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 40

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 40

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" Although the severe and laborious study of the law engrossed the most of his time during his youth and manhood, it is very evident that he failed not to feast upon lighter literature during his hours of leisure. He was conversant with the works of most writers of dis- tinction, and it is believed that he relished the Waverley series of Sir Walter Scott more than any other writings of that class. His mind was cultivated and refined ; his manners easy and dignified without the slightest ap- proach to ostentation, and in his intercourse with others he was always gentlemanly and courteous. He was a genial companion, frank, open-hearted, and generous. Those who knew him best, loved and respected him most.

" Your resolutions and memorial, which are so full and expressive that little can be added, will be spread upon the order book of this court."

Mrs. Eliza A. Davison, widow of the late Judge Davison, was the daughter of Robert Robison, of New- town-Butler, county of Fermanagh, Ireland, where she was born, on the 30th of November, 1809. The family emigrated to America and settled in the city of Balti- more, Maryland, in 1816; some years later they removed to Greensburg, Indiana. On the nineteenth day of April, 1835, she was married to John Test, a lawyer, who afterward died at Mobile, Alabama. April II, 1839, she married Andrew Davison. She died at Greensburg, July 23, 1878, leaving an only son, Joseph R. Davison, a young man of promise, possessing in a large degree many of the noble traits of his parents. He is heir to a handsome estate, left by them. Mrs. Davison was a woman of brilliant mind, a great reader, and a fine conversationalist. Her society was sought and enjoyed by the most intelligent and refined, as well as by those in need of the sympathy and charity which she so liberally bestowed.

yours tuely V. L. Downey

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ORMAN, FRANCIS RILEY, merchant, and ex- sheriff of Dearborn County, was born March 22, 1834, in Manchester Township, of the same county. He is . the eldest son of John and Jane (Truitt) Dorman, both of English descent. The Dorman and Shockly families are widely known in the peninsular part of Maryland, called the "Eastern Shore," where they have lived for nearly two centuries. The ancestors of the mother were the wealthy and numerous Parker family, living in the same locality, not far from the "old Bohemia Manor," the celebrated ancestral seat of the Bayard family, of Delaware. Mrs. Dorman was brought to Indiana by her parents in 1818, two years after its admission as a state, and has lived in sight of the spot where they settled ever since that time. Mr. Dorman came to the state about six years later. They reared a family of five children-Frank, as he is known, being the oldest-and have accumulated a competence. Frank Dorman passed his boyhood in labor on the farm in summer and attending common school in winter. In his seventeenth year he entered Asbury University, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he undertook a full clas- sical course, under the presidency of Doctor Lucien Berry, who succeeded Bishop Simpson in that institu- tion ; Professor Lattimore, since the celebrated Professor of Analytical Chemistry, of Rochester University; and Professor Tingley, still of Asbury University, where he has become famous for his new discoveries in mathe- matical science. His classmates were, N. S. Givans, now Judge of the Circuit Court; Hon. William M. Springer, member of Congress from Illinois; Judge Wilbur F. Stone, Chief Justice of Colorado; and Robert Hitt, private secretary to President Lincoln, and Secretary to the French Legation at Paris, France. In his senior year, Mr. Dorman went home and remained for one year, and then entered the State University at Bloom- ington, under the charge of that wonderful orator, President William M. Daily, where he graduated with honor in the class of 1857. He afterward received a diploma from Asbury University. Not desiring to study any of the professions, deeming them already too full, he turned his attention to farming. In March, 1865, he married Geneva Jordan, second daughter of the late W. W. Jordan, an old and reputable merchant of Manchester, Indiana, and began life with little more than hope and good resolutions. They have an inter- esting family of children, four in number-Blanche, Earl Jordan, Frank Parker, and Haynes Shockly. About the time of his marriage, Mr. Dorman was made town- ship trustee, which office he held for several years. It was the ability with which he managed the township affairs that suggested his name for sheriff of Dearborn County, to which responsible office he was elected twice successively. The last time he was nominated by ac- clamation, and had no opposition at the polls, a con-

spicuous compliment in a county where party feeling is very bitter. He acquitted himself in this, as in every position, with honor to himself and his party. During his term of service a number of desperadoes, who had long terrified the citizens of South-eastern Indiana, were captured and convicted of their crimes. Thus, through his indomitable courage and firmness, lawlessness and violence were suppressed, and beneficent results were felt for many years. It was also while he was discharging the duties of sheriff that two successive attempts were made by mobs of masked men, in imitation of the "Seymour vigilantism," much in vogue at the time, to take prison- ers charged with murder from his custody. Their efforts were baffled, however, through his watchfulness and courage, and he had the satisfaction of seeing his pris- oners fairly tried. They were adjudged guilty, and sen- tenced to hard labor for life. After his official term expired, Mr. Dorman entered upon mercantile life in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and rapidly rose to be the leading merchant in the city and county; and in every situation in which he has been placed, whether public or private, has shown unmistakable business ability, and has made many friends. Mr. Dorman is public-spirited, enterprising, and free from narrowness. Politically, he is a liberal Democrat.

OWNEY, ALEXANDER C., of Rising Sun, ex- Judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, September 10, 1817. His parents were John Downey, born August 12, 1786, and Susannah (Selwood) Downey, born October 28, 1791. They removed to the southern part of Dear- born County, Indiana, in 1818. The subject of the sketch was one of a large family. His father died July 19, 1863; his mother, April 9, 1874. Both rest in the cemetery at Rising Sun. Receiving the rudiments of education in the log school-house of pioneer days, he pursued his studies in the county seminary at Wilming- ton, under the instruction of Professor Lawrence, sub- sequently distinguished for his prominence as a geologist. He maintained himself by farming and coopering, by making several flat-boat trips down the Mississippi River, by carpentry and cabinet-making, and by teach- ing school. He studied law with James T. Brown, an able and eccentric lawyer of Dearborn County, and was admitted to practice in 1841. He was in partnership with Amos Lane for a time, and with Theodore Gazlay. Ohio County was organized in 1844, out of that part of Dearborn County lying south of Laughery Creek, and in which was the home of his boyhood. He then removed to Rising Sun, which was made the seat of justice of the new county, where he has ever since re- sided. In August, 1850, he was appointed Circuit

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Judge by Governor Wright; elected by the General As- sembly under the old Constitution the following winter, and elected by popular vote in the fall of 1852 under the new Constitution. He served until August, 1858- eight years in all-and then resigned to engage in prac- tice. During his first term his circuit was composed of the counties of Ohio, Switzerland, Jefferson, Jennings, and Bartholomew, and the salary was eight hundred dollars per annum. The next term Ripley and Brown Counties were added, making in all seven counties, to constitute the first circuit. It extended from the Ohio River on the east more than half-way across the state. The ad- dition of these two counties made an increase in his salary of two hundred dollars per annum. He made a tour of the circuit twice each year, reaching the remote counties, one hundred and twenty-five miles distant, by stage, over rough roads, around the head-waters of swollen streams, or often on horseback. During his service he was treated by the bar and the people with marked re- spect ; and in turn sought to administer with great care and conscientiousness the responsible duties of his high trust, awarding to each suitor equal and exact justice. In 1854 he undertook to conduct a law school in Asbury University. The term commenced in November, after the close of his fall terms of court, and continued until February, 1855. Two classes, junior and senior, were organized. He continued there during three succeeding terms, the last ending in February, 1858. Not a few who received instruction from Mr. Downey at that time have since held responsible public positions. Recently, at least four of his pupils were circuit judges, one occu- pying the bench of the first circuit, which he then held. He continued practice in Ohio County and adjoining counties until December 31, 1870. In the fall of 1862 he accepted, as a war Democrat, the nomination for the state Senate, on the Union ticket, and was elected. In the session of 1863, being listed as an Independent, be- cause elected by a coalition of Democrats and Republi- cans, he had the difficult duty to perform of refusing to be amenable to the partisan claims of either; but on each occasion he spoke and voted as he thought was right. His vote in favor of the adoption of the resolu- tion ratifying the thirteenth amendment to the Consti- tution of the United States secured its passage, and, so far as Indiana was concerned, the abolition of slavery. lle was earnestly in favor of all proper measures for the prosecution of the war. As a member of the Judiciary Committee he was careful and painstaking in the exami- nation of legal questions. His term as Senator expired in October, 1866. He attended the regular sessions of 1863 and 1865, and the special session convened by the Governor in November, 1865. Upon the passage of "An Act to establish a House of Refuge for the Cor- rection and Reformation of Juvenile Offenders," approved March 8, 1867, he was appointed by Governor Baker as

one of the three commissioners constituting the board of control, and was associated with the eminent Friend, Charles F. Coffin, of Richmond, and General Joseph Orr, of Laporte. Having visited and inspected houses of refuge and reform schools in other states, they adopted the family plan, and employed a superintendent to whom it was familiar. The institution was established on a farm near Plainfield, selected and purchased by the Governor, and was opened for the reception of in- mates, January 1, 1868. Mr. Downey's legal judgment and careful business management were valuable to the state in founding an institution which has now grown to large proportions. His term as commissioner expired with the year 1870. Having been nominated by the Democratic state convention, in January, 1870, and elected in October following, he was sworn into the office of Judge of the Supreme Court, and took his seat January 2, 1871. His associates, elected and qualified at the same time, were John Pettit, James L. Worden, and Samuel H. Buskirk. Andrew L. Osborn was added, by appointment of Governor Baker, in 1872; and was succeeded by Horace P. Biddle-elected in 1874-in January, 1875. His six years' term was one of close application to the severe and monotonous labors of the office. Of the cases in Indiana Reports, Volumes XXXIII to LIII, numbering two thousand eight hun- dred and thirty-seven, which went into judgment of the court, as thus constituted, one thousand and sixty- three were disposed of by opinions prepared by him. Renominated by the Democratic state convention in April, 1876, he declined to be a candidate; and, since January 2, 1877, has been engaged in the practice of law. In 1861, when the active militia was organized along the Ohio River, as the Indiana Legion, he became a private in Captain Wells's company, at Rising Sun, and, because of his height and soldierly bearing, was appointed first corporal. This gave him position at the right of the company, and in the front rank. His activity in the organization of the militia, and his de- votion to the cause of the Union, commending him to Governor Morton, commander-in-chief, he was by him promoted from the ranks and commissioned a brigadier- general. In command of a part of the forces along the border during the war, he rendered acceptable service. As a Free and Accepted Mason, he traveled with the venerable Samuel Reed, grand lecturer, visiting lodges in South-eastern Indiana, and receiving and giving in- struction. A member of Rising Sun Lodge, No. 6, he was its Worshipful Master. For several terms he was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge. His annual address in May, 1861, wherein he referred to the war recently begun, received marked attention for its opportune and patriotic sentiments. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Asbury University in 1858, and by Indiana University in 1871. In religion, he is

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a Methodist, and has consistently trained his family under the influence of that form of Christianity. For many years he has been chosen by the conference in which he resides a trustee of Indiana Asbury Univer- sity, and has been for thirteen years honored by an election as president of the joint board of trustees and visitors. He married, April 19, 1846, Sophia J. Tapley, born May 10, 1825, only child of Daniel Tapley and Susan (Chandler) Tapley. Her father was a native of Danvers, Massachusetts, and was born July 14, 1791 ; her mother was born September 15, 1798, in Accomack County, Virginia. They were married at Rising Sun, December 20, 1820, and resided there until their death; that of the former occurring October 22, 1878, and that of the latter, June 10, 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Downey have had eight children: Samuel Reed, born in 1847; , Daniel Tapley, born 1850; Harry Selwood, born 1853; Alexander Coffin, born 1856, died in 1858; George Eddy, born 1860; John Chandler, born 1863, died in 1866; Anna Winona, born 1865; and Frank Merritt, born 1868. The first three have been educated for the law, and have entered into its practice. Judge Downey possesses a large and well-developed body; his head is large and well shaped, with high, broad forehead and prominent nose. He is more than six feet in height, with broad shoulders, full chest, firm, erect carriage; and weighs over two hundred pounds. His manners are distinguished by a quiet native dignity that, upon occasion, is singularly impressive, without sternness or severity, but full of the gentleness and firmness which become the Christian, the jurist, and the Mason. Despite the exhaustion incident to years of judicial labor, which has removed from life two of his associates, he shows but little the weight of threescore years which rest upon him, and bids fair to realize the hopes of many friends, that he may have ample strength of body and mind to enjoy their society beyond the limit of fourscore years, common to his ancestry.

UFOUR, PERRET, of Vevay, Switzerland County, was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, August 21, 1807. His father, John Francis Dufour, settled in Kentucky in 1801, and was a native of Switzer- land, canton of Vaud, village of Montreaux, near Ve- vay. His mother, Mary (Crutchfield) Dufour, belonged to a family from North Carolina, which had settled on the opposite side of the Kentucky River in 1801. In 1806 his parents were married, and in March, 1809, they left Kentucky, came down the Kentucky River to its mouth, and then up the Ohio to what is now the city of Vevay. In a little log-cabin built among the primeval forests, and surrounded by numerous Indian neighbors, the childhood of Perret Dufour was passed. Here his

father cleared a small farm, and the son obtained his first lessons at a log school-house about a mile distant, French being the language spoken by teacher and pupils. In 1813 the town of Vevay was laid out, John Francis Du- four being the prime mover and actor in the undertak- ing. To him belonged the honor of giving the town its name; and afterwards, on the organization of the county, being privileged by the territorial Legislature to name that also, he called it for Switzerland, the land of his birth. He was the first clerk of the county, serving all through the territorial government, and for seven years after Indiana was admitted as a state. He was also Jus- tice of the Peace, county surveyor, and assessor of prop- erty for taxation. He was elected one of the Associate Judges, and in 1827 became a member of the state Leg- islature. He was afterwards elected Probate Judge, and was subsequently re-elected Associate Judge, which po- sition he occupied at the time of his death, in 1850. In 1810 he had been appointed postmaster of Vevay by Postmaster-general Gideon Granger, and served in that capacity twenty-six years, until October, 1836. Perret Dufour assisted his father in the clerk's office and also in the post-office. At about sixteen years of age he went to Lewisburg, Preble County, Ohio, and was engaged as clerk in a store, remaining five years, with the exception of a short interval spent in flat-boating on the river. In 1829 he returned to Vevay, and the next year engaged in the mercantile business with his father, continuing until the fall of 1834, when they retired. The next year Perret formed a partnership with his father-in-law, Judge Abner Clarkson, whose daughter, Eliza M. Clarkson, he married, December 30, 1830. Mrs. Dufour is still living. Her father died at the advanced age of ninety-three. The partnership with Judge Clarkson continued until after the Civil War, their business including trading and buying produce. They were successful in making money, but suffered very severely by the operation of the bank- rupt law of 1841. Mr. Dufour was at this period called upon to occupy various public positions of more or less prominence. In 1832 he was elected Justice of the Peace for five years, and in 1837 was re-elected for a second term of five years. In 1837 he was appointed postmaster at Vevay, and served until 1841. He was again ap- pointed postmaster in 1845, and served until 1849. In 1842 he resigned the office of Justice of the Peace, and was elected to the state Legislature on the Democratic ticket, serving during the term of 1842-43. In 1851 he was appointed by the county commissioners to ap- praise the real estate of the county. In 1870 he was elected Justice of the Peace for four years; was re-elected in 1874; and, in 1878, the person elected to succeed him having failed to qualify, he held the office until a suc- cessor was elected. In 1850 a turnpike company was or- ganized, the charter of which was drawn up by Mr. Du- four and his father, known as the Vevay, Mt. Sterling

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and Versailles Turnpike. His father was the first presi- dent, and one of the nine original directors, only three of whom now survive-Messrs. Schenck, Grisard, and Arm- strong. Mr. Dufour was elected first secretary, and still holds that position. From 1832 to the present time he has been particularly active in the politics of the county, and no man within its borders knows more of its history. In the centennial year he wrote a concise history of the county, full of interesting matter relating to its settle- ment and progress, which was published in installments

in the Vevay Reveille. As a source of reliable informa- tion on the county history it can not be excelled, and should some day be published in book form. For nearly fifty years Mr. Dufour has lived within a radius of one hundred feet of his present residence at Vevay. Every vote that he has ever cast has been deposited within the city limits. He has voted at thirteen presidential elec- tions, and each time his suffrage has been given to the Democratic candidate, his first vote having been cast for Andrew Jackson, in 1828. For the last half century he has had a voice in every enterprise in which Vevay was interested. Although past his seventy-first year, and commencing to feel the infirmities of age, his faculties are as keen and his perceptions as quick as in his younger days. His counsel is still sought, and carries with it the weight of experience and matured judgment, and he is held in respect alike by young and old. His is a familiar household name, in Switzerland County, and will undoubtedly survive the changes and chances of many generations.

URHAM, JAMES F., one of the proprietors and managing editor of the Versailles Index-Dispatch, was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, August 2, 1850. He was the fourth son and seventh child of Hon. Noah C. and Ann (Ramsey) Durham. His father, a farmer and miller, is still an active business man ; and has done much for the county in bringing farms under cultivation and building mills. He was formerly one of the leading Democratic politicians of his county, which he represented in the Legislature from 1853 to 1857. James F. Durham lived on his father's farm and attended school until he was seventeen years of age, when he entered Moore's Hill College. There he spent three years; and, upon leaving the institution in 1870, entered the law office of Judge Noah S. Givans, of Lawrenceburg. In 1871, he entered the county clerk's office of Dearborn County, where he remained two years. Having been admitted to the bar in 1871, he began the practice of his profession in 1873, and con- tinued it until 1876. During this time he wrote many articles for the Cincinnati Enquirer, taking the nom de plume of " Fernando;" and in 1874 he became connected with that journal, traveling through the state of Indi-

ana as its Indiana correspondent. In 1876 he went to Washington, and wrote for the Indianapolis Sentinel. Returning to Indianapolis, he became a member of the Sentinel staff; and for a short time kept books for his father. In 1878 he assumed in Versailles the practice of his profession, which he continued until the spring of 1879, when he purchased an interest in the Index- Dispatch. In politics, Mr. Durham is an active Demo- crat, and conducts the paper in the interest of his political faith. During the campaigns of 1876 and 1878 he made political speeches in parts of the state, thus aiding in advancing the interests of the Democratic party.

ISHER, REV. DANIEL WEBSTER, D. D., president of Hanover College, Hanover, Indi- ana, was born near Arch Spring, in what is now Blair County, Pennsylvania, on the 17th of Jan- uary, 1838. His father was a farmer. His mother was a sister of Ner Middleswarth, who in Whig times was a prominent leader of that party in Pennsylvania. The subject of this sketch is the youngest of four brothers, one of whom is dead, and two of whom oc- cupy the paternal estate. Doctor Fisher received his primary education in the common schools near the home of his childhood, and his preparation for college at Milnwood Academy, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and at Airy View Academy, in Juniata County, Penn- sylvania. In the fall of 1854 he entered Jefferson Col- lege, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1857, taking one of the honors of a class of between fifty and sixty members. The same fall he entered the Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, located at Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, and completed the full course of three years in the spring of 1860. In the spring of 1859 he was licensed by the presbytery of Huntingdon to preach the gospel, and spent the summer as a missionary in Jackson County, West Virginia. In the spring of 1860 he was ordained as a missionary to Siam, and soon afterward married Miss Amanda D. Kouns, of Ravenswood, West Vir- ginia. Through providential causes the mission to Siam was abandoned, though with great reluctance. In the fall of 1860 he removed to New Orleans, Louisiana, and took charge of what is now known as the Frank- lin Memorial Church. On account of the secession of Louisiana and the outbreak of the Civil War, he thought it wise to return North in June of the follow- ing year, although the Church reluctantly parted with him. In August he became pastor of the First Presby- terian Church of Wheeling, West Virginia, in which charge he continued for fifteen years. In West Vir- ginia, Doctor Fisher was prominently connected with not only the ecclesiastical affairs of his denomination,

Har tely

Member of the 35th Congress

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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 40

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