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 94

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1038

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cock County, members of his company, were killed or wounded. This unfortunate affair is a matter of general history, and need not be described here. Mr. Branham has occupied many positions of public trust, having been school trustee of Greenfield for eight years, and in other capacities aiding greatly in developing the town, and at the same time contributing both in money and influence toward the building of gravel roads and other enterprises for the improvement of the county. He joined the Independent Order of Odd-fellows in 1854, and the Masonic Fraternity in 1849, and served as No- ble Grand in the former for some time. He was for- merly a Republican, but, being an admirer of Horace Greeley, supported him for President in 1872; since which time he has acted with the Democratic party. Mr. Branham, although a man of earnest convictions, is not what would be termed a politician, always voting in accordance with his honest belief, but taking little part in political excitements. He joined the Christian Church in 1853, for which organization he worked ear- nestly and persistently for many years, and did much toward its advancement in the home of his adoption. He was married, August 16, 1847, to Amanda M. Se- bastian, daughter of William Sebastian, one of the pioneers of the country, and a soldier in the War of 1812, being present at Hull's surrender at Detroit. This estimable lady died May 18, 1875, and her loss was deeply mourned by a large circle of friends. Mr. Branham's career has been a successful one, which fact is due largely to his own energy of disposition and uniform probity of character.

UCHANAN, JAMES, Indianapolis, lawyer and American citizen, was born on a farm near Wave- land, Montgomery County, Indiana, October 14, 1837. His grandfather was George Buchanan, who lived in Northern Virginia, removed to Ken- tucky, and then to Tennessee, and finally to Indiana in 1828. The father of James Buchanan was Alexander Buchanan, who was born and reared in Rutherford County, Tennessee ; and his mother was Matilda Rice Buchanan, who was born and brought up in Shelby County, Kentucky. The early education of James Bu- chanan was in the common schools; and at the age of eighteen he entered the Waveland Academy, now de- nominated the Collegiate Institute of Waveland, where he completed a full course in mathematics, graduating in 1858 with the highest honors of his class. His tastes inclined very strongly for the law. He had been, also, a close and proficient student in logic and political economy. To qualify himself for practice, he began study in the office of his uncle, the Hon. Isaac A. Rice, at Attica, Fountain County, this state, remaining there

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until the death of that gentleman, in August, 1860. Having been admitted to the bar in February, 1861, he entered upon his profession at Attica, whence he re- moved to Indianapolis in the fall of 1870, opening an office there. His practice has since been extensive, and entirely successful. In addition to his legal business, Mr. Buchanan has devoted much time to a close study of political economy. Until 1874 he was an ardent Republican, when he espoused the Greenback cause, and became the leader in organizing the National party of 1877. In public addresses, through newspapers, and "in his private efforts, Mr. Buchanan is a strong advocate of the financial system upon which that party is founded, and has done more, perhaps, than any other one man to crystallize the principles of the party into a system ; for which reason the opposition has christened him "The Plan." On December 25, 1862, Mr. Buchanan was married to Miss Ann Cordelia Wilson, eldest daughter of Doctor William L. Wilson and Elizabeth Wilson, of Attica, Fountain County, Indiana. His religious views are of the Presbyterian faith, and he is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church, at Indianapolis. Mr. Buchanan is five feet nine and a half inches in height, weighs two hundred and sixty pounds, and is erect and well proportioned. He has a fresh look, earnest man- ner, and a courteous demeanor; is a good conversation- alist, a fluent and forcible public speaker, and, alto- gether, a live, active man, aggressive and progressive, cut out for a leader, and always has a numerous fol- lowing, standing high at the bar and in the community in which he lives, as well as elsewhere.

UTLER, JOHN MAYNARD, Indianapolis, law- yer, was born at Evansville, Indiana, September 17, 1834. Calvin Butler and Malvina (French) Butler were his parents, and both were from Ver- mont. The Reverend Calvin Butler, his father, was employed at shoemaking until he was thirty years of age, when, having a taste for the acquisition of learning, he undertook to work his way through college, which he successfully accomplished at Middlebury College ; and, intending to enter the ministry, he went, subse- quently, through a course at the Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts. Having acquired in this way a thorough education and theological preparation, he came West to preach, and settled in Evansville. Subse- quently, he removed to Northern Illinois, where he died in 1853 or 1854. During the younger days of his son, John Maynard Butler, there was a large family of chil- dren in the household, with limited income, which com- pelled the subject of this sketch to rely upon his own exertions; and, consequently, when twelve years of age, he began working as clerk in a store, and afterwards at

other employments. Having inherited a desire for learn- ing and a determination to acquire it, he succeeded in entering Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, in 1851; and through his own exertions, with partial help, he was enabled to graduate in 1856. The same day he graduated he was elected president of the Female Sem- inary at Crawfordsville, which position he held three successive years. At this time the seminary building was sold to the city, and converted into a high school, of which Mr. Butler then became the principal. Dur- ing all the time he was employed as instructor he pur- sued the study of the law, with the intention of adopt- ing it for a profession. Shortly after becoming president of the seminary, Mr. Butler was married to Miss Sue W. Jennison, of Crawfordsville. In November, 1861, he made an extended tour through the North-western States, in pursuit of a location for the practice of law. Returning, he settled down at Crawfordsville, November, 1861. From the very first day, on opening an office, Mr. Butler has had all the law business he could attend to, and has never to this day ceased to be busy. His prac- tice commenced by being retained on the first day of his new business in an important case that passed through the Circuit and Supreme Courts of Indiana, ending in the complete success of the young lawyer. This gave him an early prestige, and his practice continued to in- crease in the town and surrounding counties. He was thus employed until 1871, when he came to Indianap- olis, and succeeded Judge A. L. Roache as partner with the Hon. Joseph E. McDonald. Mr. Butler is still in the firm, which has a large and increasing practice, not- withstanding the absence of Mr. McDonald a large por- tion of the year, as United States Senator, at Washington. Differing from his distinguished partner politically, Mr. Butler has always affiliated ardently with the Republican cause, and has taken no inconsiderable part in forward- ing the interests of that party. Aspiring to no office, and repeatedly declining nominations, he has taken an active part in political campaigns, speaking throughout this state, and extending his labors into other states. Mr. Butler wisely holds that lawyers should not be . office-seekers, and consequently has been free to speak his mind on all occasions, which is no small advantage in stump speaking. Mr. Butler is a popular political orator, and speeches he has made have been extensively published. Mr. Butler is an active member of the Sec- ond Presbyterian Church, and president of the board of trustees and ruling elder. His children are a daughter of sixteen and a son thirteen years of age. In physical make-up, Mr. Butler presents a fine specimen of the per- fect man, being fairly tall, of light build, and well pro- portioned; a large head, well set upon broad shoulders, and a countenance and eye indicative of intellectual vigor and force of character, blended with evident kind- ness of disposition and innate honesty of purpose. As

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a jurist, he stands in the front rank in a bar that em- braces in its list many of the first lawyers in the coun- try. The practice of his firm is with cases of the weightiest importance, and attended with unusual suc- cess in results. Wisely avoiding the paths that lead to military and civic distinction as a public man, Mr. But- ler has a far more enviable record as a successful lawyer, a useful and respected citizen, and a living Christian gentleman, identified with those whose character gives tone to society, and whose labors enhance the prosperity of the city in which he has his home.

AVEN, JOHN, mayor of Indianapolis, was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, near Braddock's Field, April 12, 1824. He was the son of William Caven, whose genealogy was Scotch-Irish, and Jane (Loughead) Caven, of English-Scotch descent. John's education was of the most primitive kind, of the old English reader, Daboll's arithmetic, and log school- house type. In studying the life and character of emi- nent men, nothing is more important than to know as much as possible of their youthful surroundings and educational advantages. The subject of this sketch, if judged by estimates too often introduced in biograph- ical history, was confronted in boyhood by a rough pros- pect for future success in life. Born to toil, and with limited facilities for acquiring an education, he began a long way in the rear of the youth of fortune, but it may be said that these adverse circumstances were in fact a valuable inheritance. They tended to develop the robust qualities of the boy, and the Scotch-Irish traits of character of integrity and fidelity for which that race is pre-eminently distinguished-qualities that overcome obstacles and disadvantages, and wring from the grasp of fate the trophies of success. The log school-house in the wilderness was his Alma Mater, and when he graduated, if not a master of arts, he was something better-master of himself, and ready for the battle of life. His father was the owner of a salt-works, and the son boiled salt, or boated salt and coal in flat- boats. Three days before he attained legal manhood, on April 9, 1845, he left home, came to Indiana, and September 10, following, reached Indianapolis, his pres- ent place of residence. Here he engaged as a salesman in a shoe store until July, 1847, when he began the study of law with Smith & Yandes. It will be ob- served that young Caven steadily developed in the right direction. A close observer, a patient student, and a devotee of industry, he abandons the vocation of a com- mon laborer at the salt-works, or at the oar of a salt- flat, to take a position, at twenty-three years of age, in a law office, determined to master the problems of juris- prudence, and take his rightful place in one of the

learned professions. To the young men of the country such examples of courage, of perseverance, industry, and unyielding will power, are of the highest value. They are certain indications of a life of usefulness. They teach all observers that every man may fully equip himself for "the world's broad field of battle," and that success is always assured when there is a determi- nation to live "sublime lives " for the good of society. In 1851 he went to Clay County, Indiana, and engaged in mining coal for one year, and then returned to In- dianapolis, and resumed the practice of law with suc- cess. In May, 1863, he was elected mayor of Indianap- olis without opposition. In 1865 he was renominated by acclamation, and again elected without opposition. In 1868 he was elected to the state Senate, and there his votes will be found recorded in favor of the fifteenth amendment, and in favor of schools for colored chil- dren. He was again elected mayor in 1875, 1877, and 1879. It would be difficult, in few words, to express the great popularity of John Caven. The strong hold he has upon the regard of the people of Indianapolis is exceptional. There is not, probably, another instance of the kind to be found in the life of any other public man in the country. As the chief executive of the largest inland commercial city on the continent, the converging center of the wealth, intelligence, and enter- prise of a great state, the man who could be elected to the office of chief magistrate so frequently, and with so little opposition, must possess not only great powers of administration, but also large comprehension of the business wants of the community; and in these respects Mayor Caven is pre-eminently distinguished. There is no question relating to the needs and progress of the city, its commercial expansion, and its industrial enter- prises, that has not had his personal and official in- fluence. Mayor Caven early saw the great advantages that would accrue to the city by building the Belt Rail- road and the establishment of the union stock-yards, now in successful operation. On Monday, July, 1876, in a message to the common council, he discussed in- telligently and forcibly the local advantages of Indian- apolis. Referring to the importance of the Belt Rail- road, he said :

"The construction of a railroad around this city is important. The blockade of our streets has long been a great inconvenience, and a remedy must be found. To bridge or tunnel is very expensive, and not at all satisfactory. A road running from the Lafayette on the north of the city eastwardly, and around to the Bloom- ington and Western, would be about twelve miles in length, and, measuring each side, would make twenty- four miles of railroad frontage around the city, exceed- ingly desirable for locations for manufactures. Coal, ore, and heavy raw material could be delivered at the furnace door, and the manufactured articles carried away, reducing the expenses of hauling to the mini- mum. Experience has demonstrated that certain im-

Gaven -

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provements had better be made by private enterprise. Certain local improvements, however, seem to fall within the province of cities themselves-as harbors, docks, etc. Suppose Indianapolis were surrounded by a navi- gable water, into which poured eleven navigable rivers, navigable to every county in the state, and to every state in the union-to every fertile valley, to every hill- side with its exhaustless mines, to every quarry of stone and forest of timber-and, in addition, this surrounding water was especially adapted for the location of innu- merable manufactories, would it be deemed an improper expense for the city to improve such harbor? What that harbor would be to the city on the water, that road might be to us. The stock-yards would come before the road was finished, and grain elevators would be built. Its peculiar advantages would invite the location of manufactures, and these would furnish a demand and a market for fuel and farm products, thus building up state industries to aid us further in furnishing a market in turn for the manufactured wares. The Sulli- van coal road would soon be built ; perhaps finished first. I think, however, I might safely say if the cir- cular road were an assured fact that it would at once decide the coal road as an assured fact. The pit value of three hundred acres of coal would build it, and Sul- livan County has two hundred and seventy-five thou- sand acres, worth, at one-half cent per bushel royalty, five hundred and eighty-three million two hundred and ninety-seven thousand dollars, enough to build six hun- dred roads to this city. Six hundred thousand cars pass through this city yearly. Passing outside the city they might run at greater speed, and tolls might be charged which would, in all probability, be sufficient to pay ex- penses and interest on the cost. By building a depot at each intersection, and a union freight depot in the city, we would attain the maximum benefits of railroads with the minimum of disadvantage."

The road was completed, and the most sanguine ex- pectations of Mayor Caven have been realized. Mayor Caven is among the most advanced and eminent Masons in the state. He was made a member of the Blue Lodge, July 28, 1863, and has served as Worshipful Master five terms. He took the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, March 3, 1864; Chapter Degrees, Novem- ber 10, 1865; the Thirty-third Degree, May, 19, 1866; and was Deputy Grand Commander of the State until some time in 1877. He took the Council Degree, March 8, 1866, and the Commandery Degrees, January 4th, of the same year, and has served as Prelate. July 24, 1869, he took the degrees of the Order of Knights of Pythias, and was elected First Grand Chancellor of the Grand Lodge of Indiana, October 20, 1869. Mayor Caven is a Republican in politics, and, like his ancestry, inclines to the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church. Such is, very briefly, the faint outline, the mere skel- eton, of a busy life. It would be a curious and instruct- ive study to analyze the elements which form the basis of Mayor Caven's popularity and influence with the people. Quiet in his manner almost to the point of reticence, modest and unassuming in dress and speech, he never resorts to artifice to bring himself into public notice. And yet honors fall into his lap unsought, and C-2

he is a bold man who contests with him the palm of popular favor. All parties unite in his praise, and it is doubtless true that, outside of that dissolute class whom he is so often called upon to condemn, he has not an enemy in the world. Those who have been permitted to know the private life of Mayor Caven can testify that his numerous charities and donations nearly absorb his salary as mayor, and yet this is all so quietly dis- pensed that many, except his intimate friends, will here learn it for the first time. The demands upon his purse are almost incessant, and his kindness of heart makes it a most difficult thing to say "No." As mayor, too, he is expected to be prepared, at a moment's warning, to welcome with a flow of eloquent words every society which chooses to make Indianapolis its place of meeting, and some of his most hastily prepared efforts have been models of literary taste. His addresses on such occa- sions would fill volumes. This sketch would be incom- plete if not embellished with some of the gems of thought which are to be found in all of Mr. Caven's public addresses. In the course of an oration delivered upon the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the Masonic Temple in Indianapolis, Mr. Caven, in speak- ing of the mysteries of the universe, said :

" All things are mysterious. The smallest insect, invisible to the eye, is perfect in all its parts. It has hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows; it labors to lay up its stores, it has reason, learns from experience, and has conceptions of the ownership of property. The whale in the ocean, the fierce lion in the forest, the lamb in the meadow, every leaf and flower, is a mystery. Each grain of sand, this moment beneath your feet, was made when creation was. Cast it into the street, tread it under foot, grind it in the mill, crush it upon the anvil, burn it in the furnace, and we can not destroy it. That grain of dust is a mystery beyond human knowledge. All the wisdom of all the world, from Adam down, can not decipher it. All the gold and precious stones in all the different treasuries of the world, or still buried in the mines, could not purchase the mystery that sur- rounds a single grain of dust. All the armies that ever marched could not tread it out of existence, and all the alchemists could not destroy or create it. Yes, each grain of dust is old as creation.

" Had it a tongue what a history it could tell! Here it lies in your street to-day, defying man, time, earth- quakes, and fire. There it lies, undestroyed and inde- structible. Here a drop of water that rose in the first mist that went up from the earth, mingled in the first rain that ever fell. It flowed from the rivers that watered the Garden of Eden, it gushed from the rock which Moses smote, and was troubled by the angel in the healing pool of Siloam. It has hung upon the rose, welled in the eye of sorrow, and trembled upon the lash of beauty, damped the brow of toil, and cooled the parched lip of the fevered one. It watered the tree of good and evil in Paradise. It has fallen upon the burning desert, and the parched sands have drank it. It watered the thirsty land, and made the earth to laugh with harvests and plenty, the valley to bloom from every cranny. It has voyaged in the clouds, the brook, the rivulet, the river, lake, sea and ocean. It has

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sparkled in the dew, rested in snow upon the mountain top, rolled in ceaseless moaning in the ocean billow, overwhelmed the gallant ship standing out upon its ocean pathway from continent to continent, rushed in torrents down the mountain side; leaped Niagara in foam; thundered in the avalanche, desolated plains, swept cities away, and drowned the world. Dropped in the burning deserts of Africa it was not lost; in mid- ocean it was secure; floating in fleece in the sky it was still in God's all-preserving hands; in snow upon the bleak and frozen mountain top, it was still safe; poured into the burning volcano, it was still preserved; ever rising unharmed from the dust, the ashes, the flame, pure as the sinless tear, on wings of white, forming rainbows of peace, rewriting, in hues of glory, a con- tinual covenant of God in the sky.

" That drop sparkles to-day in the goblet, at the fount- ain, clear, soft and still, with many a voyage through the skies and round the world yet before it, unde- stroyed and indestructible. A drop of water only, yet a mystery beyond the wisdom of man to fathom. The simplest flower is a mystery, its blush, its fragrance. Where did it gather these sweets and these glories? From out the dark, damp earth and the invisible air. But by what mysterious process ? Gather up the snow- flake, and, as it melts in the hand, read, if you can, the mysterious message it brought from the sky. Why is it that it is only by age we acquire the experience which would have been so valuable in youth? Why do we only learn the world as we are about to leave it? acquire worldly wisdom when we have no longer use for it? only learn to wear the coronet of life when, all glowing with the glittering gems of experience, we must lay it down in the dust? The old sage can not bequeath a tithe of his garnered wisdom to the babe just born. The child of the sage must blunder and stumble as did his sire before him.

"If, then, a single grain of sand, a drop of water, is a mystery so profound and unfathomable, baffling human wisdom, what are oceans, continents, worlds, stars, suns, the universe, God, the Omnipotent? What a mystery is life, the union of soul and body, the action of the human mind! and what a mystery is death ! Death in the physical world is a renewal of life ; decay is nature seizing upon dead, useless matter, to remold it into new forms of life and beauty. Yes, what a won- derful mystery is death! All fear to die. The meanest insect will fight fiercely for life; and yet death can not be an evil. The inevitable can not be an evil. The God that made the universe made us. He is all wise and all good, and he has appointed to all once to die. The great of all times have died; the good, the wise, the learned, have died; the mighty warrior, the wise ruler, the world's great benefactors, have died; the stalwart youth, the fair young bride with the orange blossoms yet shining in her hair, the pure babe but a span long, the good old mother with her sweet white hair and wrinkled but loving hand. All these have died, and been buried away from the sight of loving eyes and breaking hearts. Death can not be an evil, or they would not have died.

"The good must be immortal. The king from his throne and the beggar from his poverty all have gone clown to the tomb, and in a few years we too must sleep with them. And then, how mysterious the hope of a future existence-that the tomb is but the portal to a higher and better life is strong in all. Even where the light of revelation has never shone, this belief is found. The wild Indian goes smiling to the stake, not

doubting that he shall enter at once to the happy hunt- ing grounds. We can not believe that existence ends with this life. It can not be that wronged and suffering virtue falls into the grave to sleep forever unavenged ; that the wrong-doer here sleeps as quiet as the wronged. Even the heathen reason that, as God is just, there must be a future existence. God has implanted within us the hope and longing for immortality; yet what that future is, is veiled by a shroud which only death can lift.

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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 94

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