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 114

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 114

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Fourth of July celebrations. From the organization of the Benevolent Society, in 1835, until his death he was its president, and the institution was his especial pride and enjoyment. In the temperance movement he was a leader, as in every thing else, and his adhesion to the Democracy was first broken by its conflict with his firmer adhesion to the cause of temperance. He was the patriarch of his Church, admired and revered by all. In every relation of his life, as head of a family, leader of society, chief of his Church, manager of busi- ness enterprises, he was always foremost, always hon- ored, equally for his power and his disinterestedness. For fifty years his life was devoted to the good of In- dianapolis and its citizens, and we have been able to give but a meager outline of the many fields of useful- ness in which he figured. His amiable wife, née Miss Eliza Sproule, of Baltimore, to whom he was married in March, IS31, still survives, in full possession of her health and faculties. She shared with her husband the esteem and respect of the community, and was his lov- ing coadjutor in every thing in which her womanly heart and brain could be of service. If Mr. Blake had pursued his own advantage with half the zeal that he devoted to the service of others and the good of the city, he might have died counting his wealth by mill- ions. But his enterprises really prevented him from becoming rich, and at one time, after the failure of the rolling mill, he was seriously threatened with bank- ruptcy. His ambition all ran to the good of others. It never took a political direction. He never held any popular office except that of county commissioner, or at least he never desired or attained any political promi- nence, when, with his personal popularity and influ- ence, he might have stood among the highest had he so chosen. His desire for power never seemed to ex- tend beyond the command of a Sunday-school proces- sion or the presidency of a charitable meeting. In him Indianapolis lost a truly good man, a useful citizen, and the community a kind neighbor, a sympathizing friend. Besides Mrs. Blake, four children survive him, all settled and prospering in the city of Indianapolis. Mr. Blake's indifference to the customary objects of ambi- tion, his constant services in all kindly offices and la- bors, his benevolent face, his venerable appearance, all combined to make him for a whole generation the most conspicuous and revered of the citizens of Indianapolis.

ARLETON, WELLINGTON J., principal of the German-English School, Indianapolis, was born at Belleville, Ontario, Canada, February 18, 1846. He is the son of William and Maria (Sweep) Carleton. His father, who was of Irish birth, has been a teacher in, the Canadian public schools for some forty years, and is

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widely known in educational service throughout Canada. He is the author of several Canadian educational works. Many members of the family have been the writers of works widely known. His mother's mother, of Prus- sian birth, is now one hundred and nine years old. Mr. Carleton, after receiving a common school educa- tion, entered the Belleville Canadian Institute, gradu- ating with full honors in 1862. He immediately began as teacher in the Belleville public schools, but after- wards removed to Toronto, passing his examination be- fore the Toronto educational board of examiners, and receiving his permanent certificate. He then attended lectures at the normal school and Toronto University. He was principal of two schools in succession in On- tario, continuing thus for four years, when he removed to Quebec, where he occupied a similar position for two years, including the principalship of the French and English model school at Chelsea. He then taught for three years at Sault Ste. Marie, in the district of Algoma, after which he spent two years as member of a surveying party north of Lake Superior, and then removed to Au Sable, Michigan, where he taught school for one term. Since then he has been engaged in the public schools in Indiana. In 1875 he entered the German-English school of Indianapolis, of which he is now principal ; it employs seven teachers, instruction being one-half in German and one-half in English. The pupils of this school generally take the highest prizes in examination in competition with the public schools. They have also in connection a kindergarten. In 1879 he was principal of the Marion County Normal Insti- tute. He is the author of Carleton's Language Series, a work that has been adopted by the public schools, and is meeting with much favor. Mr. Carleton has been a contributor to some of the leading journals, his articles treating of both education and politics. He has also been principal in the public night schools of Indian- apolis for the past five years, a work productive of much good, in which he has been very successful. Mr. Carleton is a man who has devoted his life to the study of education and school systems, in which he has been eminently successful, and upon them is considered an authority. He has been a member of the Masonic Or- der for two years, and has taken three degrees. He has been an Odd-fellow for five years, and has taken five de- grees ; a member of the Order of Knights of Pythias for five years, and of the Knights of Honor for four years. He was the organizer of Marion Lodge, No. 601, of Indianapolis. He is a member of the Order of Knights and Ladies of Honor. In religion he is liberal, and in politics independent. He married, at Port Dover, On- tario, October 12, 1869, Isabella Tibbetts, daughter of Doctor Tibbetts, a minister of the Episcopal Church in Canada. They have four children, two boys and two girls. Mr. Carleton is a man of fine personal appear-

ance, pleasant and genial in manner, a ready speaker, a fine scholar, and an educated gentleman. He is a man of honor, integrity, and uprightness, respected by all, and beloved by his family. Such is the brief record of one of Indiana's representative educational men, one of those men who have risen by their own industry and per- severance. He is a thorough linguist and mathemati- cian, acquisitions gained by hard study.

AMESON, PATRICK HENRY, M. D., Indianap- olis, was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, April 18, 1824. He is the son of Thomas and Sarah (Humphreys) Jameson. His father owned and cultivated a farm in Jefferson County; and here his _ early days were spent, alternating work on the farm with attendance at the common schools of the county, in which he received his primary education. But his naturally studious disposition was not content with the limited knowledge attainable at school, and every spare moment of his time at home was utilized in the study of books, which he devoured with avidity. In this way, without any aid from teachers, he studied algebra, ge- ometry, and the rudiments of Greek and Latin, and made considerable headway in physics, natural philoso- phy, and general literature. It is said of him that he solved every problem in Colburn's Algebra without the slightest assistance, the fact being that at that time there was not a man in the township who was able to render him any aid in that direction. His father died when he was nineteen years old, and he soon afterwards came to Indianapolis and engaged in teaching school, first as assistant, and afterwards as principal of a private school, which he conducted for three years and a half. During part of this time he also acted as county libra- rian, and commenced the study of medicine. At his first coming to Indianapolis, he was particularly fortunate in making the acquaintance of several gentlemen of promi- nence and culture, with whom his associations were of the pleasantest character. Among them were J. C. Fletcher, the talented author and lecturer, B. R. Sulgrove, Au- gustus Coburn, General John Coburn, Napoleon B. Taylor, William Wallace, Esq., of Indianapolis, and his brother, General Lew. Wallace, Hon. John Caven, present mayor of Indianapolis, and others equally prom- inent, who were members of a society known as the "Union Literary." From such associations the young aspirant imbibed much of his tastes and habits, and derived much encouragement and incentive to effort. He attended his first course of medical lectures in the University of Louisville in 1847-48, and his second course at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1848-49, graduating in March of the latter year. Pre- vious to his receiving his diploma he had read medicine

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with Doctor John H. Sanders, and was immediately after offered a partnership by his old preceptor, which he accepted, entering at once into active practice. His partner dying a year later, he took charge of the entire business, and has been continuously engaged in the du- ties of his profession since, and for a good many years enjoyed the largest and most lucrative practice in the city. Doctor Jameson makes no specialty in his pro- fession, but his experience in acute diseases has been very large and quite successful. He is one of the orig- inal members of the Indiana State Medical Society, formed in 1849; and a member of the Indianapolis Academy of Medicine, of which he was president in 1875 and 1876. He has been an occasional contributor to the medical literature of the day. Among his pub- lished writings may be mentioned the "Commissioners' Annual Report for Indiana Hospital for the Insane," 1861 to 1867, inclusive; " Reports for the Indiana In- stitution for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind," published by the state; report to Indiana State Medical Society, on " Veratrum Viride in Typhoid and Puerperal Fevers," published in the Proceedings for 1857, and republished by the American Journal of Medical Sciences; address on "Scientific Medicine in its Relations with Quackery," published in the Indiana Medical Journal, 1871. From 1861 to 1869 Doctor Jameson was commissioner for the Indiana Hospital for the Insane. From 1861 to 1866 he was state surgeon in charge of the state and United States troops in quarters at several camps, and in the hospital at the soldiers' home at Indianapolis. From January, 1863, to March, 1866, he was acting assistant surgeon of the United States army in the same service. During nearly five years of military service, during which he had charge of a large amount of government prop- erty, no complaint of any kind was ever preferred against Doctor Jameson, and in less than a week from his retire- ment from duty he received a certificate of non-indebt- edness to the government. In 1869 he was elected pres- ident of the boards of the several benevolent institutions of the state, a position of honor and great responsibility he held for two consecutive terms of four years. He was re-elected by the Legislature for a third term, but, owing to a change in the politics of the state, under an act of the Legislature a new board was appointed by the Governor in 1879. He was a member of the provisional board for the erection of a new insane asylum for women (in connection with the Governor of Indiana and certain other state officers), the building being formally thrown open in 1879. During Doctor Jameson's term as com- missioner for the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, and subsequently as president of the boards, he persistently urged, through his annual reports and by personal so- licitation, the need for more extensive accommodations for the patients of the asylum, and it is safe to say that it was largely due to his influence and to his persistent

advocacy that the Legislature made from time to time appropriations for the extensive and valuable additions to the institution, which place it in the front rank of establishments of its class in the United States. A perusal of the annual reports of this institu- tion, of which no less than eighteen were written by Doctor Jameson during his connection with it, will show how earnestly and untiringly he insisted on the proper provision being made for the growing needs of the insane; and how well he succeeded can be seen from the fact that when he became officially con- nected with the asylum there were accommodations for less than three hundred patients, and on his retire- ment arrangements were made, and the buildings nearly completed, for the accommodation of one thou- and and four hundred patients. From 1865 to 1869 he was a member of the city council of Indianapolis. Large indebtedness had been incurred on account of the draft, together with some other expenses. Recog- nizing the abilities of Doctor Jameson, his associates made him chairman of the finance committee, and he bent his energies to secure the payment of the indebtedness. Before his retirement, on the Ist of May, 1869, the entire amount was liquidated, and there was a balance of two hundred thousand dollars to the credit of the city. While he was in the council he was also chairman of the police board, committee on public printing, and on revision of ordinances. In this latter capacity he made a complete revision of the local laws, which was printed in 1865. Since this time he has taken a lively interest in matters of public taxation and expenditures, the finances, etc., and he has been a fre- quent contributor on these topics to the public press. In 1876, the expenditures and taxation of the city being very high, he wrote a series of articles under his signa- ture, in the Indianapolis evening News, which attracted wide-spread attention, advocating reductions in the fire department, police, and in the consumption of gas, demonstrating clearly how the expense could be reduced one-half. These communications had, undoubtedly, much influence in shaping the levy of that year, and the course of the common council in taxation and ex- penditure, Indianapolis now ranking among the most economically administered cities on the continent. The succeeding winter, when the Legislature convened, he was made the chairman of a committee of citizens who procured the passage of a very stringent act, limiting the powers of city councils in the levying of taxes to nine-tenths of one per cent, and of school boards to one- fifth of one per cent, and restricting indebtedness to two per cent of taxables. This bill was actively opposed by a majority of the school board, and by the chairman of the finance committee of the common council of the city of Indianapolis. Notwithstanding this, the committee secured the passage of the law, and the result has

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demonstrated its wisdom. Opponents tried to show that | them making the greater part of the journey on foot. the schools could not thus be carried on, but facts indi- cate that the schools and city government have never been in such a good condition. In this Doctor Jameson was prime mover, but was ably assisted by W. II. En- glish, Albert G. Porter, and others of the committee. June 20, 1850, Doctor Jameson married Miss Maria But- ler, daughter of a prominent lawyer, the founder of But- ler University. He has a family of four children. Two daughters are married, a son is now a law student at Indianapolis, and one daughter is unmarried. He is a man of sound constitution and vigorous intellect. He is as hale as most men of thirty, unobtrusive in manners, courteous in his bearing to all. His character and stand- ing as a physician are very high, and he is regarded as an exemplary husband and father and a good citizen. He is a Republican, and from 1856 to 1860 was chairman of the Republican county committee. He is a member of the Masons. His name is familiar to all classes of citizens, and he is deservedly popular in his profession and outside of it. For fourteen years past Doctor Jame- son has been a director of Butler University, and as pres- ident of its board disposed of a large amount of real estate belonging to it, and superintended the erection of its buildings at Irvington, near Indianapolis.

OHNSON, THOMAS E., attorney-at-law, Indian- apolis. The life record of the subject of this sketch illustrates in a forcible manner how per- sistent energy, untiring application, and "clear grit," will overcome the obstacles which early poverty and limited opportunities place in the path to success. A perusal of this brief sketch will show at once that the biographer needs no excuse for giving the subject a prominent place among the "self-made men of In- diana." He was born near Monrovia, Morgan County, Indiana, April 2, 1837. He is the youngest of a fam- ily of three sons and one daughter of Hezekiah and Elizabeth Ann Johnson (now Mull). His parents were both born and raised near Goldsboro, North Carolina, where his maternal grandfather, Archibald Bowman (a native of New Jersey), died in 1857, at the advanced age of seventy-eight. His paternal grandfather, Elijah Johnson, emigrated from North Carolina to Morgan County, Indiana, with his family, and died in that county at about the same time and age as the former, being followed to the grave by his devoted wife within a short time after. The parents of Thomas E. were married in North Carolina, his mother being then eighteen, and the father twenty-five years of age. Im- mediately after their marriage, placing their few house- hold effects in a one-horse wagon, and with only a few dollars in the treasury, they started for Indiana, both of

They settled on a tract of land in Morgan County, erected their humble cabin, in which the subject of this sketch was born, and commenced to clear the land, which could scarcely be called a farm at the time of the "father's death, in 1838, when Thomas E. was a little over a year old. Left thus without a father before he realized the meaning of the word, it can readily be seen that the molding of his character depended al- most entirely upon the widowed mother, whose moral influence was ever the evening star which guided his footsteps through the darkness that at times well-nigh overshadowed his youthful pathway. She was a noble type of the early pioneer mother, whose education was not obtained in halls of learning, but amid the gran- deur of the primeval forest. After his father's death she managed the little "clearing," sowing wheat and planting corn with her own hands, as well as doing other work incidental to primitive farm life. She still lives, in her sixty-ninth year, white-headed and hon- ored, revered and respected; and, although the necessity for so toiling has long since passed away, she has ever been foremost in every moral, religious, and charitable enterprise that came within her sphere. The school opportunities of Mr. Johnson's early days were of a very limited character. To use his own expression, "the abundance of poverty of which he was pos- sessed " in childhood necessitated toiling on the farm during the summer months, and it was only in winter that he was enabled to attend school. He stills recalls the feeling of mortification with which he resumed his attendance at school in winter on finding that the more favored children had been able to outstrip him in ac- quiring knowledge, and, being naturally ambitious, his young heart was fired with the determination to "catch up," which he invariably succeeded in doing. He was blessed with a retentive memory, and by this means was able to second his application in a manner highly effective. This qualification has followed him through- out his career, and has often proved of great advantage in his profession, as he still readily commits to memory, and retains what he has read, when necessity arises for such mental exercise. While still a mere youth he took a keen delight in committing to memory all the leading speeches of Patrick Henry, the Adamses, Webster, Henry Clay, etc., and declaiming them at school exhi- bitions. The old Roman orators also came in for a share of his attention, and his record in elocution stood very high. Unlike so many who will read this sketch, there was little in the childhood days of Mr. Johnson which he can now look back to with longing for their return. It could not be said of him that "his lines were cast in pleasant places." Poverty, grinding to a youthful and ambitious mind, was a heavy clog in his wheel of progress. Ile had to earn his own living by

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working at odd times away from home, from the time | or die, and was simply prodigious. Scarcely any por- he was old enough to drop and hoe corn, purchasing his own scanty clothing, the luxury of a vest being un- known to him until he was thirteen years old. More than once in his early youth he had to wade barefooted through snow, gathering corn and feeding hogs, and wounded and bleeding feet were no unusual experience, from traveling over the rough, frozen ground. This is a fair sample of the hardships incidental to his early life. At the age of fourteen he commenced the world for himself, and, having early become familiar with the use of tools, started .in to learn the carpenter's trade. At sixteen years of age he began to work regularly at this avocation in the country, and the next year (1854) he received journeyman's wages in the city of Indian- apolis. From this time he commanded fair compen- sation, and was enabled to purchase the necessaries of life, and pay his way through the winter schools. But, whether working at the bench or on the house- top, there existed in the breast of the young man an unquenchable desire for a higher education than he had yet attained, and this longing increased until it became absolutely uncontrollable. The lack of means to assuage this thirst for a deeper draught at the spring of knowledge was an almost unsurmountable obstacle, but he ever kept the goal of his hopes in view. He also early developed a natural taste for the fine arts, which, through lack of time and opportuni- ties, he has thus far cultivated to a limited extent only. From 1855 to 1857 he worked at his trade at Oskaloosa, Iowa, during the summer and fall months, returning home to attend his old school-house in the winter. In the fall of 1858, after another trip West, he returned home, determined to accomplish the one cherished ob- ject of his desires-an education. Borrowing some money from an old Quaker friend, he entered the Indi- ana Asbury University, at Greencastle, and, after pur- chasing some books and paying a few weeks' board in advance, he used the rest of his borrowed funds to re- lieve a brother's embarrassment in the West, and was left to his own resources to pay his way through col- lege, which he did. After considerable persuasion on his part, he was allowed by the faculty to pursue an irregular course, selecting for himself studies from each year's schedule, from preparatory up to senior. In this way he was associated more or less the first year with classes of all grades, and by the closest application suc- ceeded in keeping up with them all, only falling below one hundred in one study, that of Latin, in which his average was eighty-eight. While pursuing this ram- bling literary course he also prosecuted the curriculum prescribed for the law department of the university, then under the professorship of the Hon. John A. Mat- son. The labor necessary to accomplish this task would deter any one whose determination was not fixed to do

tion of the day hours was left open for study, as they were taken up with classes in one or the other depart- ments. From one hundred to two hundred pages of law had to be recited each school day, in addition to the exhaustive labor required for the literary depart- ment. But no time was wasted by the young student, who even trespassed on the domain of sleep to compass his desired end, in a way that sounds almost like a stretch of the imagination. Having no time for review he made one reading answer the purpose, to which he devotedi the hours from 6 P. M. to 4 A. M. In his sleep, which he snatched at intervals of study, he was in the habit of involuntarily repeating the whole number of pages of law which he had previously read, and could afterwards arise and go to his class with his lessons im- . printed on his mind as firmly as the events of a dream from which one suddenly awakens. This extraordinary faculty has been retained up to the present time, and has often proved of incalculable benefit to Mr. Johnson, and has more than once extricated him from a dilemma. In addition to those labors came his duties to the col- lege societies and moot-court, familiar to all college students. At last the ambition of his heart was par- tially gratified, and he graduated in the law department March 27, 1860, and the same year went West "to grow up with the country." But, in order to vote for Presi- dent of the United States, he returned to Indiana in the fall of the same year, expecting to move to his chosen location the ensuing spring, but with that season came the war, and for a time blasted all his hopes. On March 28, 1864, concluding that the capital city was a good location for business, he moved to Indianapolis, and on his arrival in that city found himself in posses- sion of a few household goods and sixty-five dollars in money. With this sum he commenced the erection of a five-room cottage, a home being the first object of his desires. The city lot was wholly unpaid for. He performed the entire manual labor himself, except plas- tering, and, being too poor to engage in the practice of law-besides there was but little litigation at that time- he was employed that year at his trade, working on his home at odd times and at night, and at the end of six weeks moved into his house unplastered, in which con- dition it remained until fall. His work at his trade proved remunerative, and the spring of 1865 found him with eleven hundred dollars cash, after the payment of what he owed. With this reserve he built a larger house, again performing the work with his own hands, and procuring his building material mostly from the woods. This house when completed was worth over three thousand dollars, and now Mr. Johnson found himself for the first time in a position in the city to embark in his chosen profession. In October, 1866, he commenced the practice of law in Indianapolis, and has

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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 114

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