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and distinguished himself at the battles of Look- out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Ring- gold. In the Atlanta campaign he saw almost daily service and merited his well- known nickname of "Fighting Joe." July 30, 1864, at his own request, he was re- lieved of his command. He subsequently was in command of several military depart- ments in the north, and in October, 1868, was retired with the full rank of major-gen- eral. He died October 31, 1879.
JAY GOULD, one of the greatest finan- ciers that the world has ever produced, was born May 27, 1836, at Roxbury, Dela- ware county, New York. He spent his early years on his father's farm and at the age of fourteen entered Hobart Academy, New York, and kept books for the village black- smith. He acquired a taste for mathematics and surveying and on leaving school found employment in making the surveyor's map of Ulster county. He surveyed very exten- sively in the state and accumulated five thou- sand dollars as the fruits of his labor. He
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was then stricken with typhoid fever but re- covered and made the acquaintance of one Zadock Pratt, who sent him into the west- ern part of the state to locate a site for a tannery. He chose a fine hemlock grove, built a sawmill and blacksmith shop and was soon doing a large lumber business with Mr. Pratt. Mr. Gould soon secured control of the entire plant, which he sold out just before the panic of 1857 and in this year he became the largest stockholder in the Strouds- burg, Pennsylvania, bank. Shortly after the crisis he bought the bonds of the Rutland & Washington Railroad at ten cents on the dollar, and put all his money into railroad securities. For a long time he conducted this road which he consolidated with the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad. In 1859 he removed to New York and became a heavy investor in Erie Railroad stocks, en- tered that company and was president until its reorganization in 1872. In December, 1880, Mr. Gould was in control of ten thou- sand miles of railroad. In 1887 he pur- chased the controlling interest in the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co., and was a joint owner with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Co. of the western portion of the Southern Pacific line. Other lines soon came under his control, aggregat- ing thousand of miles, and he soon was rec- ognized as one of the world's greatest rail- road magnates. He continued to hold his place as one of the master financiers of the century until the time of his death which occurred December 2, 1892.
T THOMAS HART BENTON, a very prominent United States senator and statesman, was born at Hillsborough, North Carolina, March 14, 1782. He removed to Tennessee in early life, studied law, and be- gan to practice at Nashville about ISI0.
During the war of 1812-1815 he served as colonel of a Tennessee regiment under Gen- eral Andrew Jackson. In 1815 he removed to St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1820 was chosen United States senator for that state. Having been re-elected in 1826, he sup- ported President Jackson in his opposition to the United States bank and advocated a gold and silver currency, thus gaining the name of " Old Bullion," by which he was familiarly known. For many years he was the most prominent man in Missouri, and took rank among the greatest statesmen of his day. He was a member of the senate for thirty years and opposed the extreme states' rights policy of John C. Calhoun. In 1852 he was elected to the house of rep- resentatives in which he opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise. He was op- posed by a powerful party of States' Rights Democrats in Missouri, who defeated him as a candidate for governor of that state in 1856.
Colonel Benton published a considerable work in two volumes in 1854-56, entitled "Thirty Years' View, or a History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, 1820-50." He died April 10, 1858.
S TEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS .- One of the most prominent figures in politic- al circles during the intensely exciting days that preceded the war, and a leader of the Union branch of the Democratic party was the gentleman whose name heads this sketch.
He was born at Brandon, Rutland coun- ty, Vermont, April 23, 1813, of poor but respectable parentage. His father, a prac- ticing physician, died while our subject was but an infant, and his mother, with two small children and but small means, could give him but the rudiments of an education.
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At the age of fifteen young Douglas engaged at work in the cabinet making business to raise funds to carry him through college. After a few years of labor he was enabled to pursue an academical course, first at Bran- don, and later at Canandaigua, New York. In the latter place he remained until I833, taking up the study of law. Before he was twenty, however, his funds running low, he abandoned all further attempts at educa- tion, determining to enter at once the battle of life. : After some wanderings through the western states he took up his residence at Jacksonville, Illinois, where, after teaching school for three months, he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office in 1834. Within a year from that time, so rapidly had he risen in his profession, he was chosen attorney general of the state, and warmly espoused the principles of the Democratic party. He soon became one of the most popular orators in Illinois. It was at this time he gained the name of the "Little Giant." In 1835 he resigned the position of attorney general having been elected to the legislature. In IS41 he was chosen judge of the supreme court of Illinois which he resigned two years later to take a seat in congress. It was during this period of his life, while a member of the lower house, that he established his reputation and took - the side of those who contended that con- gress had no constitutional right to restrict the extension of slavery further than the agreement between the states made in 1820. This, in spite of his being opposed to slav- ery, and only on grounds which he believed to be right, favored what was called the Missouri compromise. In 1847 Mr. Doug- las was chosen United States senator for six years, and greatly distinguished himself. In 1852 he was re-elected to the same office. During this latter term, under his leader-
ship, the " Kansas-Nebraska bill " was car- ried in the senate. £ In 1858, nothwith- standing the fierce contest made by his able competitor for the position, Abraham Lin- coln, and with the administration of Bu- chanan arrayed against him, Mr. Douglas was re-elected senator. After the trouble in the Charleston convention, when by the withdrawal of several state delegates with- out a nomination, the Union Democrats, in convention at Baltimore, in 1860, nomi- nated Mr. Douglas as their candidate for presidency. The results of this election are well known and the great events of 1861 coming on, Mr. Douglas was spared their full development, dying at Chicago, Illinois, June 3, 1861, after a short illness. His last words to his children were, "to obey the laws and support the constitution of the United States."
JAMES MONROE, fifth president of the United States, was born in Westmore- land county, Virginia, April 28, 1758. At the age of sixteen he entered William and Mary College, but two years later the Declaration of Independence having been adopted, he left college and hastened to New York where he joined Washington's army as a military cadet.
At the battle of Trenton Monroe per- formed gallant service and received a wound in the shoulder, and was promoted to a captaincy. He acted as aide to Lord Ster- ling at the battles of Brandywine, German- town and Monmouth. Washington then sent him to Virginia to raise a new regiment of which he was to be colonel. The ex- hausted condition of Virginia made this iin- possible, but he received his commission. He next entered the law office of Thomas Jefferson to study law, as there was no open- ing for him as an officer in the army. In
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1782 he was elected to the Virginia assem- bly, and the next year he was elected to the Continental congress. Realizing the inade- quacy of the old articles of confederation, he advocated the calling of a convention to consider their revision, and introduced in congress a resolution empowering congress to regulate trade, lay import duties, etc. This resolution was referred to a committee, of which he was chairman, and the report led to the Annapolis convention, which called a general convention to meet at Phila- delphia in 1787, when the constitution was drafted. Mr. Monroe began the practice of law at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was soon after elected to the legislature, and ap- pointed as one of the committee to pass upon the adoption of the constitution. He opposed it, as giving too much power to the central government. He was elected to the United States senate in 1789, where he allied himself with the Anti-Federalists or "Republicans," as they were sometimes called. Although his views as to neutrality between France and England were directly opposed to those of the president, yet Wash- ington appointed him minister to France. His popularity in France was so great that the antagonism of England and her friends in this country brought about his recall. He then became governor of Virginia. He was sent as envoy to France in ISo2; minister to England in 1803; and envoy to Spain in 1805. The next year he returned to his estate in Virginia, and with an ample in- heritance enjoyed a few years of repose. He was again called to be governor of Virginia, and was then appointed secretary of state by President Madison. The war with Eng- land soon resulted, and when the capital was burned by the British, Mr. Monroe be- carne secretary of war also, and planned the measures for the defense of New Orleans.
The treasury being exhausted and credit gone, he pledged his own estate, and thereby made possible the victory of Jackson at New Orleans.
In 1817 Mr. Monroe became president of the United States, having been a candi- date of the "Republican " party, which at that time had begun to be called the " Demo- cratic " party. In 1820 he was re-elected, having two hundred and thirty-one electoral votes out of two hundred and thirty-two. His administration is known as the "Era of good-feeling," and party lines were almost wiped out. The slavery question began to assume importance at this time, and the Missouri Compromise was passed. The famous " Monroe Doctrine" originated in a great state paper of President Monroe upon the rumored interference of the Holy Alli- ance to prevent the formation of free repub- lics in South America. President Monroe acknowledged their independence, and pro- mulgated his great "Doctrine," which has been held in reverence since. Mr. Monroe's death occurred in New York on July 4, 1831.
THOMAS ALVA EDISON, the master wizard of electrical science and whose name is synonymous with the subjugation of electricity to the service of man, was born in 1847 at Milan, Ohio, and it was at Port Huron, Michigan, whither his parents had moved in 1854, that his self-education began-for he never attended school for more than two months. He eagerly de- voured every book he could lay his hands on and is said to have read through an encyclo- pedia without missing a word. At thirteen he began his working life as a trainboy upon the Grand Trunk Railway between Port Huron and Detroit. Much of his time was now spent in Detroit, where he found increased facilities for reading at the public libraries.
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He was not content to be a newsboy, so he got together three hundred pounds of type and started the issue of the "Grand Trunk Herald." It was only a small amateur weekly, printed on one side, the impression being made from the type by hand. Chemi- cal research was his next undertaking and a laboratory was added to his movable pub- lishing house, which, by the way, was an old freight car. One day, however, as he - was experimenting with some phosphorus, it ignited and the irate conductor threw the young seeker after the truth, chemicals and all, from the train. His office and laboratory were then removed to the cellar of his fa- ther's house. As he grew to manhood he decided to become an operator. He won his opportunity by saving the life of a child, whose father was an old operator, and out of · gratitude he gave Mr. Edison lessons in teleg- raphy. Five months later he was compe- tent to fill a position in the railroad office at Port Huron. Hence he peregrinated to Stratford, Ontario, and thence successively to Adrian, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Cin- cinnati, Memphis, Louisville and Boston, gradually becoming an expert operator and gaining experience that enabled him to evolve many ingenious ideas for the im- provement of telegraphic appliances. At -Memphis he constructed an automatic re- peater, which enabled Louisville and New Orleans to communicate direct, and received nothing more than the thanks of his em- ployers. Mr. Edison came to New York in 1870 in search of an opening more suitable to his capabilities and ambitions. He hap- pened to be in the office of the Laws Gold Reporting Company when one of the in- struments got out of order, and even the inventor of the system could not make it work. Edison requested to be allowed to attempt the task, and in a few minutes he
'had overcome the difficulty and secured an advantageous engagement. For several years he had a contract with the Western Union and the Gold Stock companies, whereby he received a large salary, besides a special price for all telegraphic improve- ments he could suggest. Later, as the head of the Edison General Electric com- pany, with its numerous subordinate organ- izations and connections all over the civil- ized world, he became several times a millionaire. Mr. Edison invented the pho- nograph and kinetograph which bear his name, the carbon telephone, the tasimeter, and the duplex and quadruplex systems of telegraphy.
JAMES LONGSTREET, one of the most conspicuous of the Confederate generals during the Civil war, was born in 1820, in South Carolina, but was early taken by his parents to Alabama where he grew to man- hood and received his early education. He graduated at the United States military academy in 1842, entering the army as lieutenant and spent a few years in the fron- tier service. When the Mexican war broke out he was called to the front and partici- pated in all the principal battles of that war up to the storming of Chapultepec, where he received severe wounds. For gallant conduct at Contreras, Cherubusco, and Mo- lino del Rey he received the brevets of cap- tain and major. After the close of the Mexican war Longstreet served as adjutant and captain on frontier service in Texas un- til 1858 when he was transferred to the staff as paymaster with rank of major. In June, 1861, he resigned to join the Confederacy and immediately went to the front, com- manding a brigade at Bull Run the follow- ing month. Promoted to be major-general in 1862 he thereafter bore a conspicuous
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part and rendered valuable service to the Confederate cause. He participated in many of the most severe battles of the Civil war including Bull Run (first and second), Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill, Fraziers Farm, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Frederickburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, Petersburg and most of the fighting about Richmond.
When the war closed General Long- street accepted the result, renewed his alle- giance to the government, and thereafter labored earnestly to obliterate all traces of war and promote an era of good feeling be- tween all sections of the country. He took up his residence in New Orleans, and took an active interest and prominent part in public affairs, served as surveyor of that port for several years; was commissioner of engineers for Louisiana, served four years as school commissioner, etc. In 1875 he was appointed supervisor of internal revenue and settled in Georgia. After that time he served four years as United States minister to Turkey, and also for a number of years was United States marshal of Georgia, be- sides having held other important official positions.
JOHN RUTLEDGE, the second chief- justice of the United States, was born at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1739. He was a son of John Rutledge, who had left Ireland for America about five years prior to the birth of our subject, and a brother of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Rut- ledge received his legal education at the Temple, London, after which he returned to Charleston and soon won distinction at the bar. He was elected to the old Colonial congress in 1765 to protest against the "Stamp Act," and was a member of the
South Carolina convention of 1774, and of the Continental congress of that and the succeeding year. In 1776 he was chairman of the committee that draughted the con- stitution of his state, and was president of the congress of that state. He was not pleased with the state constitution, how- ever, and resigned. In 1779 he was again chosen governor of the state, and granted extraordinary powers, and he at once took the field to repel the British. He joined the army of General Gates in 1782, and the same year was elected to congress. He was a member of the constitutional con- vention which framed our present constitu- tion. In 1789 he was appointed an associate justice of the first supreme court of the United States. He resigned to accept the position of chief-justice of his own state. Upon the resignation of Judge Jay, he was appointed chief-justice of the United States in 1795. The appointment was never con- firmed, for, after presiding at one session, his mind became deranged, and he was suc- ceeded by Judge Ellsworth. He died at Charleston, July 23, 1800.
R ALPH WALDO EMERSON was one of the most noted literary men of his time. He was born in Boston, Massachu- setts, May 25, 1803. He had a minister for an ancestor, either on the paternal or ina- ternal side, in every generation for eight generations back. His father, Rev. Will- iam Emerson, was a native of Concord, Massachusetts, born May 6, 1769, graduated at Harvard, in 1789, became a Unitarian minister; was a fine writer and one of the best orators of his day; died in 1811.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was fitted for college at the public schools of Boston, and graduated at Harvard College in 1821, win- ning about this time several prizes for es-
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says. For five years he taught school in Boston; in 1826 was licensed to preach, and in 1829 was ordained as a colleague to Rev. Henry Ware of the Second Unitarian church in Boston. In 1832 he resigned, making the announcement in a sermon of his un- willingness longer to administer the rite of the Lord's Supper, after which he spent about a year in Europe. Upon his return he began his career as a lecturer before the Boston Mechanics Institute, his subject be- ing "Water." His early lectures on " Italy" and « Relation of Man to the Globe " also attracted considerable attention; as did also his biographical lectures on Michael Angelo, Milton, Luther, George Fox, and Edmund Burke. After that time he gave many courses of lectures in Boston and became one of the best known lecturers in America. But very few men have rendered such con- tinued service in this field. He lectured for forty successive seasons before the Salem, Massachusetts, Lyceum and also made re- peated lecturing tours in this country and in England. In 1835 Mr. Emerson took up his residence at Concord, Massachusetts, where he continued to make his home until his death which occurred April 27, 1882.
Mr. Emerson's literary work covered a wide scope. He wrote and published many works, essays and poems, which rank high among the works of American literary men. A few of the many which he produced are the following: "Nature;" "The Method of Nature;" "Man Thinking;" "The Dial;" "Essays;" "Poems;" "English Traits;" "The Conduct of Life;" "May-Day and other Poems " and "Society and Solitude;" besides many others. He was a prominent member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society and other kindred associations.
A LEXANDER T. STEWART, one of the famous merchant princes of New York, was born near the city of Belfast, Ire- land, in 1803, and before he was eight years of age was left an orphan without any near relatives, save an aged grandfather. The grandfather being a pious Methodist wanted to make a minister of young Stewart, and accordingly put him in a school with that end in view and he graduated at Trinity Col- lege, in Dublin. When scarcely twenty years of age he came to New York. His first employment was that of a teacher, but accident soon made him a merchant. En- tering into business relations with an ex- perienced man of his acquaintance he soon found himself with the rent of a store on his hands and alone in a new enterprise. Mr. Stewart's business grew rapidly in all directions, but its founder had executive ability sufficient for any and all emergencies, and in time his house became one of the greatest mercantile establishments of mod- ern times, and the name of Stewart famous. Mr. Stewart's death occurred April 10, 1876.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. -- In speaking of this noted American nov- elist, William Cullen Bryant said: "He wrote for mankind at large, hence it is that he has earned a fame wider than any Amer- ican author of modern times. The crea- tions of his genius shall survive through centuries to come, and only perish with our language." Another eminent writer (Pres- cott) said of Cooper: " In his productions every American must take an honest pride; *for surely no one has succeeded like Cooper in the portraiture of American character, or has given such glowing and eminently truth- ful pictures of American scenery." -
James Fenimore Cooper was born Sep-
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