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 63

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 63

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tion ; a devout Christian, of spotless life, superior intel- lect and influence, and a life-long advocate of total abstinence. He, with his wife Elizabeth, came to In- diana that their children might have a home and the advantages of a free state. She yet resides on the " family acres" which he subdued, situated about four miles south-east of Greencastle, Indiana. Her father, James Nugent, was born in Ireland, and emigrated to America about 1775, first settling in Virginia. He was a mill-wright, and, following his trade, came to Tennes- see. He made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Jen- kins, of Shenandoah County, Virginia, who became his wife. He died on his farm in Hawkins County, in 1819, and she at the same place in 1841. Elizabeth Moore was a devoted wife and mother, and survives to enjoy the comfort and love of all her children. There were born to Thomas A. and Elizabeth Moore nine children, all of whom are living; namely, Marshall A., Granville C., James V., Lorenzo F., Theresa L., Athalia J., Cordelia C., Orlena C., and Thomas T. James is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a member of the Indiana Annual Conference. Lorenzo is a farmer, and with his mother and two sisters resides on the family farm, which, to the credit of all concerned, has never been subdivided, though the father has been dead twenty-six years. Two of the girls are teachers- Athalia J. having charge of the intermediate depart- ment of the second ward school in Greencastle, Indiana. Thomas is the junior partner of the law firm of Miller & Moore, of Greencastle, Indiana. Marshall A. Moore and Granville C. Moore had in early life only such meager facilities for education as were afforded by the common schools of that early day, and their own indomitable energies supplied ; their studies being pursued often to late hours by the light of a bark torch. Though after maturer years each attended, for limited times and at irregular intervals, the Indiana Asbury University, the death of their father in 1853 left to them the care of a large family, and they gave up the idea of a thorough collegiate education. For the next seven years they farmed in summer, taught in winter, and snatched the time now and then for a session in college. They be- came eminently successful as teachers in the common schools, and fitted themselves for life as best they could. In 1860 Marshall A. Moore graduated from the Law Department of the Indiana Asbury University, John A. Matson in charge. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the original roth Indiana Volunteers. Having served for the full term of his enlistment, he in 1862 returned to Greencastle, and in May of that year was elected mayor of the city. In May, 1864, he was again elected to that office, the duties of which he discharged with ability and diligence. Under his administration the city cemetery was established, and the beginning made of that system which has resulted in the general public

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improvements of the city. He found the city largely indebted, and when his second term expired, in 1866, he left an overflowing treasury. Since 1864 he has not at any time been a candidate for office, yet has at all times been active in public matters. He prepared and secured the passage of the Indiana law under which cities and towns have been able to build the magnificent school-houses that adorn them. Three of these build- ings grace the city of Greencastle. He it was who drafted the act of the Indiana Legislature of 1879 con- cerning foreign corporations, which lately caused so much comment in Eastern cities. On February 21, 1864, he married Miss Harriet Ragan, fourth daughter of Reuben Ragan, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. She is a lady worthy of the family and father from whom she sprang, and adorns the home her energy, taste, and enterprise have helped to create. In 1861 Granville C. Moore became chief clerk to the superintendent of public instruction of Indiana, Miles J. Fletcher, and continued in that position for six years. In this place he became widely and favorably known to the educators and teachers of Indiana. On May 4, 1863, he married Miss Kate Hubbard, whom he had known from her infancy. She was the second daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth Hubbard (née Peck). Her father, Jesse, was the son of Wright and Lydia Hubbard (née Wal- den), of Kentucky. His wife, Elizabeth, was the daugh- ter of Jacob and Catharine Peck (née Knight), of Put- nam County, Indiana. In Kate, G. C. Moore found a wife who has proved a real helpmate for him. They have three children, Miles F., Elizabeth J., and Charles. In 1869 Granville C. Moore removed to Greencastle, where M. A. Moore had been in the practice of law since 1866, and the firm of Moore Brothers was estab- lished, having from the first an excellent business. Granville C. Moore is a thorough student, and pains- taking in whatever he does. In 1879 the Indiana As- bury University conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. The brothers had charge of the legal difficulties attending the erection of the third ward school- house in Greencastle, and carried the enterprise to a suc- cessful issue. In politics they are, and always have been, Republicans. Their mother made them anti-slavery be- fore they knew what politics was. Both men, however, are liberal in their views, believing that honesty is not confined to one party or set of men. Both for years have been members of the Masonic Fraternity; both are confirmed believers in Christianity, and G. C. Moore is a member of the Locust Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Indeed, all the family that adhere to any sect are Methodists, as was their father before them. The Moore Brothers are, in a literal sense, the architects of their own financial, literary, and professional fortunes: have always been active in local politics; holding that every good citizen should earnestly engage therein, and

that to neglect political duties tends to corruption, and is a sin against freedom and good government. They enjoy the esteem of their neighbors.

AVE, CHRISTIAN C., attorney, of Danville, was born in Carter County, Tennessee, August 22, 1803, and is the fourth son of John and Elizabeth (Carriger) Nave. His father was a farmer and iron master, doing an extensive business in iron ; he served in the War of 1812, and later in the Indian war. Christian Nave passed his childhood on the farm, be- ing employed at the usual labor; and at the age of eighteen entered Washington College, in East Tennes- see. Leaving college in 1823, he entered the law of- fice of Colonel J. P. Taylor, at Elizabethtown, East Tennessee. Here he remained three years; and, in March, 1826, was admitted to the bar to practice in all the courts. He immediately opened an office in Elizabethtown, and built up a large practice, gaining an enviable reputation as a criminal lawyer. In 1831 he emigrated to Indiana, settling in Danville, where he still resides. During the five years he remained in Elizabethtown, he defended many murderers, never los- ing but a single case. The first murder trial in Indiana in which he appeared as counsel was that of John McClave, for the killing of Garretson. In this he was successful, and from that time took high rank among experienced lawyers. He afterwards defended Bula Hockett, tried on the charge of infanticide, and cleared her, the jury being out only seven minutes. Mr. Nave is justly proud of the fact that he has defended more criminals than any other man at the bar; that, while he has numbered among his opponents all the noted lawyers of the state, he has never yet been defeated ; that he has practiced more years than any other attorney in Indiana, and is even now, at the age of seventy-six, one of the finest criminal lawyers of the West. In 1834 he was elected to the Legislature; was re-elected in 1835; and in 1839 was sent to the state Senate, where he served three years. While a member of this body he introduced, and had passed, a bill appropriat- ing all of the unclaimed fees in the county clerk's office to the school fund, which enriched that fund about fifty thousand dollars. In 1846 he helped to raise the first regiment of Indiana volunteer infantry for the Mexican War. For this service he was commissioned a captain, and afterwards promoted to the rank of lieutenant-col- onel. He remained in service one year, and was mus- tered out July, 1847. In 1850 he was a member of the constitutional convention. He married, December 2, 1838, Lurena Rich, of Kingston, Tennessee. Of their five children, George W. is a stock-dealer in Danville ; Christian A. is practicing law in Salina, Kansas; Henry

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L. is a Presbyterian minister at Edinburg, Indiana; the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, now dead, married Isaac Shorer, a farmer, of Hendricks County; and Mary I .. , the younger, is the wife of Hubert Linkfelter. Colonel Nave belongs to the Presbyterian Church. He is a Re- publican in politics, and has always been an active partisan, ever ready at a moment's notice to take the stump for his party. He is still hale and hearty, and few men of half his years are capable of doing the work he daily performs. He is a strong advocate of temperance, and is the oldest worker for the cause in the state. It is due, in a great measure, to his efforts that for over forty years but one saloon has existed in the county.

'BRIEN, JAMES, superintendent of the State Re- form School, Plainfield, was born in Yorkshire, England, September 25, 1843. He is the third son of James and Mary (Charlsworth) O'Brien. His father, who was a merchant in the " tight little isle," died when James O'Brien was a lad; and his mother, emi- grating to America, settled in Laporte, Indiana, where the subject of our sketch worked on a farm until he reached his eighteenth year. He acquired a fair education by attending school during the winter months. Late in the summer of 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company H, 87th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served till the restoration of the peace. During the last two years that he spent in the army he filled the office of company clerk with entire satisfaction to his superiors. The three years following his return to civil life he spent in J. G. Laird's Academy, taking a scientific course, and graduated in 1868. He then went to Kansas and took charge of the high school at Holton, where he remained three years, acting as county examiner of schools and deputy county clerk, in addition to performing his school duties. Re- turning to Indiana in 1872, he was principal of the high school at Wanatah for one year, was elected in June, 1873, superintendent of schools in Laporte County, for two years, and was re-elected in 1875. The follow- ing autumn he was elected assistant superintendent of the Reform School; and one year later, by reason of his ability and faithfulness, he was elected to the full position of superintendent, which he still retains. The average number of boys in attendance has been three hundred and sixty. The school is remarkable for its good order and thorough discipline, and many of the inmates have been permanently reformed. Mr. O'Brien is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics is an active Democrat. He was married, August 1, 1869, to Sarah Hall, of Laporte, the daughter of George Hall, a prominent farmer. They have one son. His school is much visited by those engaged in reform- atory enterprises.

YLER, COLONEL SAMUEL P., attorney, of Franklin, was born in Hawkhurst, England, Au- gust 26, 1819. He is the second son of Samuel and Sophia (Rabson) Oyler. His father was a farmer and freeholder in the mother country. The early life of Mr. Oyler was passed principally in the city of London, where he attended school for some years. He was aft- erward in school for some time at Westminster, and in 1834 emigrated to America, settling in Rochester, New York. Here he continued his studies, and, although he never had the advantages of a collegiate education, his studious habits and industrious reading since attaining to manhood have filled out and perfected the outlines gained at school, until he has now at his command a fund of practical knowledge of infinitely greater value than many a collegian can boast. For two years he worked for twelve dollars per month in a nursery near Rochester. Turning his face toward the then great and far West, he removed in 1841 to the state of Indiana, and settled in Tippecanoe County, where he varied the monotony of farm labor by studying theology. In 1843 he united with the Universalist Church, and for the en- suing eight years preached continuously. During this period his labors were divided among the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. In 1850 he removed to Franklin, Indiana, and commenced the study of law, entering as a student the office of Hon. Gilderoy Hicks. He was admitted to the bar in 1851, when he relin- quished preaching, and commenced the active practice of the profession in which he has won his greatest dis- tinction, and which he has industriously pursued ever since that time. Having been, even before entering the law office of Mr. Hicks, an industrious student of Black- stone, he readily passed an examination, and was ad- mitted to practice before the Supreme Court in 1852; subsequently, also upon examination, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1852, and again in 1854, he was prosecutor of his district, and devoted himself zealously to his profession until 1861. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he at once entered the service of his adopted country, and by his personal efforts raised the first com- pany of volunteers in his county, which was also the third recruited in the state. He was appointed captain of this company, subsequently commissioned major of the 7th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served during the campaign in West Virginia. Return- ing home in August, he resumed the practice of his profession, which he continued until 1862. He then again entered the service, and, having recruited two companies of the 79th Regiment Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and assigned to duty in the Army of the Cumberland. He was first with General Buell, and afterward with Gen- eral Rosecrans in all his memorable campaigns. He

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took part in the battles of Chickamauga and Chatta- nooga, in which his regiment suffered severely. He returned to Chattanooga, the day after the battle of Chickamauga, with nineteen hundred men, all that were left of the Twenty-first Corps, of which he was the ranking officer. He led the charge at the battle of Mission Ridge; and his regiment, consolidated for the time with the 86th Indiana Volunteers, was the first to scale the Ridge and capture the works of the enemy. During the winter of 1863 and 1864 he was stationed in the valley of the Tennessee, and in the following sum- mer was with Sherman in his march upon Atlanta. He was in July, however, disabled by sickness, and in October was obliged to resign his commission and return home. He was at once elected by the Republicans of his district to the state Senate. He served here, with the same success and ability that had distinguished him in the army and in his profession, during two regular and one extra session, being made chairman of the Committee on Organization of Courts and a member of the Judiciary Committee. In 1868 he was appointed Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, and served until 1870. On February 4, 1845, Mr. Oyler married Julia A. Wooding, of Switzerland County, Indiana, who died in November, 1847. He was married to his pres- ent wife, Lucy Howe, daughter of Solomon Hicks, in December, 1849. He was delegate to the Chicago Na- tional Convention, in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was nominated, and was also a delegate and a member of the platform committee of the soldiers' convention at Pittsburgh in 1866. In local matters, Colonel Oyler is active and useful, having been president of the school board of Franklin for years, and at the time when the city high school building-one of the finest in the state- was erected. As a citizen he enjoys, in an eminent de- · gree, the confidence and respect of the community.

ITCHLYNN, HIRAM R., M. D., was born in Columbus, Mississippi, December 25, 1829. His paternal grandfather, John Pitchlynn, left Ports- mouth, England, and sought adventure in the Everglades of Florida some years prior to the Seminole War. From there he went to Mississippi. That he was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and force of character is evinced by the fact that he was government interpreter, during Jackson's administration, for the Choctaw nation. He married a wife of the Choctaw tribe, Folsom by name, of mixed English and Indian blood. The father of the subject of this sketch, John Pitchlynn, junior, married Leila, daughter of Major Levi Colbert, the illustrious chief of the Chick- asaw nation. Colonel P. P. Pitchlynn, an uncle of Mr. Hiram Pitchlynn, is a resident representative of the

Choctaw nation, at Washington City, and is spoken of at length in Charles Dickens's " American Notes." Hiram received his early education and training in the Choctaw nation. In 1847, when seventeen years old, he went to Greencastle and entered Asbury Univer- sity, remaining there three college years. In 1850 and 1851 he attended medical lectures at Indiana Central Medical College, Indianapolis. In 1852 and 1853 he attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Phil- adelphia. He returned to Greencastle, and has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession, in which he has gained a reputation that places him in the front rank of his profession, and makes him an authority in complicated cases. Doctor Pitchlynn mar- ried, May 7, 1850, Miss Desire A. Morrow, a niece of Chief Justice McLain, of the Supreme Court, and is connected with some of the best Ohio families. Of six children by this marriage but two are living. Doctor Pitchlynn for a quarter of a century was a social drinker, and his temperament led him into excesses which his sober judgment condemned; but in April, 1877, he put on the red ribbon, and has not only abided by it faithfully, but has infused his zeal into others' hearts. He is now a member of the executive com- mittee of the Indiana Christian Temperance Union, and one of the most pronounced temperance men in the state.

AYNE, PHILANDER W., physician and surgeon, of Franklin, the youngest son of George M. and Susan (Holcomb) Payne, was born in Bedford, Ohio, March 9, 1832. His father, a well-known farmer and merchant, is still living, and at the age of eighty-eight years is remarkable for his intellectual and physical vigor. He, was a soldier in the War of 1812, while Mr. Payne's grandfather on his mother's side was a Revolutionary soldier. The latter was for eight years a colonel in the American army, and. was one of the active spirits in that memorable and illustrious war for freedom. He was with the suffering army at Valley Forge through that terrible winter which was the dark- est hour in the history of those dark days, and was present at the capture of Trenton. At the age of six- teen years, Mr. Payne left the farm and entered the Jennings County Seminary, where he studied for three years, teaching school occasionally in order to obtain the means to pay his expenses. After leaving the sem- inary he spent one year in teaching, and then com- menced a regular collegiate course at Wabash College, at Crawfordsville. A disease of the eyes compelled him to leave college before the full completion of his course, but the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by the institution a few years later. Determining upon the study of medicine, he began reading with Doctor

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A. Parks, of Vernon, Indiana, and in 1855 entered Ann Arbor University. From this institution he went to the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and graduated in 1858. To further perfect himself in his profession, he afterward attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and also the Bellevue Hospital College, in New York City. He then commenced active practice in Franklin, where he has resided continuously ever since. In December, 1863, he was one of the surgeons specially appointed by Governor Morton to care for the Indiana soldiers wounded at the battle of Stone River, and he spent some time in this service. The record of his life since then is one of earnest, untiring labor in his chosen profession, attended by the achievement of marked success, both in attaining rank and high stand- ing as a physician and surgeon, and also in gaining

a competence thereby for himself and family. As a surgeon, especially, Doctor Payne stands pre-eminent, having the largest practice in the county, and traveling far and near to perform difficult and complicated opera- tions. In the midst of his arduous professional labors he has found time to study and promote the public and educational interests of his city and county. He was one of the originators and founders of the gas works in Frank- lin, and has by his active, energetic business habits and well-directed efforts done much to advance the interests and prosperity of the city. He was for several years a trustee of the Franklin College, and was largely instru- mental in placing that institution on a firm financial basis. He was also for some time one of the trustees of the Indiana College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Indianapolis. He was married, May 14, 1862, to Mary A. Forsythe, daughter of a well-known merchant of Franklin. They have an interesting family of three sons and four daughters. Doctor Payne is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is a Re- publican, having voted and worked with that party since its formation. In every sense he is entitled to the honorable distinction of being called a self-made man. Starting without education or money, he has by hard labor and unflinching self-denial achieved a thorough classical and scientific training, and wealth has come to him naturally as a direct result.

the charitable world. Rcuben was indentured by the courts to Elisha Thomas, whose subsequent affiliation with the Shakers brought him into such ill repute with the authorities that his ward was removed, and appren- ticed to a tanner, with whom he spent seven years, and thoroughly mastered the trade. Meanwhile he had ac- quired a great taste for horticultural pursuits, through obedience to his natural inclinations, and from association with Edward Darnaby and James Munday, pioneer nur- serymen of Central Kentucky. In 1815 Mr. Ragan made his first trip to Indiana, remaining in Knox and Washington Counties during a large portion of that year. In the latter county he assisted in the erection of Flenor's Fort, then a frontier post. For a period of six years he spent most of his time in pioneer excursions through Indiana, remaining during the winter of 1818-19 in Putnam County, in what is now Washington Town- ship. In October, 1821, he attended the public sale of lots in Indianapolis, and soon afterwards entered eighty acres of land seven miles east of Greencastle, upon which he located permanently in the autumn of 1822. Here he began his life-work as a horticulturist. On his land was sown and nurtured the first blue grass in the county, and the tree's of the primitive forest were made to give place to those more ornamental and fruitful, many of which still remain-monuments to his memory. From his nursery most of the early orchards of Western Indiana were supplied, as well as many in Illinois, Mis- souri, Iowa, and even Oregon and California. To his chosen calling Mr. Ragan was earnestly devoted, and although lacking in early opportunities, as well as in such facilities for information as are afforded through books, publications devoted to the science, and the or- ganizations and societies of the present day, he became justly noted throughout the West as a leading horticul- turist. He had a wide intelligence, and was known best by his critical observations of minutiæ, through which he often arrived at the conclusions that startled the learned and the scientific. His deductions upon the subject of the pear blight, during its preva- lence in 1844, were adopted as correct, and are still maintained by men of far greater renown. In 1842 Mr. Ragan, with Sigerson, Aldridge, Beecher, Lindley, and others, organized the Indiana Horticul- tural Society. This society was productive of much good ; but, as the facilities for meeting together were then very poor, it did not become a permanent institu- tion. In 1860, however, a reorganization of the society was effected, when Mr. Ragan, although absent, was unanimously elected to the presidency. This was the only official capacity in which he ever served, and in this case his characteristic modesty soon prompted him to resign. He was then voted an honorary member of the society for life. Mr. Ragan was enterprising be-

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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 63

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