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 7
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fession. Doctor Failing is modest and retiring in his disposition. He has fine literary tastes, and is very fond of general literature, devoting nearly all his spare time to books. He is also a very fine elocutionist, an excel- lent conversationalist, and has social qualities of a very high order. He is a good writer, and has made the study of the meaning and origin of words a specialty. He has written a series of articles for the public press on these topics, in which he has ably shown the solid- ity and piquancy of our language. He sometimes gives dramatic readings to a private circle of literary friends, and displays much talent, both in comedy and tragedy. Doctor Failing is very affectionate, and strongly attached to his children, all of whom are now grown men and women, and live in New York. He is about medium size, has a fine physique, indicating longevity ; an intel- lectual head and face, and genial manners. He is, in short, a gentleman of culture, whose society is sought by the learned and good of every community in which he has lived.
ULLER, BENONI STINSON, of Boonville, was born in Warrick County, Indiana, November 13, 1825. Isham Fuller, his father, was a mechanic and well-to-do farmer, who was born in North Carolina, and came to Indiana in 1816, then a howling wilderness. He was a representative man in many par- ticulars, and his career finally became more public than private. He was a close student, a critical historian, and a very careful investigator of the Scriptures. He was passionately fond of studying the Bible and history, and, being a good conversationalist as well as a public speaker, he was often sought out by his many friends and acquaintances for his opinions on these and kindred subjects. He was a strong, well-built, athletic man physically, but a very peaceable and quiet citizen. He seemed destined to fill a niche in the history of his adopted state, and did her good service at various times. He was a member of the Legislature six consecutive years. This was during the critical period when repudiation of the state debt was freely talked of, between the years 1842-48. He was born in 1798, and died February 14, 1856. His wife came also from North Carolina soon after her husband did. She likewise did much in shap- ing the destiny of young Benoni. His worth has been largely due to the training of that loving hand. She was very devout, and the impressions she then made were on a mind that did not forget her sympathy and tenderness. Mr. Fuller, as a son of pioneer parents, had few advantages for securing an education ; but he had energy and industry, and soon mastered the rudi- ments. A few short months in the log-cabin college each winter were the sum total of his early advantages; but he did much reading outside. Before he was
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twenty-one we find him in the school-room as teacher, which of itself speaks for the way in which he spent his time. When a boy he did any thing for a living- cut wood, mauled rails, burned brush, cleared land, and did all other farm work incident to pioneer life. His father gave him his time before he became of age, and he used it apparently to good advantage. He worked at home or abroad, by the day or month, and was care- ful to husband his means and prepare himself for the future. His public life began when he was about thirty years old. At this time he was elected sheriff of the county, and served two terms, from 1857 to 1861. In 1862, during the beginning of troubles with the South, he was deemed a fit man to be trusted, and was sent to the state Senate. After this he was elected twice to the Lower House, once in 1866 and again in 1868. The last time he served he was unanimously nominated president by the Democratic caucus of its members. In 1872 he was elected again state Senator; in 1874 was chosen Congressman, over Heilman, and again elected to the same position in 1876. In 1878 he declined renomi- nation. It is but fair to say he never sought office- and when thrust upon him by his party he resorted to no tricks in demagogy for votes. Mr. Fuller is yet comparatively a young man, although he has filled so many important positions. He has left the political field and found a retreat from public life on his farm near Boonville, quietly enjoying seclusion and rest. He is a man of considerable culture, possesses a fine physique, and has nerve and energy as a speaker. He is greatly admired for his many fine qualities of head and heart, and as a man and citizen is much respected and loved by his neighbors.
ILBERT, JOHN, vice-president of the Merchants'. National Bank, of Evansville, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1818. His ancestors were among the first settlers of New England, having arrived there with the Puritan fathers in the early part of the seventeenth century. His great-grandfather was one of the first to enlist in the Revolutionary army, and was killed at Breed's Hill, the first battle of the war. John Gilbert, while a child, removed with his father's family to a farm about forty miles west of Colum- bus, Ohio, where he lived until he was about eight- een years old. His school advantages were very meager, having been confined to such as could be obtained in three winters' attendance of a common school in a newly developed country. It remained, therefore, with him- self to obtain such instruction as he could by reading and studying during leisure hours, and by the time he had grown to manhood he had acquired what is con- sidered an ordinary common school education. In 1836
he left his father's farm, and traveled through the West- eri States in the employ of the American Fur Company for two years; after which he settled at Golconda, Illinois, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he continued successfully for twenty years. He then em- barked in the steamboat business on the Ohio River, and has since been prominently identified with steam- boat interests on various rivers of the West. After the close of the Civil War he organized the Evansville and Tennessee River Packet Company, and started the first boat on the line from Evansville to Florence, Alabama. This line has ever since made weekly trips between the two points. Mr. Gilbert has been connected with the Evansville and Cairo line of steamboats since its organ- ization, and was largely interested in the Evansville and New Orleans Packet Company while it existed. His vessel interests being centered principally at Evansville, he removed there in 1872, and has since been identified with the various interests of that city. He was one of the originators of the Citizens' Insurance Company, of which he is now-vice-president. He is a stockholder of the Evansville Land Association, vice-president and treasurer of the Evansville Street Railway Company, and vice-president of the Merchants' National Bank. Previous to his removal from Golconda, Illinois, he held the office of mayor of that city. Since his con- nection with steamboat matters he has had built, either for himself or for the companies he represented, a num- ber of steamboats for the river trade, prominent among which are the "W. A. Johnson" and "Silver Cloud," constructed by Marine Ways of Cincinnati, and the "Idlewild" and " Red Cloud," built by the Howards, of Louisville. The "Idlewild" is regarded as the fastest and most perfect steamboat of her size on West- ern waters. During his residence in Evansville Mr. Gilbert has been one of her most enterprising business men and public-spirited citizens. He has, by his energy and attention to affairs, acquired a competence, and obtained the esteem and confidence of all with whom he has had either business or social relations. Mr. Gil- bert has been a stanch Republican ever since that party has had an existence. He was married, in January, 1842, to Miss Cornelia A. Bucklin, a native of Rhode Island. They have five children, the youngest of whom, a son, is sixteen years of age.
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WILBERT, SAMUEL EPAPHRODITUS, son of Hon. Peyton Randolph and Anna (Porter) Gilbert, and grandson of Colonel Samuel Gilbert, who so G nobly earned his title of colonel during the Revo- lutionary War, was born in Hebron, Tolland County, Connecticut, on December 9, 1821, being the youngest son of a family of three daughters and five sons. His
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eldest brother, Rev. Edwin Randolph Gilbert, was a graduate of Yale College, and soon after finishing its theological course was chosen pastor of the Congrega- tional Church of Wallingford, Connecticut, remaining in charge of it for more than forty-two years, and until his death. From his infancy his parents had desired that their youngest son should also go through Yale College and be a minister, but told him that he could, of course, make his own choice of a vocation. He pre- ferred being a farmer, as his father and two brothers had been before him. His education was obtained at the district schools at home, and from a course at Bacon Academy, at Colchester, Connecticut; directly after finishing which he, before he was sixteen years old, began teaching a district school in the adjoining town of Bolton, having several boy scholars as old as himself, a fact which was not especially gratifying to him, as he ascertained that they had " turned out " their teacher the previous winter; and it was a great satisfaction to him to know, when his term closed, that he had not experi- enced the same fate. He taught also the two succeed- ing winters, working on his father's farm the remainder of the time. In the autumn of 1840 his brother, Charles A. Gilbert, four years his senior, then in the hay and grain business in Mobile, Alabama, wrote to him, urging Samuel to come immediately to. that city. He did so, and acted as clerk for his brother three years, and was then in partnership with him for seven years. During this time they continued the hay and grain busi- ness, but had added to it a line of steamers running be- tween Mobile and New Orleans, building, in 1843-44, the "Montezuma," and in subsequent years the "Mobile" and the "St. Charles." These "two boys," for such they were comparatively, had started with fif- teen hundred dollars, given to each when of age by their father, and this was all the capital either then had, except what little they had been able to make; and, as they had then for several years paid all their own ex- penses, the sum saved was small. It can readily be seen, therefore, that to carry on the above two lines of business by themselves (as they never had any partner) required clear heads and very careful financiering ; but they had the satisfaction during all this time of paying every obligation at maturity, and each succeeding year making their business more profitable than the preceding. In the summer of 1850 they sold their entire steamboat interests, at a round profit, to the Mobile and New Or- leans Mail Line Company. His health having become somewhat impaired by the climate or overwork, or both, the younger brother decided to remove North, and after examination fixed on Evansville, Indiana, as his future location, judging that, though then a very small city, its future prospects were good; and he with his wife and their little son, Frank Manson, moved to Evansville in November, 1850. And here he experienced his first
Į great loss, when, after nearly four years of happy wedded life, his beloved wife, Cordelia Frances, daughter of Lewis C. Manson, Esq., of New Orleans, Louisiana, sud- denly died, on November 7, 1850. She was a skillful per- former on the harp and piano, and a beautiful, lovely, and estimable woman. Having resolved when they sold their line in Mobile never to own in steamboats again, and thinking Evansville then too small a place for the hay and grain trade, he had to seek a new business; and, though he had no experience whatever in the grocery line, still, believing, as he did, that a man can learn any thing if he will apply himself, he decided to do a wholesale grocery business, and opened such a store in December, 1850, carrying it on for seven years without any partner, after which he had two in succession, to whom he gave an interest, though always furnishing all the capital himself. His business increased almost every year from the beginning. He always did all the buying for the house, and most of the profits were derived from purchasing largely of such articles as he thought likely to advance. In some cases he bought what he estimated to be from one year to three years' stock of some goods which he thought sure to increase in price. Finding in 1865 that their business required a larger store, he bought seventy-five by one hundred and fifty feet of ground on First Street, below Sycamore-though it did not then appear to have entered the mind of any one except himself that the wholesale business could ever go below Sycamore Street-and the next year covered his ground with three four-story buildings, the largest then in the city. It was evidently thought favorably of, however, as one after another purchased land near him, and in less than five years that whole square was covered with four-story buildings, and also about two- thirds of the square next farthest away from the former wholesale business. In 1873, after thirty-three years of active mercantile life, he had made what he regarded as an ample competence, and quitted the mercantile busi- ness, resolving to have that "easier time" to which he had so long looked forward, and which he is now (1880) enjoying. He has never had any love or desire for polit- ical life, nor any hankering after office, preferring always to attend to his own business and let every body else do the same. On December 7, 1852, he married Miss Mary Jane Mackey, a native of Evansville, by whom he had two children, David Mackey and Ida Anna, both of whom are still living. The daughter has fine powers as a singer. She was married to Mr. S. R. Ward, of New- ark, New Jersey, on February 3, 1880. Both her parents have always been very fond of music. Her mother was a member of the Walnut Street Church choir, of Evans- ville, from her early girlhood until a few years ago, and her father, the subject of this sketch, joined that choir in 1851, and has all the time since been one of its active members. He takes much pleasure in stating that dur-
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ing these twenty-nine years there has never been a single dispute among the members of that choir-a remarkable fact, as it is known that these musical bodies are quite too noted for their quarrels. Mr. Gilbert stands high as a business man in Evansville, and his sterling worth, straightforward manner of doing business, social and genial ways, have won for him a host of friends, and give him a position among the most prominent men of his adopted city.
AAS, DOCTOR ISAIAH, dentist, of Evansville, was born at Newark, Ohio, February 22, 1829. He is the eldest son of Adam Haas, a native of Virginia, born December 25, 1798, who, in early manhood, removed to Newark, Ohio, thence to Dela- ware County, Ohio, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1845 he removed to Wabash, Indiana, and was a merchant there until 1860. Isaiah Haas received a fair common school education, and then entered his father's store as clerk and bookkeeper. In 1845, when the Morse electric telegraph was being extended westward, an office was opened above his father's store, and he was induced to learn telegraphy. He entered into the work with enthusiasm, and with ten days' instruction became qualified to attend to all the duties of the office, including receiving and sending dispatches, managing the batteries, and many of the principles of electric tele- graphy. After conducting this office for a short time, he acquired the art of reading communications over the wires by the faintest murmurings of the instrument. His great skill coming to the knowledge of Ezra Cor- nell, Esq., of Ithaca, New York, afterwards the founder of Cornell University, he, then only twenty-two years of age, was appointed superintendent of the long telegraph line running in and through the states of Ohio. Indiana, and Illinois, which had been leased by Mr. Cornell. This position he held for the next two or three years, and so successfully managed the affairs connected with it as to receive many flattering letters of commendation from Mr. Cornell. While engaged in telegraphing, his attention was attracted to the profession of dentistry, and, having a decided taste in that direction, he re- solved to fit himself for that profession. He studied under the tuition of Professor A. M. Moore, of Lafay- ette, Indiana, and Professor Samuel Wardle, of Cincin- nati, Ohio, both eminent dentists, and settled down to practice at Lafayette, Indiana. He continued there, meeting with excellent success, until 1859. In the early part of that year, while on his way to make a visit to the South, with his wife and child he was detained two days at Evansville, on account of low water in the river, and was induced by some of his old friends resid- ing there to make Evansville his future home. In a few weeks he removed thither, opened an office, and,
as his reputation was even then wide-spread, he at once received a large and lucrative patronage. Enthusiastic in his profession, and ambitious to place himself fore- most in its front ranks, he gave to it his earnest study, exercised his ingenuity in the invention of various instru- ments and appliances for the aid of dental surgery, suc- cessfully undertook the treatment of cases which had defied the skill of others eminent in the profession, and accomplished some of the most difficult and delicate operations that have ever been undertaken. The inva- riable success that attended his labors gave him in due time a reputation second to no dentist in the country, and the fact that people come to him at Evansville from almost every Western and South-western State, and from as far east as New York City and Washington, District of Columbia, while people who have removed from Evansville have returned great distances for this pur- pose, is evidence of the eminence he has attained. Be- lieving that the science of medicine would prove of great benefit to him in dentistry, he has given to it much study, and has some reputation as a surgeon. For seven years he assisted Professor M. J. Bray, the most emi- nent surgeon in Evansville, in all his surgical operations ; and Professor Bray states that Doctor Haas has no su- perior as an assistant surgeon in the state of Indiana. Recognizing his eminent ability both in his own profes- sion and in that of medicine, the faculty of Evansville Medical College invited him to deliver a series of lec- tures before the college during the sessions of 1879 and 1880. While he has made various inventions in the aid and advancement of dentistry, he never secured patents upon them, believing that the profession should have the free use of any appliances or discoveries made by any of its members. Doctor Haas takes some pride in the fact that, during his twenty-five years of practice, fifteen students have graduated from his office, under his instruction, and are now established in various parts of the West and South, successfully engaged in the practice of dentistry. For many years Doctor Haas has been one of the most prominent members of the Ma- sonic Fraternity in the state of Indiana. He has been successively elected master of Evansville Lodge, No. 64, has been an officer of the Grand Lodge of the state, dis- trict deputy master, and district deputy lecturer for each for several years, and is distinguished among Masons throughout the state for his knowledge of Masonic law and landmarks. Doctor Haas was first married, in 1852, to Miss Adaline McHenry, of Vincennes, Indiana, who early fell a victim to consumption. Two children born to them died in childhood. In 1857 he was mar- ried to Miss Sarah K. McHenry, a sister of his first wife, by whom he has seven children, five sons and two daughters. Doctor Haas, while eminent in his profes- sion, is a man of varied acquirements, of fine æsthetic taste and culture, has done much reading in general
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literature, is of a genial and social nature, and pos- sesses the esteem and confidence of all with whom he has either business, professional, or social relations.
OWELL, MASON J., was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, August 1, 1795. When he was five years of age his father moved south of Green River, to what is now Hopkins County, where he died. Shortly after his death his mother married Col- onel Hugh McGeary, who kept a hotel at Red Banks, now Henderson. In 1812 Mason volunteered, upon the call of the Governor of that state for troops to march to the relief of the North-west Territory against the British and Indians, and served through the war. In 1816 he came to Spencer County, Indiana, and was mar- ried, in the same year, to Miss Nellie Rodgers, of Owensboro, Kentucky. Mason Howell served a number of years as colonel of the militia, many years as Justice of the Peace, and also a number of years as register of the land office at Jeffersonville, Indiana. For a long time he served in succession the people in the Upper and Lower Houses of the Legislature. In 1854 Governor Wright appointed Colonel Howell commissioner of swamp lands in Spencer County, and at one time he was elected county judge by a union of all parties. Colonel Howell was a good man, high-principled and honorable, and his death was deeply regretted. It occurred Octo- ber 17, 1875, at the residence of his granddaughter, Mrs. George Graff, in Spencer County.
ICKS, R. S., founder of the Democrat, of Rock- port, was born at Patriot, Switzerland County, In- diana, April 12, 1825. At the age of nine years he was given to an uncle, who took him to the Wea Plains, in Tippecanoe County, where he remained on a farm until the autumn of 1839, when his uncle re- turned to Patriot. From that time to the fall of 1842 he was a drayman in that place. In 1842 his father took him to Franklin, Johnson County, and put him in the office under Captain David Allen, then clerk of that county, where he remained until the death of Captain Allen, in Mexico, in 1846, with the exception of nine months in which he taught district schools. It was in the clerk's office that Mr. Hicks secured, through the aid of the county library, all the education he ever re- ceived. After the death of Captain Allen he became the deputy clerk under Isaac Jones, who shortly after his appointment also died. Upon this happening Mr. Hicks was made clerk of the county, under appoint- ment, and then deputy under the elected clerk, Jacob Sibert, Esq. In 1851 he was elected Justice of the
! Peace, at Franklin, and served eighteen months. In 1852 he was elected Representative from that county to the Legislature, and in the spring of 1853, upon the unanimous recommendation of his fellow members of the Legislature, received an appointment as clerk in the pension office at Washington, under President Pierce, but, owing to sickness in his family, returned to Indi- ana the following autumn, and was appointed deputy auditor of state, under Major John P. Dunn, where he remained until the establishment of the Democrat. He served for four sessions of the Legislature as assistant clerk in the Senate and House of Representatives, in the years 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1855. In 1856 he was elected clerk of Spencer County, and re-elected in 1860, serving in that capacity continuously eight years. After his second term of office expired, March I, 1865, he engaged in the practice of law, and still pursues that noble profession. In April, 1877, in connection with his son, Charles A. Hicks, he established the Rock- port weekly Gazette, and has by prudence, diligence, and good conduct, made it a successful and honorable Dem- ocratic newspaper, the exponent of a cultivated constit- uency throughout Spencer County.
UDSPETH, THOMAS JACKSON, of Boonville, was born April 16, 1819, in Warren County, Ken- tucky. Thomas, his father, was born in Virginia & about 1793. He first moved to Kentucky, and from there removed to Indiana while it was a territory ; but, having some difficulty with the Indians, he went back to Kentucky, and in the year 1825 removed to Indiana, where he lived at his home in Warrick County until his death, about the year 1857. Thomas Hud- speth was for several years a sheriff of the county, and was also elected county treasurer two or three different times, and was also a Justice of the Peace several times. He was a man who strongly favored a strict observance of abstinence, although in those days it was customary to have whisky as well as water at all public gatherings. He had the moral courage to refuse it even at log-roll- ings, although he knew that by so doing he would bring down the jeers and scoffs of his neighbors. He thus lived and died, and left for his children an ex- ample of the beauty of a well-controlled life. His mother was a Boone, cousin of Ratliffe Boone, who was for a number of years Congressman of this district. She, like her husband, was very careful, in the rearing of her children, to teach them temperance and morality in all things. She died at the age of seventy, about five years after her husband's death. Thomas Jackson, the subject of this sketch, spent most of his days in this county, coming here when a child, and having remained during his life. His history is synonymous with the
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