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 48

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 48

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OBERTS, OMAR F., of Aurora, was born in Manchester Township, Dearborn County, Indiana, June 17, 1834, and is the son of Daniel and Abigail (Goodwin) Roberts, both natives of Dur- ham, Maine. His father, a minister of the gospel in the Christian Church, now in his ninetieth year, dis- tinguished for his eloquence as a pulpit orator, served in the War of 1812, and is on the pension roll. Omar F. Roberts was brought up on a farm in his native township, where he attended the common schools and was a diligent student of ancient and modern history. At the age of eighteen he entered the Lawrenceburg Institute, then under the control of Professor Benjamin T. Hoyt, one of the most distinguished educators of his

day-where he remained three years. He was a la. borious student, and acquired a liberal academic educa- tion. In 1854 he turned his attention to the study of law, entering the law office of Hon. William S. Holman and John D. Haynes, of Aurora, two of the ablest law- yers in Indiana. He remained in their office until the fall of 1856, when he entered the Law Department of the State University at Bloomington. William M. Daily, D. D., a distinguished divine of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, was president of the college; and Hon. James Hughes, once Judge of the Circuit Court, four years a member of Congress, and ultimately Judge of the United States Court of Claims, was professor of law ; Judge Ambrose B. Carlton was also a professor in the law department-both eminent in their profession. Mr. Roberts graduated February 27, 1857, and was admitted to the bar at Lawrenceburg in March following. . In May he opened an office and began practice at Ver- sailles, Ripley County, Indiana, where he remained until the fall of 1858. At that time his health failed and he returned to Dearborn County, and did not re- sume practice until December, 1859, when he opened an office at Aurora. In June, 1860, he was nominated for Representative to the Legislature on the Democratic ticket, and was elected in October following, taking his seat in the House in January, 1861. He supported Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency in that cam- paign. This was a time of great excitement over the threatened resistance to Federal authority by the people of the South; and Mr. Roberts, being a war Democrat, and favoring the suppression of the Rebellion at all hazards, soon after taking his seat delivered a speech favoring a vigorous enforcement of the laws. April 24, 1861, Governor Morton, by proclamation, convened an extra session of the Legislature. On the second day of the session Mr. Roberts introduced a joint resolution, which was unanimously adopted, " tendering to the gen- eral government all the aid necessary, both in men and means, to put down treason, preserve the Union, enforce the laws, and perpetuate the liberties of the people." This resolution and the speech at the regular session of the Indiana Legislature attracted much attention throughout the country. Mr. Roberts adhered to these principles through the entire struggle. During the session of 1861 Mr. Roberts was commissioned major in the militia of the state by Governor Ham- mond, and subsequently lieutenant-colonel in the In- diana Legion for Dearborn County by Governor Morton. On Christmas day, 1860, at Aurora, he was married to Miss Eliza J. Elden, a lady distinguished for her piety and intellectual ability, who for nine years shared the misfortunes and trials of her husband, in his battle with poverty and ill-health, as he struggled for an honorable position as a lawyer. She died July 23, 1870. In De- cember, 1861, Mr. Roberts removed to Lawrence-

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burg, where he opened a law office and practiced his profession. In 1862 he was again elected to the lower branch of the Legislature. During the session of 1863 he supported Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks for the United States Senate, and had the satis- faction of seeing him elected. In July, 1864, he was a private in a company of militia from Lawrence- burg that aided in driving General Morgan from the state, when he made his celebrated raid through In- diana. In 1865 Mr. Roberts was elected, in anticipa- tion of a called session of the Legislature, to fill an unexpired term in the lower branch of that body. In 1873, the state having been redistricted for judicial pur- poses, he was appointed by Governor Hendricks Judge of the Seventh Circuit, to serve until the time provided by law for the election of a judge by the people. He discharged the duties of the office with so much ability that he was nominated for election by acclamation, and although opposed by a very able and popular lawyer he received a majority of votes in nearly every township in the circuit, and was elected by a very large majority. His term of office lasted six years from the date of his commission, October 21, 1873. Probably few judges have commenced their administration under circum- stances calculated to so severely test their ability in rapid and accurate dispatch of business as Judge Rob- erts. The Court of Common Pleas had just been abol- ished, and all its business transferred to the Circuit Court, and, as causes had been accumulating in both courts for a long time, his duties were at once arduous and complicated. It is but just to say that he evinced a familiarity with legal principles, and a ready percep- tion of facts, together with the ability to apply the one to the other, which at once obtained for him the rep- utation of a worthy and competent judge. His admin- istration of the judicial office has been characterized by great industry, careful investigation, strict impartiality, and entire independence of all improper influences from every source. Perhaps his most prominent character- istics as a judge are his dislike of legal technicalities and his love of justice. While he never disregards the forms of law, he never permits the ends of justice to be defeated by legal quibbles, if by any reasonable con- struction it can be avoided. He has had occasion to consider and decide some very important questions, in- volving the new applications of legal principles, notably the question of the validity of divorces granted without the state to a party residing within the state, neither of the divorced parties residing within the state granting the divorce. The question of the validity of such a divorce, granted under a statute of the territory of Utah, came before Judge Roberts, and he was the first judge in the state to decide the question against their validity. His opinion was ably and elaborately given, being so full and accurate a statement of the law that · A -- 15

the Supreme Court of the state, on affirming the judg- ment on appeal, adopted not only his legal conclusion, but even his language. The case referred to is as fol- lows: About the year 1870 a corrupt system of broker- age in divorce was entered upon all over the country- Utah Territory being the field in which they were ob- tained-through attorneys in all the large cities of the United States, who devoted themselves to that business alone, some of them amassing fortunes. As a rule, the divorces were obtained fraudulently. Their legality was not called into question, however, until 1877, when one, Nelson F. Hood, was indicted in the Dearborn Circuit Court for adultery. For defense he set up a divorce ob- tained by him from his former wife in Utah in 1876, thus trying to establish that he was not guilty, as he had been subsequently married to the woman with whom he was charged as living in adultery. Judge Roberts charged the jury that if the evidence showed that Hood and his first wife were residents of Kentucky when the Utah divorce was granted, it was null and void, the Utah court having acquired no jurisdiction to try the case, and grant the divorce. This case being appealed to the Supreme Court, Judge Roberts's rulings were sus- tained, and the result was the breaking up of the most corrupt divorce system ever known in any country. (See Hood v. State, 56 Indiana Record, page 263.) The case attracted wide-spread attention, all the leading jour- nals commenting extensively upon it, commending Judge Roberts in his course. Judge Roberts has a ready com- mand of language, and his instructions to juries are models of clearness and force, always covering and making plain the legal points involved. He has perhaps had a fewer number of cases reversed by the Supreme Court than any nisi prius judge in the state. In May, 1876, he was elected from the Fifth Congressional Dis- trict a delegate to the St. Louis Democratic Convention, in which he supported Governor Thomas A. Hendricks for the presidency. November 23, 1870, he married Miss Mary McHenry, of Aurora. One child, Paul Wickliffe, a bright and interesting boy, was the result of this mar- riage. In the winter of 1878, while Judge Roberts was holding court at Rising Sun, colored men served as petit jurors for the first time in the judicial history of Ohio and Dearborn Counties, which at the time created quite a sensation. At the April term, 1879, of the Dearborn Circuit Court, held at Lawrenceburg, a married woman testified, for the first time in that county, in a civil suit against her husband for divorce, a step in judicial re- form which met his hearty approval. While a member of the Legislature he advocated the removal of all restric- tions upon the admission of testimony in courts of justice (except in certain cases as now defined by law), be- lieving that a court and jury trying a cause should be permitted to obtain the truth from all reasonable sources, justice being the aim and end of testimony,

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the medium of light and truth in all judicial proceed- ings, should be free and unobstructed.

OBERTS, REV. ROBERT, A. M., of Madison, son of William and Henrietta Roberts, was born in Caroline County, Maryland, August 22, 1835. Of his father's family he knows little; they were scattered while he was yet a child. His father, while possessing many excellent qualities of head and heart, was fond of sporting, and loved the fox-chase, so com- mon in his time, and the associations of gamesters. These habits involved loss of time, neglect of business, and the expenditure of money, which, in their turn, brought bankruptcy to the family. His mother, whose maiden name was Pratt, belonged to a wealthy and in- fluential family of Queen Anne County, Maryland. She was an amiable, Christian lady ; and in her death, which occurred when her son Robert was but six years of age, he lost his best earthly friend. His father died six years later, thus early leaving him an orphan, with- out money or influential friends. After spending a few years on the farm with an elder brother, working for his board and clothes, he engaged with a neighboring farmer. The price of his services was to be twelve dollars a year, board for the same length of time, and three months' schooling. The second year he received twenty-five dollars; the third, thirty-six-other things remaining the same. At fourteen years of age he made a profession of religion, and soon after joined the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, in which he found kind friends. This he now looks upon as the most important step in his life. When about eighteen years old he apprenticed himself to John M. Mason, a cabinet-maker, of Easton, Talbot County. Soon after, his eldest brother, William H. Roberts, of Franklin County, Indiana, being desi- rous of having all his brothers and sisters in the West, went to Maryland, and brought the four younger children to Indiana. In this state Robert Roberts soon found his way to Connersville, the county seat of Fayette County, and there spent several years, working as molder, tinner, and clerk. Here he deposited his letter in the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, of which Rev. Joseph Cotton was pastor. Mr. Cotton took a warm interest in him, and suggested what had been on his own mind for years, namely, that he ought to preach. He gave him license to exhort ; but being young, timid, and conscious of his utter disqualification for the work, he soon sur- rendered his authority, and gave his attention to busi- ness. He was then about twenty years old. The con- viction that he ought to preach still followed him, however; and early in the spring of 1857 he commenced the study of theology with his old friend, Rev. Joseph Cotton, who was then stationed in Indianapolis. After

remaining here until fall, he was admitted into the South- eastern Indiana Conference, and appointed to Columbia Circuit, near Connersville. Success attended his min- istry from the beginning. At the close of his third year in the ministry he married Miss Emily E. Ball, youngest daughter of Jonathan and Asenath Ball. The Ball family is connected with the Methodist Church, and is one of the most wealthy, liberal, and influ- ential in Rush County. After traveling ten years Mr. Roberts, still feeling most keenly his want of educa- tional advantages, resolved to make a bold effort to re- pair the misfortunes of his early life. He accordingly removed his family to Moore's Hill, and entered col- lege. Notwithstanding the humiliation which, as the head of a family and a member of ten years' standing of the South-eastern Indiana Conference, he necessarily felt upon taking his place in classes with boys and girls, yet he toiled on for three years, taking part with the other students in all the college and society duties. His purpose was to remain five years; but, his eyesight failing, he was compelled to discontinue his studies. He was then stationed in the Centenary Charge, Greens- burg, where he served three years, after which he was appointed to Edinburg and Shelbyville. He is now pastor of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Madison, one of the first appointments of his conference. The most prominent characteristics of Mr. Roberts are his unyielding energy and his faith in God.

CHENCK, ULYSSES P., merchant and manufac- turer, of Vevay, Switzerland County, was born in the canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland, May 16, 18II. His parents, John J. P. and Matilda Schenck, came to this country in 1817, and settled on a farm about three miles from Vevay. His father was a tinner, but after his arrival in America turned his atten- tion principally to farming until 1825. He then re- moved to Louisville, then Shippingport, and engaged in the mercantile trade on a small scale, gradually in- creasing and enlarging his business until 1832, when he returned to his farm near Vevay, where he soon after- ward died. Ulysses P. Schenck was obliged to content himself with the limited opportunities for education which the common schools afforded, and early acquired that self-reliance which proves the best mental dis- cipline. To trace the successive steps by which, from a humble commencement, he gradually rose to be one of the wealthiest men in Southern Indiana, would be in- teresting as well as profitable; but the limits of a bio- graphical sketch forbid more than an outline of his history. Industry, perseverance, good management, energy, and, above all, strict attention to the principles of honesty and integrity, "point the moral and adorn

Или Миру M I Schenck

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the tale." He was employed as clerk by his father in | from time to time, been thrust upon him. Personally, Louisville until he came of age, when he was enabled he is a gentleman of quiet appearance, inclined to be over-modest in his estimate of himself, frank and kindly in his manners. He still gives close personal attention to his affairs, and undoubtedly has many years of useful- ness still before him. No name is more familiar to the citizens of Southern Indiana than that of U. P. Schenck. He possesses an extraordinary memory; and, while con- ducting a more extensive business than perhaps any other man in Southern Indiana, he seems at all times perfectly familiar with every detail of his immense estab- lishment. His patience is proverbial; he never acts hastily, but, coolly calculating the risks of a proposed investment or transaction, giving it careful and syste- matic consideration, rarely makes a mistake. He is al- ways ready and willing to advise others, and many are eager to avail themselves of his valuable lessons on busi- ness matters. In short, he has one of those rare minds that enable their possessors to amass wealth, and to a great extent control public sentiment, without incurring the envy or ill-feeling of those with whom they come in contact. to commence business for himself at the same place. In 1837 he removed to Vevay, and the following year engaged in the mercantile trade on the site of his pres- ent mammoth establishment. He was successful from the very start, and added to the profits of his business by sending flat-boats down the river. He soon com- menced to deal very largely in produce, and by careful management and judicious investments gradually ac- cumulated a fortune, which, however, he did not lock up, but put into circulation through various channels. His name soon became identified with steamboat inter- ests to a large extent. In 1854, with his brother, he built the "Switzerland," which, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he sold to the government for a gunboat. He has owned and controlled as large a number of steamboats as any one man on the Ohio River. In 1876 the "U. P. Schenck," one of the largest boats on the river, was built for the Cincinnati and New Orleans trade, and does a fine business. His son, Andrew J. Schenck, was her first captain, and is now her sole owner. As may well be supposed, Mr. Schenck is prominently identified with the manufacturing, financial and other interests centering in the city of Vevay. He is president of the Union Furniture Manufacturing Com- pany, the principal industry of the place, which gives employment to about sixty hands; president of the First National Bank of Vevay, which he was the prime mover in organizing; and has been interested in the Versailles turnpike road since its construction. From the enor- mous quantities of hay purchased and handled by Mr. Schenck, he was long known by the title of " The Hay King." In 1878 his immense ware-rooms, containing a large quantity of hay, were burnt to the ground, but he has since rebuilt them on a somewhat smaller scale. He has been a member of the Baptist Church for nearly thirty-five years, and has been a liberal contributor to Church enterprises. He expended about ten thousand dollars in aid of the erection of the Baptist Church edifice in Vevay, and has also donated large sums to Franklin College, a Baptist educational institution, of which he was a trustee for several years. On the 22d of September, 1830, Mr. Schenck married Miss Justine Thiebaud, a lady of Swiss extraction, whose family were among the early settlers of Vevay, She came to this country in early childhood, on the same vessel with her future husband, unconscious of the link which was destined to unite them in later years. Of a family of eleven children born to them, only two survive, An- drew J. and Ulysses, who are associated with their father in business, the latter widely known among steamboat men as Captain Schenck. In politics, Mr. Schenck has always been a Democrat, but has avoided official position, except when local and city offices have,

COBEY, JOHN S., of Greensburg, was born in Sycamore Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, De- cember 2, 1818, and is the son of Timothy and Chloe (Gest) Scobey. He received the education common to the youth of that period, which consisted sim- ply of a few months' tuition during the winter, devoting himself the remainder of the year to work on his father's farm. At the age of twenty-two he entered the freshman class of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he remained until the end of the sophomore year, and then commenced reading law in the office of Gov- ernor Bebb, in Hamilton, Ohio. Having determined to practice in Indiana, he removed to that state in 1843, and entered the office of Governor Matson, at Brookville. In August, 1844, he was admitted to the bar by Miles C. Eggleston, and immediately commenced the practice of his profession. In 1847 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the state, at a time when such distinctions were obtained far less easily than at present. In August of the same year he was elected prosecuting attorney of Decatur County, and served the full term. In 1852 he was elected state Senator from the same county, and the following autumn was on the Scott electoral ticket from the congressional district composed of Decatur, Rush, Franklin, Dearborn, Ohio, Switzer- land, and Ripley Counties. When President Lincoln made his call for five hundred thousand troops, in July, 1862, Indiana's quota was one regiment from each con- gressional district. Receiving a telegram from Gov- ernor Morton, Mr. Scobey proceeded to Indianapolis, and was requested by the great war Governor to raise a

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company of men in Decatur County. This he succeeded in doing a few days later, and received a commission as captain of Company A, 68th Indiana Volunteers, which almost immediately started for Kentucky. The regiment having gone to the field without a major, Cap- tain Scobey was appointed to fill the vacancy. In June, 1863, Lieutenant-colonel Shaw resigned at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on account of disabilities, and was succeeded by Major Scobey. After the Chickamauga battle, in which Colonel King, of the 68th, who. commanded the brigade, was killed, Lieutenant-colonel Scobey was ap- pointed his successor, with the full rank of colonel. Thirty months of active service, together with the hard- ships of camp life, having made terrible inroads on his health, Colonel Scobey resigned his position in the win- ter of 1864, and returned to Greensburg an absolute wreck of his former self. In the quiet of farm life, far removed from the stirring scenes in which he had so long been a participant, he gradually regained his physical powers. In resigning his position, which he had won step by step, Colonel Scobey was actuated by that high sense of honor which is ever an attribute of the true soldier. Unwilling to draw pay and share honors for a duty which, by reason of ill-health, he was unable to perform, he wisely concluded to resign, even though such resignation precluded all idea of further military advancement, an event at that time extremely probable. Emerging at last from private life, we find his name in 1872 on the electoral ticket on which Hor- ace Greeley's name appeared for President. In 1876 he was chosen by the Democratic State Convention as elector at large on the ticket represented by Tilden and Hendricks; Daniel W. Voorhees and himself being the electors for the state at large, together with thirteen district electors. In this election Mr. Scobey ran nearly five hundred votes ahead of his ticket, a substantial evi- dence of his wide-spread popularity. During this can- vass he was an indefatigable worker, often delivering three speeches at as many different points in one day. As a mark of personal regard he was assigned the honor of delivering the returns to the president of the Senate at Washington. He married, November 4, 1845, Miss Maria M. Stuckey, at Brookville. Three children were the fruits of this marriage, two of them still living. His oldest son, Orlando B. Scobey, studied law with him, and for the past four years has filled the office of prosecuting attorney for this judicial circuit. The other, Daniel L. Scobey, practices medicine in Greensburg. Colonel Scobey was married, May 5, 1856, to Miss Lu- cinda Davis, of Columbiana County, Ohio, by whom he has had three children. December 30, 1879, he married Mrs. Mary A. Watts, with whom he is now living. Colonel Scobey is a Democrat. He is a Knight Templar, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is of medium height, and possesses a

countenance at once grave, handsome, and intellectual. Though a man of strong convictions and positive char- acter, he is almost without an enemy.

MITH, EDWIN, M. D., of Aurora, was born April 29, 1832, in the old Bay State. His parents were Rufus and Polly (Foskett) Smith, the former of whom was of an old Massachusetts family, and the latter of Welsh descent. His father was a shoemaker, and died when Edwin Smith was only eleven years old. His mother being left with little means, he endeavored to aid in the support of the family, at the same time making rapid progress in his studies by improving the limited advantages afforded by the public schools. After he had attained his eighteenth year, he received private instruction from his pastor for some two years, during which he pursued a scientific and literary course, with a view to the study of medicine. He afterward traveled two years in the life insurance business, and then spent some time in the employment of a relative who was a merchant. In 1852 he went to Cleveland, Ohio, and engaged in business on his own account, which he continued some four years, when, finding it did not agree with him, he retired. He then took a thorough course in a commercial college, and attended two courses of lectures on commercial law, after which be removed to Canton, Ohio, and engaged in teaching from 1857 to 1876. During that time he formed a de- termination to study medicine. He had nearly all his life been a student of the science after the old school, and had intended to prepare himself for that form of practice, when he became interested in homœopathy. He purchased Dr. Pulte's books and a case of medicines, and in due time commenced treating himself and friends. Being favorably impressed with the results, he gave up teaching, and entered the Pulte Medical College, of Cincinnati. In addition to the regular course, he gave special attention to gynæcology and diseases of the eye and ear, and received a special diploma in the former branch. He graduated in May, 1877, and was awarded the prize for his thesis on the eye and ear. In July of the same year he removed to Aurora, Indiana, and began practice. His good judgment and ability, and his le- niency towards those holding different opinions from his

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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 48

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