USA > Indiana > A History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922 > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
"Keep them keep them Indiana, Lay them on thy proudest shrine, For a dim and distant future No holier gift is thine. Thy fair-thy peerless daughters Wrought those stars of gleaming gold
And thy noblest sons fought bravely Beneath each waving fold."
I end here my reminiscences of the early Evansville. They, prob- ably are not of much value to any one but myself, and perhaps a few of the very old residents. Some parts may not be strictly accurate, but it's hard to think back sixty-five years, and take up the exact threads in the net of life then woven by others. Perhaps not many are left to recognize the people, places and events I've mentioned in these papers-but these same people were the founders and early builders mental, moral and physical of your magnificent city of today.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE EVANSVILLE WHITTLESEYS
John Whittlesey, the progenitor of the Whittlesey family of America, was born in Cambridge, England, came to this country in 1635, with Robert Lord's Say & Seal Company, and settled at Say- brook, Conn.
His oldest son John, was an officer in the Indian war of that period -proclaimed, and commissioned Colonel by the General Assembly- Colonial records of Connecticut, 1717.
In the early thirties of last century there came across the Alle- ghanies and down the Ohio river to the then small town of Evans- ville, the family of Dr. John Lindsley and wife and his six children. After looking about for a desirable location on which to settle, they bought property in the small hamlet of Mechanicsville, afterwards familiarly known as Stringtown, three miles due north from the Evans- ville Court House .. Dr. Lindsley soon became the leading physician for southern Vanderburgh county and continued in his profession until his death in 1860. He was a deeply pious man of Presbyterian faith -- connected with New School Presbyterians of Evansville. This school had recently become detached from the former Presbyterians who styled themselves the Old School, and were under the leadership of the Rev. Mr. Dodge. The N. S. built and worshiped in a new Church on 2nd Street, just south of Main. This Church Dr. Lindsley attended until his death. He and his wife driving in in the old rig, every Sabbath morning, accepting an invitation to dine, with some one of the leading Church families ,then attending afternoon service, and returning home in the cool of the evening. This was continued with scarcely an interruption for thirty years. Rev. Mr. McCarrer, min- ister of the church, was his life long friend. Dr. Lindsley was one of
78
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
the first elders of the Church. I am told his portrait still hangs in the parlors of the more recent Church edifice on Locust street.
Mr. McCarrer was one of the ministers who made a lasting im- pression on my childish mind. I heard my mother say, he was "won- derfully gifted in prayer"-I knew what gifts meant, and I used to watch for them whenever Mr. McCarrer prayed, and wonder why I never found them-perhaps I found them in after years. The other Minister was old Father Wheeler. I would call him the Village Priest -but that he belonged to the Methodist persuasion. He lived in Evans- ville-but year after year through winter storms and under summer suns he walked the long three miles to preach the "word" in the little Stringtown Church-which was open to all the sects and creeds. I never knew when he passed away, but his spirit must still linger around that hallowed spot-for I understand the little old Church is still standing, but this is a digression.
The rambling old country home of the Lindsleys and Whittleseys, was long a favorite outing place of the Presbyterian Church people. Dozens of them driving out from Evansville with their hampers enjoy- ing the hospitable welcome, and making merry under the grand old cedars, that grew upon the lawn, which they named the "Cedars of Lebanon."
The other family who settled on this spot, and builded a continua- tion of the Lindsley homestead, was Mrs. Lindsley's son William Eras- tus Whittlesey, by her first husband-Captain of the Ship Mohawk, lost with all on board in a hurricane off the West India Islands in 1806. The son William E. married Catharine Gillespie, a direct descendant of Anaka Jans, and an heir to the disputed New York Trinity Church Corporation's fame and fortune.
Mr. Whittlesey was a surveyor and civil engineer, and much of the land in Vanderburgh and surrounding counties was surveyed and staked off by him. Also many parts of Evansville proper viz. the Longwoth tract and Lamasco. He was present when the name of the latter subdivision of the town was decided upon. Three prominent men who owned the major part of the land met to decide upon an appropriate name, but couldn't come to a decision. Mr. Whittlesey suggested that they united the first letters of their own three names into a name for the new subdivision. After some little figuring they selected La- for Law, Ma- for Mason, and Sco- for Scott, forming Lamasco. This name was so well liked that many of the inhabitants wished to have the coming city re-named Lamasco as more appropri- ate for a city than the name Evansville-but that name had become too widely known to be easily changed for a whim of the people. Of Mr. and Mrs. Whittlesey's children eight in all, the two oldest girls mar- ried Jonathan and Thomas Jaquess, brothers-of the old mercantile firm of Merrit, Morris & Jaquess-later Jaquess and Hudspeth. The Jaquess families are so closely connected with the interests of the city in its formative period, and widely known. Although I could give many interesting events and incidents connected with them, this short
79
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
paper will not admit of it. Doubtless they will be written up by an abler pen than mine.
The eldest son John L. Whittlesey enlisted in the Union Army of the Civil War-at the end of three years reinlisted for the war's dura- ation.
William G. studied law with the Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, was admitted to the bar and practiced in Washington D. C. He married Sarah Houston of that city, a niece of Gen. Sam Houston of Texas fame. The third son A. T. Whittlesey, was editorial writer for the Evansville Enquirer from 1854-61 -- practiced law several years, was Evansville's civil Engineer and Surveyor from '63 to '67, City P. M. from '67 to '69, then Editor of the Daily Courier until his appointment as Secretary to Hon. T. A. Hendricks governor of Indiana in 1877. In 1865 he was appointed Adjutant General of Indiana with rank of Col. and in 1873 completely broke up the White Cap organization with- out the aid of firearms.
Quite a number of the descendants of Wm. and Catharine Whit- tlesey have attained fame and notice in the Navy, Ministry, Army, Law, as teachers and by marriage, but these are of too recent occur- rence to be classed as reminiscences of the old Evansville.
Respectfully, Mrs. M. C. Hamlin (Phebe Whittlesey).
1920 Haste St., Berkeley, Alameda Co., Cal.
A SOCIAL GROUP
About the beginning of the Civil war, in Evansville's social life were the Shanklin boys-James, who was an advocate of superior ability, though young, a leader of the bar, who died young, leaving a family, and George and John Gilbert, who later owned and edited The Evansville Courier. Both were talented men. John Gilbert Shanklin became secretary of the state of Indiana, and was one of the most cul- tured and brilliant men who were ever born in Evansville.
Robert K. Dunkerson was a true Kentucky cavalier, was president of the old National Bank when he died, was always successful in busi- ness, but his nature was broad and never narrowed by the sordid influ- ence and little things of trade.
August Lemcke became treasurer of the state of Indiana and with his intimate friend John Ingle, Jr., son of the railroad builder, was like the others mentioned, one of the leaders in the brilliant social life of the city when it was smaller.
Among others who might be named, somewhat older, were Charles Denby, Thomas E. Garvin, and Blythe Hynes, men of great ability and brilliant in social life. Charles Denby and Robert M. Ev- ans were each born in Botetourt County, Virginia, though fifty years apart. Evans was a Virginia cavalier of the eighteenth century, who lived into the nineteenth century, and Denby was a Virginia cavalier of the nineteenth century, who lived into the twentieth.
Mr. Edward E. Law, like the Shanklins, Dunkerson and Denby,
80
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
was a giant over six feet in height, and while gentle mannered and unassuming, he had the stately dignity to which a distinguished an- cestry and intellectual and social graces entitled him.
In his intimacy with all of the members of the circle mentioned, as well as a still wider circle of friends, he was a universal favorite. While for many years he was not active in the courts, his office was as well known throughout the community as any other of the older citi- zens. He outlived most of the men of his own age, but his later friends found him to the last the same genial spirit and delightful companion with the spirit of youth in old age.
The members of the Bar of southwestern Indiana who practiced in many of the county seats from the beginning of the state, comprised many men of the highest character and ability, who left their impress on the social life and institutions of the time. Evansville early became the center of such a group of men. Amos Clark, Judge Battell, the Jones brothers (William T. T. and James G.), and John Ingle were here in the beginning. John J. Chandler lived here in his early child- hood, moved away with his parents, but in the late thirties returned and lived all his mature life here.
In the forties came Thomas E. Garvin, Conrad Baker, Horatio Q. Wheeler, James E. Blythe, Morris S. Johnson, with others, who in due course became leaders with Jones, Chandler, and others, who at- tained prominence in the Evansville Bar and throughout the state, and all of them bright ornaments in the intellectual and social life in the city.
In 1853 came two young men to practice law in Evansville --- Charles Denby and Blythe Hynes. Charles Denby is elsewhere re- ferred to as a member of the social circle of that period here, and is described as a cavalier of the nineteenth century, who lived into the twentieth. No less so was Blythe Hynes, a brilliant and magnetic per- sonality at the Bar and on the platform, described in the address de- livered by Charles Denby after his death as the Cicero of the Evans- ville Bar. He was equally brilliant and magnetic in the social life of the city, like Denby, he was a true cavalier in instinct and spirit ; he died in the prime of his life.
The friendship between Charles Denby and Thomas E. Garvin be- gan in 1853 when Denby studied law in the office of Baker and Gar- vin, and continued until Denby's death. The friendship so beautifully outlined in Denby's address on the death of Hynes was continued also with Garvin until Denby's death, and the families of Denby and Garvin were most intimate. Thomas E. Garvin was a college bred man, a leading factor in the business and professional world in which he lived, was a fine lawyer, and a scholarly man, but in his mature life was not active in the litigated practice, preferring to deal in more profitable lines of money making, in which he was very successful.
Charles Denby was one of the superb characters of the state of In- diana from his entrance to his death. As a lawyer and advocate, he was one of the most distinguished and successful men who ever lived in Evansville or southwestern Indiana. The writer came to the Evans-
81
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
ville Bar when Denby was among an able Bar its leading jury lawyer, in his prime, and he studied the man at his best, and his methods for thirty years as an adversary at the same bar. He was tall, over six feet, with a heavy and large frame, finely proportioned, smooth faced, and very handsome. His personal dignity never left him, and his grave and dignified manner with juries and the judges commanded always interested hearers to his speeches.
He had early edited a newspaper in Evansville and had made friends with the men of his time, many of whom had been associated with him or had learned to know him before he rose to the command- ing position he later occupied in the professional and social life of the community. It was a difficult matter to empanel a jury in Evansville upon which there was not one or more men with whom Colonel Denby had not been personally intimate and did not in his impassioned ap- peals have an influence which often swayed them beyond the reach of his opponent, and the writer has seen him when he could not get a ver- dict for his client, and he apparently realized the fact, openly and very adroitly appeal to some man on the jury to stand firm, who in the sequel hung the jury. He was a most dangerous adversary in a close case in which his ingenuity and tact and strong personality gave to his persuasive appears great power over men.
The writer never understood the full sources of his power until at the Bar meeting after his death when the late Judge Peter Maier, who came to Evansville in 1861, who as a young Democratic politician had been associated with Denby beginning in the early sixties, talked for an hour of his knowledge of him in the social, political, and intellectual life of the city in the earlier period. Unfortunately, no report was taken of that address.
Denby's rank as a leader of the Indiana Bar was recognized every- where. When Cleveland was elected President, Denby sought an ap- pointment as foreign minister as a relaxation as he became older from the great strain upon him as a trial lawyer. His own estimate of the duties of a lawyer are finely stated in his address upon the death of Blythe Hynes elsewhere set out, and most of his fine descriptions of the character of Hynes are applicable directly to himself, and of these he was a shining example.
It is said that when he met Grover Cleveland for the first time in the White House, the President was so impressed with the splendid appearance and personality of the man, that his appointment as Min- ister to China came with little further effort. When President Harri- son succeeded Cleveland, he knew Colonel Denby well personally, and by reputation, and at his party's demand, he reluctantly nominated a Republican as successor to Colonel Denby as Minister to China, but the nominee was pronounced non grata to the Chinese government on account of some utterance he had made while senator in the Senate of the United States, and President Harrison, who as the writer knows greatly admired Denby and recognized his fitness for, and popularity in, the office refused to nominate another man, but permitted Denby to serve during his presidential term of four years, as he did also
ยท
82
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGHI COUNTY
through Cleveland's second term, and one year after, in all sixteen years, an unusual record.
Colonel Denby told the writer that a large part of his duties as such ambassador, was to act as judge under the laws of the United States operative in China where the parties were subject to the juris- diction of the courts of the United States, a duty in the performance of which he stated he took interest and pleasure.
High as was his standing as an advocate and trial lawyer and suc- cessful and popular as he was as Minister to China, and as Commis- sioner to the Philippines under Mckinley, he ranked second to none in the admiration of the entire community as a citizen and neighbor. Here his superb personality, his genial gracious and dignified manners attached him to the wide circle of the people of all classes. No man in the community was more respected or admired.
In the narrower circle of his friends whose companionship occupied much of his leisure time, he shone conspicuously and in his social life and as a citizen among his neighbors, he may be said to have, if pos- sible, risen to the crowning point of his career.
Charles Denby was born at Mt. Joy ( Botetourt County), Virginia, June 16, 1830, son of Nathaniel and Jane (Harvey) Denby. His father was a merchant residing at Richmond, Virginia. His mother was a daughter of Matthew Harvey of Mt. Joy. Harvey was one of Lee's legion during the revolutionary war, and one of his brothers fought in the patriotic ranks, and was killed at the Battle of Cowpens.
Charles Denby was educated at the Academy of Taylorsville, Vir- ginia, at Georgetown, D. C., where he spent the years of 1843-45- this college has since conferred upon him the degree of L. L. D .- and at the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington. Virginia. He grad- uated in 1850 and went to Selma, Alabama, where he was for two years a professor in the university there.
In June, 1853, he settled in Evansville, was employed as editor of the Evansville Enquirer. He learned to set type and frequently set up his own editorials. While doing this work he studied law in the office of Baker & Garvin. He was admitted to the Bar and began the prac- tice of the law in 1856 in partnership with Judge Lockhart. The same year he was elected to the state legislature, and he held the position of Collector of the Port under Buchanan.
The day after Fort Sumter fell, he raised a regiment and engaged in drilling troops at the fair grounds near Evansville. In September, 1861, he was appointed by Governor Morton, lieutenant-colonel of the 42nd Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. He engaged in active and hon- orable service during the war, and at the Battle of Perryville he was wounded by a minnie ball, and his horse was killed under him. A few days later he was promoted to the position of colonel of the 80th Indi- ana Regiment. In February, 1863, he retired on a certificate of dis- ability and returned to the practice of the law. He died at James- town, New York, on January 13, 1904, to which place he had gone under an engagement to deliver a public lecture. He left descendants Hattie Denby Wilkes, now deceased, who left children, the late Gra-
83
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
ham Denby of this city : Charles Denby, now in the U. S. diplomatic service ; Edwin Denby, now secretary of the U. S. Navy; and Garvin and Wyth Denby.
Colonel Denby's Address Oct. 24, 1876, on the Death of Blythe Hynes.
MY BRETHREN OF THE BAR: We have met together again to take an apportionate action upon the occasion of the death of one of our number. More than men engaged in other occupations of life, do we feel the vacancy created by death. We are intimately associated together. Our life work is done in each other's presence and in the public eye. And enduring memorials remain of the departed lawyer in the reports of the cases he tried, in the recorded judgments-silent monuments to his fame-in the pleading fresh from his pen, which are forever preserved among the records of the court. Thus it happens that grief fills a wider circle, when a lawyer dies, than when others -- even the more distinguished are taken away. This intimate associa- tion is apt also to beget warm friendships, as it surely did in the exam- ple of our departed brother. Outside of his immediate circle of his be- reaved family there are no heavier hearts today than those which are gathered here to offer up sad, but faint tribute to his memory. Death is coming to us with miserable frequency. But a short time ago we laid L. C. Stinson sadly and kindly in his grave, then Luke Wood, just stepping into the professional arena, which he would have dignified and adorned, was stopped on the threshold; and now the insatiate archer has stricken down the noblest quarry of all-the brightest, the gentlest, the kindest of the survivors.
I knew Blythe Hynes long and well. We were law students here at the same time in 1853. We were friends from the first, and became exceedingly intimate. Some time in 1854 we began to room together, and thenceforth, were room-mates and bed-fellows until September, 1858.
Nearer, and if possible, dearer ties, severed us then, and with the cares of family and business this close intimacy became somewhat per- plexed. But "It doth joy my heart"-now that he is dead to be able to say that the friendship, thus begun, did not wane or weaken to the final hour. While memories live I will not cease to recall and to cher- ish the gentle, sweet and loving intercourse which bound us as young men to each other. Those years of youth pass before me now-a panorama of happy association and refined companionship with his gentle heart and cultivated intellect. Across that current, so far as he was concerned, there did not come one act that, dying, he would wish to blot from memory. He did not write one page of his life's history that might not be read to his honor on earth or in heaven.
He was singularly a favorite with all men. Political opinions, re- ligious differences, class distinctions were not barriers to his entrance into any circle. Whatever the time or the occasion or the company he was welcome. His utter want of bitterness on any subject, his in-
84
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
finite good nature, his genial disposition were passports to every heart. The sunchine followed him as he went his way and lingered on his path.
He was a lawyer, bred to the bar. No other distinct occupation ever came between him and the jealous mistress of the law, to whom he gave himself, a loving votary, in the first year of this manhood. And he illustrated in his professional life the kindly traits I have men- tioned. In all the manifold complications of adverse interests, in all the clashing of the encounter here, in all the fierce battles of the Fo- rum-when, sometimes, large amounts were involved and large inter- ests abided the issue-who of us can now remember that he offended the feelings of any man, or did personal wrong to one of us ?
He carried anger As the flint bears fire, Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, And straightway is cold again.
He was the Cicero of this bar. He was lucid, earnest and eloquent. In impassioned argument to the jury his voice had a remarkable sweet- ness. It rang out in clarion notes and persuasive tones. In the Barner Will case, and in the defense of Buzan, and many other cases, he rose to the highest eminence of the advocate. His language was chaste and scholarly. He had a sense of humor, was a master of its twin sister. Pathos.
As a mere lawyer, and apart from the accomplishments-for whose exercise such great scope is afforded at the bar-he was in the front rank. In natural intellect he was the equal of any man that I have known.
He did not, perhaps, in later years devote such study to the law as a science as it demands of those who would occupy its highest seats, but on special cases and in causes worthy of the labor, he was wonder- fully patient, minute and exhaustive. As a man and as a citizen, he was above reproach in every relation of life. I shall not obtrude into his family circle, or tell you-who knew him so well-what a devoted husband and father he was. The traits that made us love him here were beautiful and glorified around his domestic hearthstone. No man more thoroughly or conscientiously did his duty to all who were con- nected with or dependent on him.
His life was singularly pure. Temptation passed him by un- scathed. He loved music. He gave much of his time to the church choir, much to the concert in aid of the poor. The concord of sweet sounds charmed his soul. The great dramatist has told us that such men are not fit for treason, strategems, or spoils. His life was un- eventful, except so far that it touched the stormy billows of our great Civil war.
He was born at Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky, the 10th day of November, 1832. He graduated at St. Joseph's College in 1850, came to Evansville and studied law with Messrs. Jones and
85
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
Blythe. He died Sunday morning, October 22, 1876. In 1860 he was elected prosecuting attorney of this Judicial Circuit. During the war he was Provost Marshall for a considerable time, and afterwards be- came Major in the 136th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. No more ardent patriot marched beneath the flag of his country. No braver or truer heart bore aloft the standard of the Union. He could not if he would be a bitter partisan when the struggle was over, but while it lasted he forgot the soil on which he was born, turned his back on the ties of blood which in Kentucky the Civil war had severed in every family and particularly in his own, and remembered only that he was an American citizen.
He did his duty more in sorrow than in anger, but he did it utterly, completely, and conscientiously. In October, 1864, he was elected clerk of this county and served as such for four years. This was one mistake of a life of labor. Our profession pardons no divergence, ad- mits no divided allegiance, demands a perfect consecration of her vo- taries, and yields her claims upon her followers only to patriotic duty. When the country calls to war the Bar makes almost universal answer. But peace should find them again enforcing the voice of law, which is never silent except amid flashing arms. No breath of suspicion of wrong doing ever touched him in official life. Clean-handed and clean-hearted he lived and died. Upon that frank and manly brow shame would have been ashamed to sit.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.