A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume I, Part 113

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > Indiana > A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume I > Part 113

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WRslough

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

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better than gold to pave his way to eminence and suc- cess. He had indomitable energy and laudable ambi- tion to distinguish himself and achieve a prominent position in his profession. How well these have served his purpose those who know him can attest. In the month of September, 1856, he began the study of law in the office of Captain R. A. Riley, in the town of Greenfield. As his friends predicted, he made remark- able progress in his studies, and was admitted in due time to the bar of the Hancock Circuit Court, and began the practice as a partner of Captain Riley. Prior to 1860 he was twice in succession appointed by the commissioners of Hancock County to the office of school examiner, and served acceptably in that position for two years. In 1860 he was, without solicitation on his part, nominated by the Republican party for the office of district attorney for the district composed of the coun- ties of Hancock, Madison, Henry, Rush, and Decatur. He was elected by a large majority of the votes cast in that district, and discharged the duties for the term of two years, to the entire satisfaction of all good citizens. At the expiration of his term of office as district attor- ney, having married in the mean time, he declined a sec- ond nomination, and settled down to the earnest pursuit of his duties as an attorney, and for the next ten or eleven years, from 1861 to the fall of 1872, did an im- mense amount of professional labor, both in his office and at the bar, where he was eminently successful, hav- ing the reputation of making some of the ablest argu- ments in important cases, both criminal and civil, that have ever been made in the county. In the year 1872 he was the nominee of the Republican party for state Senator, in the district composed of Hancock and Henry Counties, and was elected by a large majority, running much above his ticket. He served four years as Sen- ator, there being two regular and two special sessions of the Legislature during his term of office. As a leg- islator, Mr. Hough was recognized, not only as an able debater but as a man of marked executive ability, as is evidenced by the fact that he was placed upon several of the most important committees, where his action was characterized by skill and faithfulness to the trust of his positions. Mr. Hough has never been a candidate for other offices than those to which he was elected as stated. He has been an earnest and enthusiastic Re- publican since the organization of that party, and cast his first vote for President for John C. Fremont. He is an honored member of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, joining that order in 1860. In religion he is liberal. His views perhaps more nearly accord with the Unitarian faith than any other. He has, how- ever, been a liberal supporter, financially, of the vari- ous religious denominations of his home, contributing generously toward the erection of their churches. He was married, on the 26th of March, 1862, to Miss Tillie

C. McDowell, who was born near Edinburgh, Scotland. Mrs. Hough is a lady of refined tastes and accomplish- ments, and is in every way fitted to preside over her elegant and hospitable home. They have an interesting family of three children, two sons-William A., aged fifteen; Clarence A., aged thirteen-and a daughter, Mabel, aged six years. As before intimated, Mr. Hough is an eloquent speaker and logical reasoner, has marked literary and forensic ability, and is eminently successful alike at the bar and upon the lecture plat- form. He is public-spirited and benevolent, contrib- uting to the success of all worthy enterprises, and is one of the most earnest and eloquent friends of the public schools of the county and state, which interests he has ably advocated and defended as a legislator, a lec- turer, and in his capacity of private citizen. He has been remarkably successful, not only in his professional and public career, but also financially-having by his own exertions, and with strict probity, achieved a hand- some competence-and is one of the largest tax-payers in the county. Socially, he is genial and pleasant, always gentlemanly in his manner, and has the happy faculty, not only of making friends, but of binding them to him by his good qualities of head and heart.

OWARD, NOBLE P., physician and surgeon, Greenfield, was born in Warren County, Ohio, September 11, 1822. His parents were George W. and Susannah Howard. His father was one of the first settlers of Cincinnati, removing to that place from Baltimore, Maryland. During the War of 1812 he was a soldier in the American army, and died while the subject of this sketch was still very young. Noble P. Howard came to Indiana with his mother in 1836, and was educated at Brookville, Franklin County, where he received a good English education. In 1840 he began the study of medicine with the eminent and well-known Doctor H. G. Sexton, of Rushville, In- diana, where he read for three years. From his earliest youth he had a great inclination toward a professional life, and under the skillful training of his able preceptor he made rapid advancement in his studies. In 1843 he removed to Greenfield, Hancock County, his present home, and began the practice of medicine and surgery. Notwithstanding the disadvantages of limited circum- stances, by his energy and strict attention to his pro- fessional duties he soon won for himself a prominent position in the medical practice of the county, and has been eminently successful, both in his profession and in business matters generally. That he has earned the confidence of his medical contemporaries is evidenced by the fact that he has from time to time been placed in prominent and responsible positions by them. In 1877

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he was vice-president of the Indiana State Medical Soci- ety ; has served as president of the Union Medical Soci- ety of Hancock and Henry Counties, and also as pres- ident of the Hancock Medical Society. He also holds a diploma from the college of Physicians and Surgeons and the Indiana Medical College, both of Indianap- olis. He is also a member of the American Medical Association. He has also held several official posi- tions in other departments of life. In October, 1862, he was commissioned as assistant surgeon in the 12th Reg- iment Indiana Volunteers, and served during its term of enlistment, doing eminent service in his profession during the campaign through Maryland and Virginia. On the reorganization of the regiment he was recom- missioned, but, his home duties demanding his attention, he declined to accept the offer. He was deputy collec- tor of internal revenue, serving under collectors The- odore P. Haughey, J. J. Wright, Austin H. Brown, and Charles F. Hogate, the whole time covering a period of about eight years. Doctor Howard has manifested great interest in all that tended toward the advance- ment of the public interest, having taken stock in nearly all the gravel roads centering at Greenfield, and con- tributed largely toward the building of churches and other public edifices, and assisted materially in the de- velopment of the town and county. He is an honored member of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, join- ing that order in 1856, since which time he has filled all the offices in the subordinate lodge and encampment. In 1861 he was elected Most Worthy Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment of the state of Indiana, in which position he served with honor to himself and profit to the fraternity. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and does much for its interests. He was a Whig in the days of that party, and an earnest Union man during the Civil War. In 1856 he was a candidate on the Republican ticket for Representative, but, the county being Democratic, he was defeated by the Hon. Thomas D. Walpole. As a test of his personal popularity, it may be said that he received one hundred and forty-four more votes than were cast in his county for ex-Governor O. P. Morton, then a candidate for the first time for Governor of In- diana. He was a Republican until the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency, when his esteem for that great man induced him to support him, and he has since voted and acted with the Democratic party. He was married, April 23, 1844, to Miss Cinderella J. Good- ing, daughter of Asa and Matilda Gooding, and a sister of Judge D. S. Gooding, General O. P. Gooding, and Hon. H. C. Gooding. Doctor Iloward is now senior member of the medical firm of Howard, Martin & How- ard. He is a gentleman of firm convictions and un- compromising integrity, and stands high, both in his profession and as a man.

OLMES, WILLIAM CANADA, third son of a family of twelve children of William and Eliza- beth (Lyons) Holmes, was born at his father's old homestead on the national road, near Indianapo- lis, May 23, 1826. His father was a native of West- moreland County, Pennsylvania, but removed at an early age to Ohio, and in 1821 settled in what was then known as the New Purchase, now Marion County, about three miles west of Indianapolis, on Big Eagle Creek, where he resided until his death, in 1858. Mr. Holmes was among the first to volunteer his services in the famous Black Hawk War of 1831. No pioneer of the New Purchase lived more respected or died more regretted by his numerous friends than " Billy Holmes," as he was familiarly called. William Canada, when only seventeen years old, contracted with his father for the management of his saw-mill, and continued to run it until he was twenty years of age; in the mean time, when the mill was idle, going to school, he received a fair English education. When the time had expired for which he took the mill he had laid by a nice capital, besides extricating his father from financial embarrass- ment consequent upon the building of the mill; he then continued sixteen years longer in the lumber and milling business. In 1857 he purchased the old Isaac Pugh farm, and on it built one of the finest residences in Marion County. In 1865 Mr. Holmes purchased the interest of T. R. Fletcher in the Fourth National Bank of Indianapolis, and acted as president. Six months later this bank was consolidated with the Citizens' National Bank. One year after the consolidation he was elected president, which position he resigned two years later, in consequence of failing health, but is yet a direc- tor in the same institution. He then formed a part- nership with Messrs. Coffin & Landers, for the purpose of purchasing and packing pork, the firm name being Coffin, Holmes & Landers. In this firm he remained one year. He then formed another partnership, the name of the firm being Holmes, Pettit & Bradshaw. This house had a capacity for slaughtering, packing, and keeping through the sum- mer, fifty thousand hogs, the building and ground costing over one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Holmes has added much to the material growth of Indianapolis by the erection of several fine private houses, and a do- nation of twenty acres of land, with about forty thou- sand dollars, to aid in the erection of manufacturing es- tablishments-seven acres to the Novelty Iron Works, and thirteen acres to the Haugh Iron Railing Manufactory. Mr. Holmes was ever a man of acknowledged industry, strict integrity, and fine business capacity; but the shrewdest calculations have been disappointed, and the most glowing prospects blighted in seasons of financial depression, and Mr. Holmes, like thousands of others of equal ability and prudence, was unable to stem the

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Jours as Ever Alonzo Blair

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torrent of business disaster which recently paralyzed the industry of the country. As water finds its level, how- ever, Mr. Holmes is steadily, slowly, but surely recov- ering from the disasters which overtook him, and bids fair, if life and health are spared, again to take his place in the busy marts of trade among the solid busi- ness men of Indianapolis. Mr. Holmes was married, on December 15, 1849, to Catharine, second daughter of the venerable James Johnson. This union has been blessed with several children, six daughters and two sons, of whom five daughters and one son survive. Mr. Holmes is quite tall, but of slender build, florid complexion ; prepossessing in manner, frank and candid in his expressions, yet courteous to all; in social life hospitable and generous, and in his family the center of affection.

LAIR, ALONZO, deceased, late of Shelbyville, was born March 27, 1832, in Jackson County, Indiana. His parents were in poor circumstances, and he was deprived by his father's death of the aid which might reasonably have been expected. As soon as he was able he engaged in farm labor, working assidu- ously in the summer and attending school in the winter- something which nearly every man of importance in the state has done. Before he had attained his majority he was qualified to begin as a teacher, and that avocation he followed for a number of years. He taught in many of the townships of Shelby County, performing his du- ties thoroughly and well. In this occupation he gained many acquaintances; and those who knew him most intimately were not surprised when he obtained the nomination for clerk of the Circuit Court. Four years after he was re-elected, holding the office from 1859 to 1867. Upon retiring, he removed to Indianapolis, where he became the proprietor of a well-known hotel, the Palmer House. After a short time, becoming dissatis- fied with this business, he returned to Shelbyville, and entered upon the practice of law, soon reaching a high standing. He had also grown prominent in politics. He was a good reasoner, and had thought much and well upon the principles on which enactments should be founded. Mr. Blair was a man of positive will, confi- dent that his party, the Democratic, was right, and sure that its candidates were about to be elected. For this end he worked prodigiously. The views of all men of prominence in his organization were known to him; he counseled with them in the beginning of a struggle, and he fought with them when the field was at last taken. He was a most intense partisan, and was not ashamed of it. He was chairman of the Democratic central committee of Shelby County in 1876 and 1878; and during the Greeley campaign of the former year he was one of the ablest and hardest-worked members of

the general committee of the state. As a lawyer, he won distinction. He threw his whole soul into a case ; he adopted no half-way measures. His knowledge of the law was great; he was an industrious reader; and his memory retained many cases in which he had heard the pleadings. He had an excellent law library ; and no good book of that kind was issued that he did not order for his own use. Robert Clarke & Co., the larg- est booksellers in Cincinnati, say that he purchased more works on law than any other attorney in Indiana. Mr. Blair was a man of highly affectionate disposition ; he loved his family, and he liked children, a strong mark of a true man. He possessed an uncommon power of remembering names and faces, and was known to very many in the vicinity, to some of them most grate- fully. For years his carriage was to be seen at the funeral of every poor man, white or black, and he often granted aid to men not so successful as himself. A charitable society in New York sent out on one occasion a car-load of poor children, waifs of the streets. They were taken by the kindly disposed and provided with homes, all except one, a thin, dark-haired, and dark- eyed boy. Dinner-time came; the room where they were was almost deserted. The other children had found homes, but there was none for this little one. He began to cry, and Mr. Blair, touched with compas- sion, took him to his house. He clothed him and fed him ; he sent him to school, and from there to college. Afterwards the boy was reclaimed by his own relatives, a wealthy and distinguished family of the East, but the parting was bitter to one who had been like a father to him. He never could speak of the separation except with tears. Through his whole life he felt a warm in- terest in education. It had been his intention to at- tempt the foundation of a college in Shelbyville; but during the late financial crisis nothing could be done, and the project was of necessity deferred. His death occurred on the 10th of July, 1879. He left a wife and four children.

AKER, CONRAD, ex-Governor of Indiana, is a native of the Keystone State. He was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1817, was educated at the Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, and afterwards studied law in the office of Stevens & Smyser, of that city, his preceptors being the late Thaddeus Stevens and Judge Daniel M. Smyser. He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1839 at Gettysburg, and practiced at that place for two years. He emigrated West, and settled at Evansville in 1841, and resided there until the office of Governor devolved upon him by the election of Governor Morton to the United States Senate, in January, 1867, since which time he has resided at Indianapolis. In 1845 he was

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elected to represent Vanderburg County in the General to mar the good feeling or the social relations existing between them. It is seldom that a public man reaches the highest position in the gift of the people of his state without defamation or vituperation being hurled at him by his political opponents, especially when the passions and prejudices of the people are excited to the utmost tension, as was the case during the gubernatorial canvass of 1868, which was but a month previous to that of the presidential, when both political parties were straining every nerve, but such was the fact, that not the slightest charge of public or private misconduct was ever laid at the door of Governor Baker, although he had been the acting chief executive of the state for some time. His administration had been characterized as an upright, honest, and conscientious one, so much so that his opponent found nothing to attack but the measures of the party of which Governor Baker was the chosen representative. Since he retired from the execu- tive chair, he has been engaged in the practice of law with O. B. Hord, A. W. Hendricks, and ex-Governor Thomas A. Hendricks, the firm being Baker, Hord & Hendricks. Assembly, and served one term. In 1852 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the district comprising the counties of Warwick and Vanderburg, and served about eighteen months, when he resigned. In 1856 he was nominated for Lieutenant-governor by the Republican party, without his knowledge and with- out having sought the nomination, on the ticket which was headed by Oliver P. Morton as candidate for Gov- ernor. They were defeated, and Willard and Ham- mond were elected. In 1861 Mr. Baker was commis- sioned colonel of the Ist Cavalry, 28th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and served as such for over three years. From August, 1861, to April, 1863, he com- manded either his own regiment or a brigade in the field in Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi. In April, 1863, an order from the Secretary of War reached him by telegraph at Helena, Arkansas, requiring him to proceed forthwith to Indianapolis, Indiana, and report to the provost-marshal general. He obeyed the in- structions, and on his arrival at Indianapolis he re- ceived an order detailing him to act as assistant provost- marshal general for the state of Indiana, and as such to organize the provost-marshal general's bureau in this state. He performed the duties of provost-marshal LAKE, JAMES, one of the oldest, most promi- nent, and useful citizens of Indianapolis, was born in York (now Adams) County, Pennsylvania, March 3, 1791, and died at his residence in Indianapolis November 26, 1870. His father came from Ireland in 1774, and lived to the age of ninety-nine years, being among the earlier settlers of York County, Pennsylva- nia. While still a young man, James enlisted as a vol- unteer in the War of 1812, and marched to Baltimore when that city was threatened by the British forces, serving in the army until the declaration of peace, in 1815. Before entering the army he had worked as a wagoner, and at the close of the war resumed his old occupation on the Alleghanies, and for five years drove a six-horse team between the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In November, 1818 he set out on a horse- back tour to the far West, going as far as St. Louis, and returning to Pennsylvania in the following April, when he made arrangements for a permanent removal to the West. On the 25th of July, 1821, he settled at Indianapolis, where he resided until the day of his death. His his- tory for fifty years was the history of Indianapolis, and no citizen has ever been more closely identified with the rise and progress of the city and its philanthropic and benevolent institutions than he was. Mr. Blake be- longed to a class of men who are fast passing away, and upon whose like we shall never look again. The conditions out of which this sturdy race of pioneers grew have ceased to exist, the struggles of pioneer life are a thing of the past, and the frontiersmen of the West general, superintendent of volunteer recruiting, and chief mustering officer, until August, 1864, when, his term of military service having expired, he was relieved at his own request, and a few weeks afterwards he, together with his regiment, was mustered out of service. The Republican convention, which met in 1864, nominated Governor Morton for re-election, and presented General Nathan Kimball, who was in the field, for the office of Lieutenant-governor. General Kimball declined the nomination, and thereupon the Republican state central committee, without his being a candidate or applicant for the position, unanimously tendered Mr. Baker the nomination for Lieutenant-governor. In 1865 Governor Morton convened the General Assembly in special ses- sion, and, immediately after the delivery of his message, started for Europe in quest of health, leaving him Lieu- tenant-governor in charge of the administration of the executive department of the state government. Gov- ernor Morton was absent for five months, during which time the duties of the executive office were performed by Lieutenant-governor Baker. In February, 1867, Governor Morton was elected to the Senate of the United States, and the duties of Governor devolved upon Governor Baker. He was unanimously renomi- nated by the Republican convention of 1868 for Gov- crnor, and was elected over the Hon. Thomas A. Hen- dricks, one of the most popular men of the state, by the small majority of 961 votes. The canvass was con- ducted by these two gentlemen with the best of feeling personally towards each other, nothing having occurred ! are now distanced in their progress across the continent

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by the locomotives which traverse our broad domain. He lived to see the scattered hamlet of log-cabins replaced by a thriving and prosperous city, and his hand was ever foremost in every enterprise for the good of his city and state. He, with James M. Ray and Nicholas McCarty, nearly fifty years ago, built the first steam mill in Indi- anapolis, and thus was the pioneer in the manufactur- ing which is now so vital an element in the city's pros- perity. As a surveyor, he assisted in laying out and platting the city. He was selected as commissioner to receive plans and proposals for the old state-house. He was the first to urge upon the state Legislature the importance of establishing a hospital for the insane, and opened a correspondence with the Eastern States on the subject, and to him was afterwards intrusted the duty of selecting a location for that institution. He was an early friend, and was a member of the first board of directors, of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, and was also director of the Lafayette and Indianapolis Railroad. He was a trustee of Hanover College, of Indiana, and of the Miami University, of Oxford, Ohio, and at his death was the Indiana commissioner for the building of the Gettysburg monument. For thirty-five years he was the president of the Indianapolis Benevo- lent Society, and was present during this time at every anniversary but two. In 1847 he was the most liberal contributor to the relief of starving Ireland. He was a prime mover in the organization of the Indiana branch of the American Colonization Society; was the first cap- tain of the first militia company organized in Indianap- olis, and held the same place in the first fire company. He was the founder of the Indianapolis Rolling Mill, and embarked a large part of his fortune in that undertak- ing. He also started the first wholesale dry-goods house in Indianapolis, which was also not a financial success. On all public occasions Mr. Blake was looked to as the leader and manager of affairs. When the people of In- diana assembled to pay a tribute of respect to a de- ceased President or Governor, or other great man, Mr. Blake was selected to conduct the order of affairs. When Kossuth visited Indiana, when the soldiers re- turned from the Mexican War, when the farmers came in with a procession of wagons filled with food and supplies for soldiers' families, when the Indiana soldiers came home from the South, Mr. Blake was always the marshal of the day, and no public procession seemed complete in Indianapolis unless it was headed by him. His whole life was crowned with useful labors. There was, in fact, hardly any public enterprise or movement appealing to public spirit in which Mr. Blake was not conspicuous, constant, and efficient. He was one of those who organized the first Sunday-school there-the Union-and he was ever the foremost man in the cause. For thirty years his majestic form headed the long and beautiful array of Sunday-school children on their

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A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume I, Part 113

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1038

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1038