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 54

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 54

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"I read, re-read the jarring creeds

That teachers told me are divine,

To satisfy my longing needs

Through all life's phases, cloud and shine ;

Then sat me down to ponder well,

For what was truth I could not tell,

And reason made me infidel. Not infidel to God, and his eternal good,

But infidel to priest and priestly word ;

And yet within my longing soul There was the need beyond control. Then darkness closed upon my sight,

So dark there was no ray of light, When softly on my senses fell A voice, from whence I could not tell :

' Mortal, be merciful, be just, All else of creed is but as dust. Be this, not for reward of heaven, But for the love that God hath given. Be merciful, be just, And thou mayst hope and trust.' "

ARDING, MYRON HOLLY, M. D., of Lawrence- burg, Indiana, is the second son of David Hard- ing and his wife Abigail. He was born on the seventh day of August, 1810, in the town of Williamson, Ontario County, state of New York. At the time of the intermarriage of his father and mother, the former was a widower with a family of seven chil- dren, one son and six daughters, by a former marriage, and the latter was the widow of Parley Hill, senior, and had five children, three sons and two daughters. The fruits of this second marriage were three sons and four daugh- ters, as follows: Stephen S., Myron H., Laura Ann, Lorenzo D., Mary Ann, Minerva, and Almira. Laura Ann was a twin sister of Myron H. It is worthy of note that, with a single exception, all of these children constituted one family, and lived to see the youngest daughter grow to the estate of womanhood without a single break in their ranks. Nevertheless, at this writing, only three survive out of that numerous house- hold-Stephen S. Harding, Doctor Harding, and Mrs. Mary Ann Williams. David Harding was the only son of Stephen Harding, who was the son of Stephen Hard- ing, who also was the son of Stephen Harding, a native of the state of Connecticut. It appears from these facts that the name Stephen had been patronymic for three generations at least in the Harding family. David Harding also was a native of the same state. Abigail Harding was a native of Cummington, Massachusetts. Her maiden name was Brown. About the time of the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, the father of David Harding removed with his large family to the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, and in 1778 was taken prisoner by the Indians under the command of the notorious renegade Brandt, and held in captivity for several days. It was during this time that David Hard- ing, then a boy only twelve years old, was compelled to turn a grindstone until he was nearly exhausted, for the Indians to sharpen their scalping knives, tomahawks, and spears, the day before the battle, or rather massa- cre, of Forty-fort. After the release of the family the father returned to Connecticut, where he remained until peace was restored, when he again returned to Wyom-

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[4th Dist.

ing. It was there that David Harding grew up to man- hood, and married a Miss Umphraville. He continued to reside in the beautiful valley until the beginning of the present century, when he emigrated to Ontario County, in Western New York. He purchased a piece of wild land, and by dint of hard work in a few years estab- lished himself in a comfortable home. His wife died, and, as stated above, he was left with seven children on his hands. It was under these circumstances that he married his second wife. After the breaking out of the war with Great Britain in 1812, Mr. Harding became involved in debt, thinking at the time that his transac- tions would be very profitable; the whole matter re- sulted in great pecuniary embarrassment, and the cold season that followed the close of the war made it im- possible to save the dear homestead, and necessity com- pelled him to seek a new home with his large family. The fields that he was compelled to abandon to stran- gers had been changed by his unceasing toil from a wilderness to a garden in the prime and strength of his

manhood. But all that could avail nothing. At the age of fifty-three years he looked for the last time on his old home, and turned his face toward the setting sun. He sought the far West, and on the tenth day of May, 1820, settled down in Ripley County, Indiana, then almost an unbroken wilderness. He was unable to purchase a tract of Congress land until two years aft- erwards, and during that time rented some that had a small clearing, where a log-cabin was erected, into which the family moved. In the summer of 1822, he was enabled to purchase eighty acres of Congress land, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. A more comfortable cabin was built for the family, and after it was ready for occupancy the clearing up of a small field was begun by the father and his three boys with a hearty good will. Upon his arrival in Ripley County the whole neighborhood did not contain more than a dozen cabins. A school-house had not been erected, and even the site had not been agreed upon. In the fall of 1820 a log-cabin school-house was put up for the purpose of having a three months' school the coming winter. Not a foot of plank lumber was used in its construction, nor a nail or pane of window glass. Nearly all of one end was filled up with a huge fire- place made of rough limestone, large enough for all of the scholars to warm by at the same time. It was here that Doctor Harding attended the first school that ever was taught in that part of Ripley County. His two brothers, Stephen and Lorenzo, with one or two sisters, also attended the same. Doctor Harding never attended any other schools than those taught in this, his Alma Mater. It was the same with his brother Lorenzo. But, in order to make this part of the boyhood life of Doctor Harding complete, it is proper to return to the chopping, piling brush, and burning the same, in the clearing up

of a new farm. Oftentimes when the weather was fair, and more especially on moonlight nights, these three brothers might have been found at work late and early, like so many beavers, chopping down the smaller trees and piling the brush. It is but justice to the memory of the father to state that the boys were not required to work at these unusual hours, but they sought to gain some extra time by which they would be permitted to work a day or two occasionally for a neighbor on their own account, when they would earn from twelve and a half cents to three fips per day, and could jingle the coins in their pockets. Such at that day was boyhood life in the woods of Ripley County. If, perchance, two men with bridles in their hands, on the hunt for stray horses, had passed by this clearing, and had stopped a moment to make the inquiry always at their tongues' ends, " Boys, have you seen any stray horses pass along here?" and one of those persons had said to the other, "Them's small chaps to be clearing so early;" and had remarked at the time, "The biggest boy there will be- come a lawyer, and be admitted to practice in the courts before he is of age, and will live to be a governor, a United States consul, and a Chief Justice, under the ap- pointment of the President and Senate of the United States; and them two little fellows will graduate in one of the learned professions in some big college ; " notwith- standing the wild extravagance of the self-appointed soothsayer, yet they both might have lived long enough to see the prediction verified to the very letter. The father of Doctor Harding lived on his little farm until his death, on the 6th of October, 1837, at the age of sixty-nine years. The mother lived to the advanced age of eighty-one years. Lorenzo D. Harding died on the twenty-second day of August, 1850. He was a regular graduate of the Ohio Medical College. Had his life been spared, there is not a doubt but he would have gained very high honors in his profession. It seems a mystery how the subject of this memoir acquired even the rudiments of the most ordinary education. His op- portunities before coming to Indiana were very limited, indeed, even for a boy of his age. Nevertheless, when he was eighteen years of age, he assumed the duties of schoolmaster himself, and became a decided favorite wherever he appeared in his new character. Suffice it to say, during all of these unpromising years he lost no time in the ordinary sports and games so common with boys, but might have been found in some secluded spot with book, and perhaps slate and pencil, mastering the difficult problems before him, oftentimes insoluble in the hands of other boys older than he, even with the assistance of the schoolmaster. Doctor Harding may be called, in every sense of the word, a self-made and self- educated man. Every day of his life added something to his store of knowledge. His moral conduct was founded in principles so high that they gave color to his very being.

O. P. Coff

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

4th Dist.]

At the age of twenty he entered on the study of medi- cine, under the tuition of Doctor Cornett, of Versailles. In securing so competent an instructor he was most for- tunate. After applying himself to his books for a few days, he asked to be examined by his tutors, who took a lively interest in the progress of the student. After reading about one year, he was thought to be able to stand an examination before the medical society of Dearborn County. In this he was not mistaken, and from that time practiced as a licentiate up to the year 1837, when he graduated with full honors of M. D. at the Ohio Medical College. In the mean time he had more than paid expenses. In 1838 he married Miss Lucy S. Plummer, of Manchester, a young lady of fine abilities. By this marriage six children were born, three sons and three daughters. Of these only three survive, to wit: Isadore Robins, wife of Doctor Robins; Laura Ann Wymond, wife of W. Wymond; and David Arthur Harding. Lucy S. Harding died in 1864, and in 1865 the widowed husband was joined in marriage to Mrs. Mary Ann Hill, the widow of Doctor Parley Hill, junior, of Madison, Indiana. Doctor Harding has always had too many patients on his hands to engage in politics, otherwise he might have made some reputa- tion as a politician. For the last forty years he has resided in the city of Lawrenceburg, Indiana. His practice during this long period has been most exten- sive, and his skill and learning in his profession have never been questioned. He has never found time to en- gage in authorship; nevertheless, he has written several articles of great interest to the profession, which have appeared in medical journals. In addition to his gen- eral business, he has served as United States pension sur- geon since his appointment in 1862. He was president of the Indiana State Medical Society in 1866, and deliv- ered a learned and able address upon "The Effects of Climate and Temperature upon Health and National Character." He has also been president of the Dear- born County Medical Society, a member of the Ameri- can Medical Association since 1859, and is an honorary member of the California State Medical Society. He has taken a warm interest in the progress of medical science. Such are the outlines of the life of a self-made and self-educated man, whose indomitable will and un- blemished moral character deserved the success that has crowned the life of Doctor Harding.

OBB, O. P., of Aurora, president of the Aurora Iron and Nail Company, was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1817. His mother, Nancy Cobb, was the daughter of Colonel Will- iam Crawford, who did good service in the Revolution- ary War and in the War of 1812. He was of Scotch

and German descent. His father, Joshua Cobb, was born in Vermont, of Welsh parentage, but removed to Pennsylvania, and was there married. In that state they remained until 1819, by that time having a family of six children. While a resident of that state he made six trips to New Orleans, as captain and pilot of keel-boats, one of which he cordelled and poled back to Pittsburgh. At the termination of two of the other trips he sold his boats in New Orleans, and made his way home on horseback; and on his last trip he walked the whole distance from that city to his home near Pitts- burgh. This was his last journey on foot, for when he arrived at Louisville her citizens were celebrating the memorable event of a steamboat having made the voyage up from New Orleans in some forty days. This boat de- parted from New Orleans on the same day that Joshua Cobb left there on foot, it thus appearing that steam then was not much superior in speed to the knee motor, otherwise pedestrianism. In 1819 Joshua and Nancy Cobb removed in a flat-boat from Pittsburgh to Aurora, Indiana, with their six children. O. P. Cobb, the youngest, was then eighteen months old. His parents were on a farm there a year and a half, when, by hard work, strict economy, and by selling their only cow and best bed and bedding, they obtained one hundred dollars, a sum sufficient to enable them to enter eighty acres of wild land. They found the locality by going back from the Ohio River some forty miles, to Decatur County, in what was then called the "New Purchase." This was far beyond any considerable settlement-so much so that his father, together with Colonel Hen- dricks and Colonel Wilson, had to blaze the trees and lay off the first trace, or road, from Napoleon to Indi- anapolis; and the same pathway, with very little change in course or location, eventually became the Michigan State Road. Colonel Wilson settled at Napoleon, Colo- nel Hendricks where Greensburg now is, and Mr. Cobb a few miles from there, on Sand Creek, on the land he had just purchased from the United States government. Here he built a log-cabin, without a nail, screw, or hinge, and without glass or putty. There were no planks except such as he made out of the trees he had cut down and shaped by his chopping and broad ax, augur, gimlets, and froe. To this building, thus wrought by his own hands, was his family brought when the subject of this sketch was but three years old. He can even now recall its dreary appearance, in the midst of a dense forest; the trees, ground, and log-cabin all covered with snow; no fire in the house, or neighbors to borrow it from nearer than seven miles, and then only two fami- lies nearer than twenty-five miles. These difficulties, how- ever, did not seem to discourage his father and mother; for, with his steel and flint, Mr. Cobb had soon a roar- ing fire on the ground on one side of the cabin, and the mother went cheerfully to work to prepare supper

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[ 4th Dist.

in " her own new house," as she said, without a word of complaint of smoking chimney, dirty floors, or open doors, although one was an opening through the clap- board roof, the second was on the ground, and the third a hole cut in the side of the cabin. It was their own home, and all felt happy. In that cabin, and an- other large one built later, the two forming an L, the parents fed, clothed, and educated eight children. Un- til the boy was twelve years of age he was without a school-house, teacher, or book, other than Dilworth's and Webster's spelling-books and a Bible. The latter was frequently in the hands of the inmates of the cabin and the travelers or emigrants to the far West that were there entertained. But in that little place O. P. Cobb received the most valuable part of his educa- tion; it was there he learned to be self-reliant and to husband his resources. When he needed any thing he was taught to work and make it. Buying any thing was out of the question ; making it was the order of the day. Trees were chopped down, split into halves, one side was hewed, and then they were laid down for a floor in the cabin. His father with his froe rived out clapboards cut from timber six feet long, to make the doors to his cabins. These were laid on to the battens with wooden pegs, after boring holes with a gimlet, and the doors were hung with wooden hinges, and had a wooden latch. To lock the door merely required the latch-string to be pulled in. All the other work necessary at that time to maintain a family in the wilderness, such as making and mending ox-yokes, plows, harrows, wagons, etc., the boy saw his father do, and at a very early age himself learned, to give him self-reliance. His mother, whom he revered even more than he did his father, was earnest in striving to give her children a good education, theoretical and practical, both by precept and example. She would spin her thread on both the little and the big wheel, color the yarn with butternut bark, lay the warp, shoot in the filling, a thread at a time, to make cloth, and, after she had woven it into cloth, cut and make shirts, vests, panta- loons, and coats for each of her boys. Often he used to ask his mother when she was going to put another piece in the loom. IIis anxiety arose from the fact that he generally had the privilege of handing in the chain to her through the gears, a thread at a time. This process gave the boy the exclusive benefit of his mother's teaching for nearly a week together. She would sit on one side of the gearing, and he on the other, handing his mother the threads, while a spelling- book lay on the loom between them, she either spelling or reading, or giving out words to spell. The letters were named by the son, and she would pronounce the words thus: B-a, ba; b-e, be; b-i, bi; b-o, bo, etc. In this manner he learned to spell by sound, a principle that he has since advocated. Some learned professors

are now of the same opinion. But that way was then adopted from necessity, not from choice of systems of education, or of teachers. His parents were his in- structors, and his light was not reflected from "mid- night oil," as is now said of modern students, but from hickory bark, that was gathered in the woods in the day-time to burn in the fire-place at night. He studied by its blaze while one parent was making sugar spiles, and the other knitting or sewing on garments for mem- bers of the family. That was the free school that O. P. Cobb attended, and to this day he can hardly pass a shell-bark hickory without tipping his hat to it. Such was the only education he received up to twelve years of age, excepting what he derived from the arguments, talk, and illustrations of traveling statesmen, Methodist preachers, and others who bivouacked for the night in his father's house. Many a time were both of the cabins full to overflowing, at other times containing but a single person aside from the family. But the full house was the most interesting, for then it was that the arguments were most varied, particularly when mem- bers of the state Legislature, lawyers, doctors, and preachers were there, as they often were. Then each would discuss the bearings and importance of his pro- fession or calling : the representative the rights and in- terests of his constituency, the doctor the shaky condi- tion of his patients, the lawyer the innocence of his clients, and the minister the all-important subject whether or no his Church members could fall from grace. To all these discussions he listened with the most intense interest, especially the latter, but could never quite settle the question until a forcible illustra- tion was received. Then his mind was no longer in doubt. One night it chanced that the only man who put up with them was a Baptist preacher. He had be- fore this time presented some very weighty arguments, for he was a large man, as was also Mr. Cobb. The latter weighed over two hundred and forty pounds, but the preacher was the heaviest. When supper was an- nounced only the preacher, the father, mother, and his oldest brother sat down to the table, a small, falling- leaf affair, about three and a half by four feet in size, its small dimensions compelling the occupants to sit close together at the four sides. The rest of the children,

there not being room at the table, were standing in the background, as still as mice, waiting for the preacher to say grace. This was properly said, when the fat min- ister attempted to hitch up his chair to the table. The floor, however, was made of puncheons, hewed on one side and round on the other. They had been laid when green and were now dried, and there were conse- quently large cracks between them. The hind legs of the preacher's chair, as he drew it up to the table, exactly fitted one of these holes, into which it dropped. The natural consequence resulted. Ile backslid to the floor,

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

4th Dist.]

kicking the table over as he fell towards Mrs. Cobb, 1 until the falling leaf touched the floor, leaving the table standing at an angle of about forty-five degrees. The dishes all began on a sliding scale, and they went to the level of the floored preacher, whose chair- legs had forced up the puncheon until it stood at the same angle as the table. Mr. Cobb, being ever ready to assist the fallen, sprang to help his prostrate friend, but stubbed his toe on the elevated puncheon and fell full length on top of the divine. The children, stand- ing by, could not repress themselves, and set up a little applause in the way of "Te-he-he-he! te-he-he-he !" But Mr. Cobb, having raised his companion in arms, shook his forefinger at the children, which they well understood to mean, "Stop that laughing!" It was somewhat checked, when one of the brothers laid his hand on his sister's shoulders and queried: "Did he not fall from grace?" This opened up the chorus again, and even the father's upraised finger could not repress the merriment. The mother by this time had caught the infection, and was laughing until the tears rolled down her cheeks. But in the end the preacher relieved them by saying: "Let them laugh at me. A heavy argument is against me, for I, at least, have fallen from grace." From his earliest recollections Mrs. Cobb put forth her greatest efforts and spared no pains to teach her children sobriety, truthfulness, and honesty, and to avoid card-playing and deception. To illustrate to'them the evil effects of such conduct she used, not a fabled story made up in book-form, but a bit of the history of the life of a boy grown to manhood within her recol- lection, and of whom they had heard something, so that the story was no myth to them: "The boy was bright, but his early associations were bad. His father owned a horse-mill; that is, a mill where each man had to furnish his own team to grind his own grist of corn, and oftentimes some of these countrymen had to wait for hours, both day and night, for their turn to grind. This boy, whose name was James, attended the horse- mill ; his duty was to toll each man's grist, one toll dish from each bushel, for the use of his father's mill. This employed but a small portion of James's time, and he became idle and restless, and, to pass away his leisure, he began to play cards with the customers of the mill. At first he played for fun, then for money, and then he began to steal little articles, going from bad to worse, till finally he commenced stealing horses. This he car- ried on till he was married and had raised two or three children, when he was arrested, tried, and sent to the penitentiary for horse-stealing. He escaped from the prison, however, and returned to his family, but was soon pursued by the officers and dragged from his home, his wife, and his children, regardless of the entreaties, tears, and shrieks of his family." Mrs. Cobb explained to the children that this man brought his calamity upon

himself and his family by first playing cards for fun to while away a leisure moment with his idle associates. "Don't you see, my children, how easily he could have escaped all this if he had not begun it by playing cards? Now, my boys, will you ever try to learn to play cards?" " Never, as long as I live," was the pledge then taken by them unanimously, and never broken by the subject of this sketch. From that day to this he has never allowed a pack of cards to be kept or played about any house, out-house, office, flat-boat, or steamboat that he has had charge of, with the exception of one pack he took home to his house when his eldest boys were six and eight years old, respectively. With these on hand he gave them a history of the card-playing of the boy James, and what it led to, as his mother had given it to him, with the pledges he had made her, and how faithfully he had kept them. Then he gave them the cards, and told them he brought them home to see what they would do with them after hearing the history of the boy James. By this time both boys and girls were in tears, and the cards were quickly dashed into the fire, with resolutions by all that they would never learn to play with them ; and he has now good grounds for the belief that none of his family ever did, so that lesson, short as it was, has proved to be of great value. The other lesson given by his mother was previous to the one just mentioned. It was as follows : He had taken ad- vantage of his brother in a trade by lying and deceiving him as to what his father had said and done. No one but himself knew the fact; but then the boy knew he had committed a wrong both against his father and brother, in direct violation of all his mother's teachings. His conscience troubled him day and night to devise some means to rid himself of his torments, but could not. He thought of all the good lessons he had been given by his mother, and was reminded that she had often told him that it gave her pain to punish her children, and would only do so for their own good, and therefore not beyond the possibility of working a refor- mation. Then he resolved to go to her, acknowledge his wrong doing, and receive what punishment she might think necessary to relieve him from a guilty con- science. No poor sinner, he thinks, was ever more truly repentant of his sins than was he at that time. So he went to her, threw himself into her arms, wept bitter tears, and told her what he had done and what trouble it had caused him. What could be done to re- lieve him from such torments ? She answered : " Ac- knowledge your faults to your father and brothers, ask their forgiveness, and pledge yourself that you will ever be honest and truthful to all of them." He promised it. She then inquired : " Do you mean to live up to your pledge ?" "Oh, yes! as long as I live I will," he replied. " Who is your father and who are your brothers ?" He answered : "Joshua Cobb is my

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 54

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