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 91

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 91

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USTON, JAMES N., banker and capitalist, of Connersville, was born in Franklin County, Penn- sylvania, on the 11th of May, 1849. His mother died when he was but twenty days old, and he was consequently deprived of her watchful care. His father emigrated to Indiana when James was only two years and a half of age. He attended the graded school at Connersville, and at fifteen went to college at Hanover, Indiana, and afterwards to the Miami Uni- versity at Oxford. He began his preparation for col- lege, in the study of Latin and Greek, with James C. McIntosh, Esq., a well known lawyer of Connersville. After graduation he studied medicine under Doctor George W. Garver as preceptor, and attended one

WILLIAM HUSTON

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course of lectures at the Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- I manufacturing enterprises. He has been elected to the lege, New York City. On his return he entered the law office of Judge John S. Reid. About this time he spent one year in Kansas in the stock business and in herding cattle. He was married April 9, 1871, at Lex- ington, Kentucky, by the Rev. L. L. Pinkerton, D. D., to Miss Ree C. Peebles, of Woodford County, in that state. She was the niece of the officiating clergyman, a very celebrated preacher, and daughter of Doctor D. Peebles. They took up their residence on a farm, where they lived one year, but afterwards removed to the town, where Mr. Huston received a subordinate position in the bank, after three months becoming as- sistant cashier, and subsequently acting as cashier. After the death of his father he was engaged in many lines of business as his father's successor. He is now

sole owner of the bank, having bought out the other partners. His success in this has been very great ; his bank does much the largest portion of the business of the town. He has been an active and public spirited citizen. He has been president of the Coffin Company, employing about one hundred hands. The Gas Works, now in successful operation, owe largely to him in tak- ing hold of it, and he now owns a majority of the stock; he is a large stockholder in the White Water Silver Plating Company, and is interested in many other

city council twice, in a Democratic ward, although a Republican, and was elected a member of the state Legislature on the 12th of October, this year, by 791 majority over the most popular man in the district. He has a strong support from the laboring and work- ing classes, for whom he feels a deep sympathy. He was president of the Agricultural Society for several years, and takes a warm interest in agriculture. He is a large land owner, and carries on his farms him- self by foremen, realizing a fair profit. He has taken an active part in the temperance movement, and for two years was president of the county society. In this cause he has lectured at home and elsewhere, speaking effectively and to the point. He does not conceal his opinions on this subject for party considera- tions. Mr. Huston is now thirty-one years of age. He is tall and slender, and is noticeably erect in his bear- ing. His manners are easy and unaffected ; his language well chosen and free from slang or provincialisms ; his way of living is quiet and unostentatious. There is no citizen of his town who is called upon oftener to give aid or advice in any benevolent enterprise. He has three children : Ellen Isabella Carlysle, born June 10, 1872 ; William, born January II, 1875; and Marie, born August 5, 1877.

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DAMS, THOMAS BIGELOW, of Shelbyville, son of William B. and Martha Adams, was born April 9, 1826, in Fayette County, Indiana. His educa- tion was acquired in the common schools. He early manifested a taste for the study of useful books, a fondness for debate, and a strong inclination to the study of the law. By the time he reached manhood he had a mind stored with Biblical and historical lore, and enriched with a goodly share of scientific knowledge. To the careful and judicious habits and studies of his youth may be largely attributed his success in after life. Not possessing the necessary means with which to pur- sue his studies, he began the business of farming and saw-milling in 1849, those being the pursuits he had been reared in. From that time until the present he has been engaged, more or less directly, in the same business, in partnership with his brother, W. D. Adams, at and near Laurel, Indiana, where they now own a planing and saw mill and farming and timber lands. On the first day of December, 1857, he ceased a per- sonal supervision of that business, and began the study of his chosen profession at his home. In August, 1858, he entered the law office of Jones & Berry, at Brookville, Indiana, as a student, and remained there until March, 1860, when he formed a partnership, for the practice of his profession, with Fielding Berry, junior, at Brook- ville, under the firm name of Adams & Berry, where they continued to practice with great success until 1874, when the firm was dissolved, owing to the desire of Mr. Adams to remove from the county. During this time the firm had enjoyed an extended reputation, and had the largest and best legal business in the neighbor- hood. On the first day of October, 1874, he began the practice of law in Shelbyville, with Louis T. Michener, under the firm name of Adams & Michener. They soon acquired a good business, and now have probably the largest litigating practice in the county. Early in life Mr. Adams accustomed himself to debating in the

lyceums and debating societies then existing in his local- ity. He soon acquired a wide reputation as a successful, logical, and eloquent debater, and was pitted against some of the finest speakers that the exigencies of the times produced. In this way he discussed before large audiences many of the religious, temperance, and polit- ical questions which then engaged the attention of thinking men, and always with unvarying success. His first vote was cast for Henry Clay. Shortly after he united with the Democratic party, and voted its ticket from that time to and including the year 1862. In the campaigns of 1856, 1858, 1860, and 1862, he can- vassed his portion of the state in the interests of his party. The beginning of the late war found him a stanch defender of the Union, and an earnest advocate of the doctrine of coercion. From the beginning to the end of the war he was constantly engaged in making Union and war speeches, and his services in that respect were highly appreciated. During this time, and after- wards, he was a trusted friend and adviser of the late Governor Morton. He volunteered once and was drafted once, but each time was rejected on account of physical disability. Despite the warnings of disease and repeated threats of personal violence, by individuals and mobs, he persisted in his gallant advocacy of the Union cause until the last gun was fired. After the election of 1862 he became dissatisfied with the political course of the Democratic party, and cast his lot with the Republicans. From 1864 to the present time he has voted its ticket, and advocated its cause on the stump in every cam- paign. In the remarkable campaign of 1864 he often spoke three times in a day. By his efforts at that time the late Colonel John H. Farquhar was elected to Con- gress, although the district was Democratic by a large majority. In 1876 he was a member of the Republican state central committee, and made a canvass of a por- tion of the state. He has several times been offered congressional nominations, but has uniformly declined

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to accept. His participation in political affairs has not been through yearnings after office and distinc- tion, but from a feeling of conscious duty. Although his family were and are Methodists-the father having been a local minister in that Church-Mr. Adams is not a member of any religious denomination. He was mar- ried, in February, 1849, to Sarah L., daughter of John Malone. He is of medium stature and weight, dark brown hair, and a florid complexion. His well-known physical and moral courage, unyielding will, integrity, love of justice, high sense of honor, morality, and un- flinching advocacy of that which is right, are well de- fined elements of his personal character. Add to these industry and great intellectual capacity, and we have the key to his marked success as a business man, lawyer, and orator. Among his professional brethren he is noted for his thorough knowledge of the law, not only of its great underlying principles, but also of its niceties and its exacting details, and for his faculty of clearly presenting to court and jury the law and the facts of the case.

MES, EDWARD RAYMOND, Indianapolis, was born in Amesville, Athens County, Ohio, May 20, 1806. His parents were persons of much intelli- gence and of pronounced Christian character. His own educational advantages were limited, but carefully improved, and at the age of twenty, with a decided inclination toward more liberal culture, he entered the Ohio University at Athens. He remained in college two or three years, during which time he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the fall of 1828 he accompanied Bishop Roberts to Madison, the seat of the Illinois Conference, though he does not seem to have been licensed as a preacher at that time. From that conference he went to Illinois, and at Leb- anon, in that state, founded the school which afterward became known as McKendree College. He was received on trial in the Illinois Conference at the session held in Vincennes, in this state, in 1830, and was sent as junior preacher to Shoal Creek Circuit, in the Kaskaskia Dis- trict. He was next sent to Vincennes, then to New Albany and Jeffersonville Circuit, then to Jeffersonville Station, and from there he came to Indianapolis, as pastor of Wesley Chapel. During 1836 and 1837 he was agent of the Preachers' Aid Society of the confer- ence. In 1837 he was sent to St. Louis, Missouri, but at the end of his pastoral term in that city returned to Madison, in this state, again becoming a member of the Indiana Conference, into which he fell by the division of the Illinois Conference in 1832. He was presiding elder of the Greencastle District in 1839 and 1840, until the General Conference in May. It is proof of the recognized ability of young Ames that he was made

presiding elder, and elected a delegate to General Confer- ence, before he had been an itinerant minister ten years; and it is a still stronger proof of his power and promise that the first General Conference of which he was a member elected him one of the missionary secretaries of the Church when he was but thirty-four years old. He was probably the youngest man ever elected to that office. In this secretaryship he did an immense amount of hard work. His travels, mostly in the South and West, were very extensive, and at a time when travel- ing in these sections of the country was no holiday affair. He was again elected to General Conference in 1844, from which he returned to the itinerancy as pre- siding elder of the New Albany District. From that work he became presiding elder of the Indianapolis District, with his residence in Indianapolis. In 1848 he was elected president of Asbury University, but declined to accept the position. From 1850 to 1852 he was on the Jeffersonville District, but resided in Indianapolis. He was well known through all this country, and in 1842 was elected chaplain of a council of Choctaw Indians, the first man in the world, probably, who was elected by the red men to such a position. The General Con- ference of 1852 met in Boston, Massachusetts, and Doc- tor Ames was a delegate. Four bishops were elected by that conference, and Indiana furnished two of them, namely, Matthew Simpson and Edward R. Ames. Levi Scott and Osmon C. Baker were the other two. Of the bishops elected in 1864 not one remains; but of those elected in 1852 only one died before Bishop Ames. They were men of robust physical strength and of much intellectual power. Bishop Baker died some years ago. The other two are still alive and have done large work until now. On the second day of April, 1879, Bishop Ames held a conference session, Bishop Scott met the North Indiana Conference on the ninth, and Bishop Simpson closed the Wyoming Conference at about the same time. For twenty-seven years these brave men had been facing the perils and shouldering the burdens of the Episcopacy of that Church. Bishop Ames visited the Pacific Slope when it meant a stage- ride of thousands of miles or a more extended voyage by sca. He used to say that when he was elected bishop the field of his responsibility seemed instantly to enlarge, the borders apparently receded from him, and he stood in the midst of space, almost without a boun- dary. He realized afterward that this seeming bound- lessness of his field was not all a dream, for the scene of his toil was limited only by the seas. He crossed the rivers and climbed the mountains, and stopped only when he came to the occan. Bishop Ames seldom erred in his judgment of men. He was sagacious in his plans, whether for himself or for the Church. His views were always large, generally clear, logical, and strong. He ignored rhetorical adornment of speech, and de-

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pended for his success upon sound sense, strongly stated, and charged with passion. When fully aroused he was mighty. He was wise in counsel, strong in administra- tion, and in almost every way great. He was a born leader of men, which gave him a wonderful influence in the Church, and had he engaged in politics its range would have been unlimited. His prominent character- istics, as shown forth in his life, were accuracy, firm- ness, devotion to duty, greatness of mind combined with tenderness of heart amounting to childish simplicity, controlled by a great soul that promptly acknowledged his mistakes. Bishop Ames, as a speaker ranked among the best, not in the glowing passion of eloquence of a Simpson, but in clearness and comprehensiveness of thought, and a delivery of forcible simplicity, strength- ened by reserve power. His cool and apparently unsym- pathetic manner often caused him to be misunderstood, for on nearer acquaintance one was convinced that greater piety and more genuine sympathy for all classes few men possessed. His prayers, full of pathos, were sweet and earnest communions with God. He died April, 1879.

DDISON, JOHN, Greenfield, commissioner of Hancock County, was born in Preble County, Ohio, January 22, 1820. He is the son of John and Sarah Addison, formerly of Randolph County, North Carolina. His father removed to Indiana in 1827, and located in Rush County, where young Addi- son labored with untiring zeal in clearing the forests and tilling the soil. During the winter season he at- tended the common schools of the county, where he obtained the only schooling he ever enjoyed. He re- mained with his parents until twenty-one years of age, when he was married; and, receiving the gift of a small tract of land from his father, he moved on it and began his exertions for an independent living. January 17, 1854, he removed from Rush to Hancock County and purchased a farm in Jackson Township, where he now resides. In the autumn of 1861 he was elected treas- urer of Hancock County, a position in which he distin- guished himself for efficiency and careful attention to his duties. In 1878 he was again called to the duties of official life, being chosen a representative to the state Legislature. Mr. Addison has always contributed liber- ally to the various public enterprises of his county. He aids and encourages county and district fairs, and takes great interest in improvements in stock-raising and agri- culture. He has been a faithful member of the Chris- tian Church since 1840. He is now, and always has been, a steadfast Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for James K. Polk. On the 13th of February, 1840, he was first married to Miss Nancy Hall, daughter of Curtis Hall, of Henry County, Indiana. His second

union occurred on the ninth day of January, 1868. Mr. Addison is the father of ten children, seven of whom are living.

ANNISTER, SAMUEL N., business manager and part owner of the Indianapolis Herald, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, July 4, 1832, of English ancestry. His father, Joshua Bannister, was the elder brother of the eminent tragedian and dramatic author, N. H. Bannister. He is perhaps distantly re- lated to Jack Bannister, now of the theatrical profession. The father and mother of Samuel Bannister both came to America during early childhood; his mother, whose maiden name was Jane Draper, being but four years old when she was brought by her parents to this country. In 1834, or when the subject of this sketch was still an infant, his parents moved to Cincinnati, where they re- mained twelve years. Thus the son was enabled to ob- tain a fair education in the free schools of that city. When he was fourteen years old his father removed to Dayton. Here he attended school for two years, and when he arrived at the age of sixteen left home to seek his fortune, or carve out his own destiny in life. His uncle desired to make an actor of him, offering every advantage for study and practice ; but the actualities of life had more attraction for him than the presentations of their semblance. To grapple with realities seemed better than to " bully the bulky phantom of the stage." Returning to Cincinnati he entered the employment of the O'Reilley Telegraph Company, acting as messenger boy. He remained with them nearly two years, becom- ing an excellent telegraph operator. About this time he lost both father and mother by death, and the care of his younger sister devolved in a great measure upon him. Finding that telegraphy was not altogether to his taste, and the remuneration not sufficient to satisfy his ambition, he served an apprenticeship as a carriage trimmer, and at this trade for a number of years he worked as a number one hand. In September, 1860, Mr. Bannister was married to Miss Mary A. Lucas, of Winchester, Indiana, with whom his life has been spent peacefully and happily. A year later, September, 1861, he volunteered in the 26th Indiana Regiment. Here he served eleven months as quartermaster's sergeant and was then promoted to a lieutenancy, following the for- tunes of the regiment all through Missouri, and partici- pating in all its engagements and skirmishes. At Prairie Grove, Arkansas, where a thousand men, as a result of a two hours' battle, were killed and wounded, Lieutenant Bannister received four bullet wounds in less than fif- teen minutes, a shattered shoulder being the most seri- ous one. Often leading his company into the thickest of the fight, he was conspicuous for his bravery. Being quite diminutive in size, he obtained from his

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messmates the nickname of "The Jack of Clubs." His enlistment expiring, he entered the roll of veterans and participated in the sieges of Vicksburg and Mobile and the campaign of Alabama, serving four years and two months. Returning to Winchester, in October, 1865, Mr. Bannister entered the dry-goods trade, building up a prosperous business, identifying himself with the place by acting as councilman, and performing all the duties devolving upon a wide-awake citizen. In 1873 he bought a partnership with George C. Harding in the Indianapo- lis Herald, then trembling on the verge of bankruptcy, and by skillful financial management, indomitable en- ergy, and unceasing effort established it upon a paying basis. Here his thorough business qualities became most apparent. The facile pen of George C. Harding, who could say as much in a paragraph as another would in a page, and the business management of Mr. Bannister, have made the Herald one of the most successful papers in the West. January 1, 1880, Mr. Bannister bought out Mr. Harding's share in the Herald and sold a one- third interest to A. H. Dooley, former editor of the Mod- ern Argo, of Quincy, Illinois. Mr. Bannister was educated in the Baptist Church, but is a liberal in belief. Mrs. Bannister is a Methodist, and a member of Roberts Park Church. They have one child, Georgie, a bright boy twelve years of age. Mr. Bannister, while not bigoted in politics, is a stanch Republican, and the kind of man who is of service to every community. A shrewd busi- ness man, his investments are always paying ones. At the age of twenty-one he was initiated in the order of Freemasonry, passing through all the degrees and hold- ing important official positions. He is a Knight Tem- plar, and has also taken the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He belongs to Raper Commandery, and was one of the forty-five whose recent drill at Chicago resulted in their winning the capital prize. Mr. Ban- nister's career proves that energy and industry are the roads to success. His probity is unquestioned, and he is a man whose "word is as good as his bond."

ARNES, HENRY FRANKLIN, M. D., of In- dianapolis, Indiana.

" A man of experience is he- One accustomed to life."

Doctor Barnes was born in Orleans, Orange County, Indiana, August 11, 1829. His great-uncle, Daniel Dean, was a native of Ireland, a gentleman who early came to America, settling in Greene County, Ohio, and purchasing there extensive tracts of land, yet occupied by his descendants. Henry Barnes, the Doctor's pater- nal grandfather, was captain of the light-horse in the siege of Fort Meigs, Ohio. His maternal grandfather, Judge Joseph Athon, of Virginia, was connected with

the famous " Blue Bonnet" regiment from Scotland and England, under Lord Fairfax, to whom he was dis- tantly related, as well as to the Stuarts. Mrs. Athon was Mary Woolverton, a cousin to General Woolverton, of Maryland. Prior to their location in Virginia, his maternal ancestors settled in Georgia, owning there no less than twenty thousand acres of land, the best af- forded by the state; subsequently, they moved to Alex- andria, Virginia, and obtained possession of a large tract on which the city, or a part of the city, of Alex- andria now stands. It is a fact beyond question that a large fraction of this purchase, and that, too, on the very site of the city to-day, was "sold for a mess of pottage"-given away for a bowl of punch. Dean Barnes, the father of Henry F. Barnes, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1803, and was of German and Irish extraction. His mother, Mahala, six years his father's junior, was born at Rockbridge, Virginia. Her father, Judge Joseph Athon, was known as a superior instructor-teaching mathematics in Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia, and Alexandria, Virginia, many years. Thus we have in brief the history of Doctor Barnes's ancestry, and in the whole of it there is nothing of which he is not always proud. The Doctor obtained a thorough common school education in Southern In- diana. While he was yet a mere lad, his father moved from Orleans to Springville, Lawrence County, where he lived for many years; not long after placing his son in the Union School of Xenia, Ohio, in which, after an attendance of eight months, he was selected to de- liver the valedictory address. At this time there were about four hundred students in the institution. In 1848 he went to Greencastle, Indiana, and took an irregular scientific course in Asbury University, including the lan- guages, but he did not remain at the university to com- plete his course. His professional education was begun in Charlestown, Clarke County, Indiana, in 1849, where he studied medicine with Doctor James S. Athon, who afterward, within the circle of his acquaintance and in the state, stood at the head of his profession, and obtained, likewise, considerable eminence as a poli- tician. He (Doctor Barnes) attended both courses of lectures at Jefferson College, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, and at the same time graduated at the Col- lege of Pharmacy. This was in 1852, 1853, and 1854, between which times he practiced for a season at New Washington, Clarke County, Indiana, and afterwards awhile at Philadelphia, whence he went to Pottstown, Pennsylvania; at Bedford, Indiana, he remained eight months; at Paoli, ten months. Then it was that he was appointed assistant physician in the Indiana Hospital for the Insane. During most of the time of his service here he was senior physician, which position he held from 1856 to 1861, when he retired, and entered general practice at Indianapolis. Governor

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Morton, in 1862, selected him to make a tour in the South, to make inspection of the wounds received by the soldiers in the battle of Fort Donelson. Accom- panied by the Governor's private secretary and a state auditor's clerk, he visited all the hospitals from Fort Donelson to Paducah, Mound City, Cairo, and St. Louis; having done which, he came to Indianapolis. He was in the army but a short time. He was, how- ever, appointed an assistant surgeon of the IIth Indi- ana Regiment Independent Zouaves, taking charge of several wards of the hospital at Shiloh. During John- son's administration he was pension surgeon in this dis- trict. The Doctor has been one of the leading politi- cians of the state. In 1868 he made the race for the Senate, in which year he was also a candidate for Sec- retary of State, subject to the decision of the Indiana Democratic State Convention. From 1868 to 1870 he was a member of the Democratic state central com- mittee, representing the central district, at Indianapolis. He was one of a committee of seven appointed to re- ceive Andrew Johnson, then the President of the United States, General Grant, and a number of other distin- guished persons, in 1866, while "swinging around the circle." He continued in a large and lucrative practice in Indianapolis until 1870; thence he went to Louisville, remaining there till 1877; then returned to Indianapolis by special request, and entered upon his former practice after the death of his distinguished preceptor, relative, and friend, Doctor James S. Athon. He has been an expert in the courts of Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky on insanity, and his opinion has been allowed the high- est credence, as he is recognized as authority in many cases of law. On this subject he has published a num- ber of important articles, which are rife with the evi- idences of hard study, thorough investigation, and logical deduction. He is a member of the orders of Odd-fellows, Masons, and Knights of Pythias; has be- longed to the Indiana State Medical Society; was a founder of the Academy of Medicine of Indianapolis; a member of the Kentucky State Medical Society; a member of the Medico-chirurgical Society of Louis- ville, a society in which the membership is limited to thirty, and to enter which is no little compliment to a man's professional ability ; and a member of " the Ken- tucky Club," a state social organization. Doctor Barnes is regarded as a physician and surgeon of consummate ability, as reliable, and as eminently worthy the exten- sive practice he now has, reaching, as it does, far be- yond the limits of his community and state. The Doc- tor, in appearance, is about the usual height -- perhaps five feet six and a half inches-and of about one hun- dred and seventy-five pounds weight; hale, hearty, genial; and of a disposition keenly to enjoy the com- forts he has so richly deserved, so hardly won. His opin- ion is of weight in the community.

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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 91

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