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 24

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 24

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ELLS, HIRAM E., treasurer of Orange County, Indiana, was born in that county, February 7, 1840, and is the eldest son of Stephen and Sarah (Dark) Wells. His father was a farmer in lim- ited circumstances. At the age of seventeen he left home without a cent, and began his.struggle for a live- lihood. He had attended school but very little, being barely able to read, and, though he has received no further instruction, he has acquired a fair English edu- cation by his own energy and perseverance. On leaving home he engaged as a farm hand at thirteen dollars per month, and after three months' work purchased a colt with his earnings. After holding it a few days he sold it for one hundred dollars, this transaction being the be-

ginning of his trading. Until 1861 he continued work- ing and trading whenever occasion offered. In July, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the 25th Regiment In- diana Volunteer Infantry, and when discharged in the summer of 1865 had risen to the rank of sergeant. During this time he was constantly in active service, and was on General Sherman's grand march down to the sea. At Fort Donelson and also at Wolf River he was slightly wounded. On his return home he settled in Paoli, Indiana, and resumed the business of stock- trader. He also dealt in real estate and carried on farm- ing, and, by close attention to business and fair and honorable dealing, he to-day is possessed of over one thousand acres of land. By his untiring and judicious speculations he has steadily ascended the ladder of fame and wealth, until to-day he stands out prominent among the business men of Orange County. In 1876 he was elected county treasurer, and was re-elected in 1878, which position he is filling to the satisfaction of the cit- izens. November 18, 1869, he was married to Mary J. Hill, of his county, by whom he has three children. In political matters he is an active member of the Repub- lican party.

ILLARD, JAMES HAZLETON, of Bedford, was born in New Albany, April 1, 1848. His father was Governor Ashbel P. Willard. (See sketch.) Losing both his parents at an early age, he attended the preparatory school known as Colton's Institute, at Middletown, Connecticut, where he also, in 1864, was admitted to Wesleyan University, taking the entrance prize for the finest examination. In his sopho- more year he entered Hamilton College, in accordance with his father's dying directions. Here his scholarship was of the highest order, and he took more and higher honors in rhetoric and elocution than any other person in his class, graduating with a high rank. He next fitted himself for the bar at Columbia College Law School; thence he went on a foreign tour, taking his degrees in 1870 from the college of France and the law school of Paris. In 1871 he graduated from the School of Law at Vienna, obtaining the prize medal for his disquisition on the Roman law. He next went on a tour through the Holy Land and into the center of Persia, going thence across the desert to Suez, and from there nine hundred miles up the Nile, on a tour of ad- venturous travel. Returning to New Albany at the close of 1871, he entered into the practice of the law. From his earliest infancy he had been habituated to look forward to politics as the future field of his usefulness, and in 1872, although his eligibility was doubtful, he was elected to the Legislature from Floyd County. In the House, though the youngest member, he was among the leaders of his party, but, as the Democracy were in

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the minority, his hands were in a measure tied. He de- clined re-election, devoting himself to his profession and to a profound study of political economy, but making a thorough canvass before each general election. Decem- ber 31, 1877, he was married to Miss Kate L. Newland, at Bedford. In 1878, when the contest in Floyd County seemed almost hopeless, he entered the fight for Repre- sentative, and, after a desperate campaign, was elected by nearly two hundred above the state ticket. He was second choice of his party for speaker of the House, but withdrew his name for the sake of harmony. Personal enmity took from him the position of chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, to which parliamentary usage would have entitled him. But, in spite of his youth, he rose at once to the leadership of his party on the floor, and his record in the session showed him to be one of the strongest men in Indiana. His presentation of Daniel W. Voorhees for United States Senator established his reputation for eloquence throughout the state. In the Democratic state convention of 1880 he was the lead- ing candidate for Lieutenant-governor, but, when the name of the unsuccessful candidate for Governor was pre- sented for the second place, Willard, with that rapid de- cision which is his marked characteristic, seconded. the nomination, determined that no personal ambition should imperil the harmony and success of his party. Thor- oughly skilled in parliamentary customs, conversing flu- ently in several languages, with a resistless power of oratory, firm and decisive in character, genial in tem- perament, and even now recognized as the leader of the young Democracy of Indiana, Mr. Willard has before him a brilliant future, which his deep studies have ren- dered him well qualified to realize. In May, 1879, he removed to Bedford, and is numbered among the fore- most legal minds in that portion of the state.

ILLARD, ASHBEL PARSONS (deceased), Gov- ernor of Indiana, so named from his maternal grandfather, was born October 31, 1820, at Ver- non, Oneida County, New York. His father was Colonel Erastus Willard, sheriff of the county. The maiden name of his mother, whose memory he revered as long as he lived, was Sarah Parsons. She died when he was fourteen, but she had already detected the dawn- ing brilliancy of his mind, and, calling him to her dying bed, counseled him to obtain a liberal education, and to enter the profession of the law. In accordance with her dying wishes, he pursued his preparatory studies at the Oneida Liberal Institute, and, when eighteen, he entered Hamilton College, in the class of 1842. He became first in scholarship in the institution, and bore off its highest hon- ors, as valedictorian. After graduating, Willard, depart- ing from the home of his youth, followed two brothers,

who had preceded him, to Marshall, Michigan; and there, at the age of twenty-two, in the fall of 1842, with feeble health but full of " the mental exhilarations of youth, hope, and glory," he embarked upon the stormy sea of life. He remained at Marshall with, of course, a limited legal practice for about a year, when, his health not becoming established, he determined to seek a milder clime. He purchased a horse, and rode south-westwardly into Texas, and back again to Ken- tucky, where, his funds being exhausted but his health exceedingly improved, he stopped and obtained employ- ment as a school-teacher. This was the year of the presidential contest between Polk and Clay. Willard from his boyhood had been an earnest, working political partisan. He left the school-room for " the political arena. New Albany, Indiana, fell within his circle, and there, stranger as he was, he addressed the people. The impression made by the tall, slender young orator was so favorable to him, personally, that it induced an invitation to him to make that city his home. It was in the spring of 1845, before he had reached the age of twenty-five, that Ashbel P. Willard, without pecuniary resources, in the absence of relatives and only with friends of an hour's acquaintance, become a resident of Indiana. For a little over fifteen years he was a resi- dent of this state. In that period what did he accom- plish? Entering upon the practice of the law at New Albany, he was compelled to encounter an able and learned bar; such lawyers as Crawford, Otto, Davis, Bicknell, and others ranking inferior to none in the state. This competition only stimulated him to greater exer- tion. He afterwards became the partner of Mr. Crawford, but did not, however, pursue the legal pro- fession long enough to reach its greatest honors. Politics, as we shall soon see, engaged his thoughts and energies, and became the field of labor in which he won his fame. In narrating, however, the events of his life it is proper here to turn aside to mention one of a domestic character. On the 31st of May, 1847, he was married to Miss Car- oline C. Cook, of Haddam, Connecticut. Of the off- spring of that marriage the first and the third, James H. and Caroline C. Willard, survive. By the side of the second, Ashbel P. Willard, junior, the dust of the father sleeps, and there rest also the remains of his cherished wife. In May, 1849, Mr. Willard was elected a member of the city council of New Albany, and labored steadily in that capacity for the improvement of the finances of the city. In 1850 he was elected to the Legislature from Floyd County by an unusual majority. He served in the capacity of Representative but a single session ; but it is conclusive evidence of the reputation he had already acquired for talents and efficiency that, young as he was, and new member as he was, he was placed at the head of the Committee on Ways and Means, and assigned the leadership of the Democratic party

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in the House. In 1852 he was nominated by the | Democratic party of Indiana for Lieutenant-governor, and elected. He filled this office until 1856, when he was called by the suffrages of the people of the state, after a most desperate political contest, to the executive chair, the highest office in their gift. He was inaugurated Governor of Indiana January 10, 1857. And here let the reader pause a moment to observe the spectacle presented. A young man, who, eleven years before, had entered upon his career of life in Indiana poor and friendless, had, by his own persistent efforts, without aid from the accidents of fortune, risen with an unfaltering step through a gradation of honorable and responsible offices, till at the early age of thirty-six he ascended to the highest position in the government of a state composed of over a million of people. But few parallel oases can be found. In 1865 his strength failed him. He went to Minnesota in the hope of recuperat- ing; but there, in a ride from White Bear Lake to St. Paul, he took a sudden cold, and on October 4 of that year he expired from an attack of pneumonia. At the meridian of life, far up toward the source of the Father of Waters, whose swelling and majestic flow was no unfit emblem of the bold and overpowering stream of the eloquence of the "silver-tongued orator of Indiana," did Willard, yielding to the only enemy he could not conquer, descend into the region of the dead-but there not to dwell. Amid public evidences of a sorrowing people his remains were borne to the city of New Al- bany, where they rest in the midst of the friends he loved so well. The most marked features of Willard's intellectual powers were intuition and will-the faculties of all others most sure to produce the man of action, the successful leader ; and, united with these, he had a gift of eloquence which makes his name a fireside recollection in the homes of Indiana. He saw at a glance the true relations of things, the exact bearing of current events; what was proper to be done, and how to do It; and the force, the energy, of his will bore him forward in its immediate and successful execu- tion. He had great decision of character. Once en- tered upon a course which intuition had opened to him as the right, he thought only of following it success- fully through, and his conviction of its correctness, and the force of his determination to succeed, always inspired him with confidence in the result. He never stopped to speculate or doubt, and no leader ever should while he continues the contest; for uncertainty and hesitancy palsy the arm in its attempt to execute. As a general truth, it may be asserted that none but the sincere, be- lieving, earnest man will efficiently or can successfully struggle with difficulties. It was the possession in so high a degree of the qualities above mentioned that drew upon Willard, by common consent, the leader- ship among those with whom he might be; for the

wavering and timid always follow the decided and brave. And it was those qualities also that gave him such distinguished success as a presiding officer-quick- ness of apprehension, promptness, and energy in action.

ILLIAMS, JAMES DOUGLAS, Governor of In- diana, is a type of the Western pioneer, now seldom seen east of the Mississippi River. Born in Pickaway County, Ohio, January 16, 1808, he moved with his father's family to Indiana in 1818, and settled in Knox County, near the historic city of Vin- cennes. He grew to manhood there, and there remained until January, 1877, when he came to the capital of Indiana to take the reins of the state government, at the command of over twe hundred thousand American freemen. When Governor Williams arrived in Indiana, and for many years afterwards, the state was sparsely populated. In many parts of it there were no white men or women, and where there were white settlements dwelling-houses were far apart, and communication with the outside world difficult and unfrequent. Therefore it was hard to establish and maintain schools and Churches, and the newspaper was an unusual visitor at the fireside of the pioneer. It was under such circumstances as these that Governor Williams grew to manhood and en- tered upon the duties of life. The little schooling he received was obtained in the log school-house, at times when his services could be spared from the farm. But, if the advantages of the school-room were measurably

denied him, he was somewhat compensated for their loss by mingling with the best people in his settlement, and learning from them something of the outside world. Therefore when he reached his majority he was unusu- ally well versed, for one in his circumstances, in the news of that day and the history of the past. Added to this, he had a well-knit, hardy frame, was supple and agile in his movements, and, taken all in all, was the most promising young man in the settlement. He could make a full hand at the plow, in the harvest field, or at the log-rolling, and was known throughout the neigh- borhood as a young man of industrious habits and of more than ordinary culture. When Governor Williams was twenty years of age his father died. Being the oldest of six children, the care of the family devolved on him. He accepted this responsibility and acquitted himself well, as he has always done when charged with impor- tant duties. Three years afterwards-at the age of twenty-three-he married Nancy Huffman, who lived until this year to bless and comfort him in his declining years. By her he has had seven children, two of whom only are living. His wife, like the mistress of the Her- mitage, was wedded to her country home, and through- out his long life, most of which has been spent in the

dames. . D.Williams ,

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public service, has remained on his farm and participated | which every one had the right to pluck a quill. He in its management. Her death occurred June 27, 1880. Governor Williams entered public life in 1839 as a Jus-

tice of the Peace. For four years he held this office and decided the controversies and adjusted the difficul- ties of his neighbors with great judicial fairness. His decisions were sometimes dissented from, but in no case were corrupt motives imputed to him. His neighbors knew his integrity, and while they sometimes criticised his conclusions they never impugned the means by which he reached them. In 1843 he resigned his office of Justice of the Peace, and the same year was elected to the lower branch of the state Legislature. From

that time until 1874, when he was elected to the

. national Congress, he was almost continuously in the legislative service of the state. Sometimes in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate, a history of his legislative work would be a history of the legislation of Indiana from 1843 to 1874. No man in the state has been so long in public life as he, and no one has more faithfully served the people. He is identified with

most of the important, measures of legislation dur- ing this time, and is the author of many of them. It is to him that the widows of Indiana are indebted for

the law which allows them to hold, without administra-

tion, the estates of their deceased husbands when they

do not exceed three hundred dollars in value. He is the author of the law which distributed the sinking fund among the counties of the state ; and to him more than to any other man, with probably the exception of the late Governor Wright, are the people indebted for the establishment of the State Board of Agriculture, an in- stitution that has done so much to foster and develop the

· agricultural interests of Indiana. He was for sixteen years a member of this board, and for four of them was its president. During his management of its affairs it was a self-supporting institution, and, besides, it accumulated

an extensive and valuable property during the time he

was at its head. It has been since he ceased to con-

trol its direction that its finances have become so dis- ordered that to preserve its existence the Legislature of the state has been compelled to take from the public

treasury large sums of money and bestow them upon

the society. It is safe to say that had he continued at its head no such necessity would have arisen. In 1872 Governor Williams was the nominee of the Demo- cratic members of the Legislature for United States Sen- ator, but, his party being in the minority, he was de- feated for the office by the late Senator Morton. In

1874 Governor Williams was elected to Congress from

the Vincennes district, and took his seat the ensuing

fall. He was made chairman of the Committee on Ac-

counts of the House. Abuses had crept into this branch

of the public service. Officers and employés acted upon the theory that "Uncle Sam" was a rich goose, from

soon taught them that public property was as sacred as private property, and that no one had a right to its use without rendering an equivalent. This brought upon him the maledictions of those who hover about the cap- ital to fatten upon the rich pickings there to be found; but it endeared him to those whose money supplies them. It was while at his post at Washington, attend- ing to his public duties, that a telegram was handed him announcing his nomination for Governor of Indiana, by the Democratic convention of that state. He had not been a candidate for the place, and was as much surprised as any one when informed that the nomination had been made. The campaign of 1876 in Indiana was a memorable one. It never had its counterpart in this country, except in 1858, when Douglas and Lincoln in Illinois contested for the presidential stakes in 1860. Senator Morton announced early in the canvass, in a speech he delivered in the Academy of Music in In- dianapolis, that the election of Williams as Governor meant the election of Tilden as President. Events proved the truth of the Senator's declaration; for neither the decision of the Electoral Commission nor the legerde- main practiced by the returning boards can obscure the fact that the United States voted in November as Indi- ana did in October. Hendricks and McDonald, Landers and Gooding, Voorhees and Williams, and many other able men, entered the fight as champions of the De- mocracy; while Morton and Harrison, Cumback and But- ler, Gordon and Nelson, and other men of prominence

and ability, marshaled the forces of the Republicans.

The conflict was so fierce that it shook the whole coun- try. The Republican speakers and journals ridiculed the Democratic candidate for Governor, and made sport of his homespun clothes and plain appearance; but the Democracy seized upon his peculiarities and made them watchwords of victory. Blue Jeans clubs were formed throughout the state, and the name the Repub- licans had given the Democratic candidate in derision was accepted by his friends and made to do service in his

behalf. When the campaign was ended, and the bal- lots were cast and counted, it was ascertained that the plain and honest old farmer of Knox had beaten his op- ponent-General Benjamin Harrison-over five thousand votes. The result was as gratifying to his friends as it could have been to him, for they knew he had

never been found wanting in any place he had been called upon to fill; and they felt entire confidence that his legislative and congressional laurels would not turn to gubernatorial willows. The predecessors of Governor Williams for more than two decades have been eminent men. The three immediate ones were Morton, Baker, and Hendricks, the former and the latter of whom have national reputations. While he has not the organizing ability and aggressive-

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ness of Morton, the reading and legal erudition of Baker, nor the elegance and symmetrical devel- opment of Hendricks, he has other qualities as an ex- 'ecutive officer as valuable as those possessed by any of them. He is careful and painstaking, and enters into the minutest details of his office; and he performs no official act without thoroughly understanding its import and effect. He is self-willed and self-reliant, and prob- ably consults fewer persons about his official duties than did any of his predecessors for a generation. During his canvass for Governor, it was charged by his political opponents that his selection would place in the exec- utive chair one who would be influenced and controlled by others, but experience has proved the falsity of the charge. If any just criticism can be made upon him in this regard, it is that he has not sufficiently given his confidence to his friends. Instead of being swayed to and fro by others, he goes perhaps to the other extreme, and refuses to be influenced by any. Better, however, be stubborn than fickle, for the first insures stability and fixedness of purpose, while the latter always results in uncertainty and doubt. Governor Williams is econom- ical and simple in his tastes and habits. By industry and care he has accumulated a handsome competency, which, no doubt, will increase each succeeding year of his life. The necessities of his youth caused him to be careful and saving of his earnings, and he has clung to the habits then formed to the present day. He is fond of amusements, and is an adept in social games and pastimes. He frequently visits the theater, and it is as pleasant as it is common to see him enter a place of public amusement accompanied by his grand-children or some of his coun- try neighbors. He is courteous in his intercourse with others, is a good conversationalist, and is never at a loss for words to express his thoughts. He stands six feet four inches in his boots; is remarkably straight and erect for one of his years; has large hands and feet ; has high cheek-bones; a long, sharp nose; twinkling, gray eyes; a clean shaven face, skirted with whiskers upon his throat; and a head covered profusely with black hair, in which scarcely a gray filament is to be seen. His physiognomy denotes industry and shrewdness, and does not belie the man. He dresses plainly, but with scrupulous neatness. He is a good judge of human nature, and he who attempts to deceive or overreach him will have his labor for his pains. Such is James D. Williams, the centennial Governor of Indiana. Gov- ernor Williams will retire from his office in January, 1881. His age is such that it is probable that his pub- lic life-forty-two years in the service of the people- will then be ended. That he has acquitted himself well in all the positions he filled; that he has made the world better by having lived in it; and that he is entitled to honorable mention in the history of his adopted state, will be the verdict of the people, when,

like Cincinnatus of old, he lays aside the robes of office and retires to his farm, there to spend the evening of his life in quietude and rest.

ILSON, ELBRIDGE G., attorney-at-law, of Paoli, Indiana, was born in Seymour, Jackson County, Indiana, June 13, 1852, and was the son of Will- iam and Sarah F. (Hosea) Wilson. His father, a teacher, left his home for California in 1856, and the family did not hear from him for sixteen years. His mother, being in limited circumstances, was compelled to bind out her children. Elbridge went to live with his grandfather, Mr. Hosea, to learn the shoemaker's trade. He never attended school until sixteen, when he ran away, finding another place, where he managed to attend school, working at night and on Saturdays for his board, until he fitted himself for a teacher, a position he assumed when twenty. After teaching five months, he attended the Blue River Academy each successive spring and sum- mer until he began the study of law, in 1875, with Judge Coffee, of Nashville, Indiana. In 1876 he entered the State University at Bloomington, Indiana, and grad- uated from the law department in the spring of 1877. He immediately settled at Paoli, and commenced prac- ticing, having been admitted to the bar in 1876. Since his residence in Paoli, he has devoted his entire time to the study of his profession, and is fast winning his way to prominence at the Orange County bar, having now a business second to none. He was married to Elizabeth Shoulders, daughter of a farmer in Orange County, and granddaughter of a state Senator. Mr. Wilson is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics is an active Democrat, having canvassed the county for his party last fall. He is a man of excellent habits, pleasant in demeanor, and thoroughly well bred.

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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 24

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