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 97

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 97

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AVIS, GENERAL JEFFERSON C., was born in Clarke County, Indiana, on the second day of March, 1828, and died at Chicago, Illinois, in December, 1879. At the beginning of the Mexican War he enlisted in Colonel Lane's Indiana Regiment, and in 1848, when but twenty years old, was promoted to a second lieutenantcy in the Ist United States Artil- lery for gallant conduct at the battle of Buena Vista. In 1852 he was promoted to first lieutenant, and in April, 1861, was one of the garrison under General An- derson during the bombardment of Fort Sumter. In May of that year he was promoted to the rank of cap- tain in the regular army, and given leave of absence to recruit the 22d Indiana Volunteers, of which regiment he was commissioned colonel. In one of his first en- gagements, at Milford, Missouri, he captured a superior force, and was again promoted December 18, 1861, and made brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded a division at the battle of Pea Ridge, in April, 1862.

evacuation of that place by the Confederates, on the 30th of May, 1862, he was transferred to the Army of the Tennessee. On the 29th of September, 1862, he be- came involved in an altercation with General Nelson, at the Galt House, Louisville, and shot him, from the effects of which General Nelson very soon afterwards died. General Davis was arrested, and after an investi- gation of the facts he was restored to duty, and was never tried. He commanded a division in the battles around Murfreesboro and at Chickamauga. In 1864 he com- manded the Fourteenth Corps of Sherman's army in the Atlanta campaign, and in its march through Georgia. At the close of the war he received the brevet of major- general, and in 1876 he was made colonel of the 23d United States Infantry. He was stationed for some time on the Pacific coast, and served two years or more in Alaska. In 1873, after the murder of General Canby by the Modoc Indians, in Southern Oregon, General Davis was assigned to the command of the forces oper- ating against the Modocs, and continued the campaign until he compelled their surrender. General Davis be- longed to a fighting family. His grandfather, William Davis, was an old Indian fighter, and among the more important of the battles in which he was engaged was that of the River Raisin. On his mother's side, his grandfather, James Drummond, was an early set- tler of Kentucky, and he, with other members of the family, participated in the battle of Tippecanoe and other Indian battles. No braver man or truer soldier than General Davis ever drew a sword, and, as will be seen by the foregoing sketch, he won every promotion by his gallantry in action. General Davis was married, about 1860, to Miss Maretta Athon, who survives him. He has no children, but had a niece whom he had adopted, and who had been living in his family for some years. Mrs. Davis is the daughter of the late Doctor James S. Athon, and sister of Hettie Athon Morrison. General Davis's father died at the old home- stead in Clarke County, about one year ago, and his mother, who is a native of Indiana, is yet living, at Memphis, in Clarke County. He left a handsome estate to his wife.

AY, SAMUEL D., physician and surgeon, of Shel- byville, Indiana, was born in Dalton, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, March 2, ISII. His par- 20% ents were Amasa and Hannah Day, people of very industrious habits, who followed agricultural pursuits. They were in limited circumstances and could give only the older portion of the family a collegiate education. The subject of this memoir received his primary educa- tion in the district schools, which he attended during the winter; and his summers, until the age of fifteen,

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were spent in the Pittsfield Academy. At this age he went to live with a brother in Syracuse, New York, who had achieved some prominence as a physician and surgeon, and who also carried on an extensive drug trade. Here Samuel was employed as clerk, and at the same time spent all of his spare moments in the study of medicine. By the time he had reached his majority he had taken two courses of lectures at the Berkshire Medical Institute, and was graduated there- from in the year 1831. In 1832 the Legislature of New York attempted to prevent the spread of cholera by quarantine, and Doctor Day was appointed quarantine physician at French Creek, Jefferson County, New York, where he remained until August. During this time the cholera had broken out, spontaneously, in three different places, and his brother fell a victim to the dis- ease. The Doctor was called to settle up the estate, and was so employed until the spring of 1834. He then started West, and engaged with a New York house to travel through Northern Ohio and Eastern Indiana, to sell surgical instruments and office apparatus; travel- ing the entire way in a buggy, devoting the summer months to selling, and going over the same road during the winter on horseback to make his collections. This engaged his attention until the spring of 1836, when he determined to locate in the practice of medicine, and removed to Wilmington, Decatur County, Indiana. In- ducements were offered by a Doctor Sharp, of Milroy, Rush County, Indiana, to have him come there and purchase his house and lot. The Doctor went imme- diately to Milroy, and, liking the place, bought the property, and remained there until the following sum- mer, when he resold to Doctor Sharp, and, returning to Wilmington, took the position left vacant by Doctor W. H. Torbet, who was going South. He remained there only until the next winter, when Doctor Torbet arrived home with a sick family, and in poor circum- stances. Mr. Day sold back the property to him, and spent that winter in Cincinnati. In October, 1838, he removed to Shelbyville, Shelby County, Indiana, and here met with his first discouragement. The sickly sea- son, which lasted during the months of July, August, and September, and a part of October, had just passed. During these months more than half the business for the whole year was done. By the return of that sea- son in 1839 the Doctor's health was so impaired by continued attacks of ague that he was unable to do justice to the calls that came for him, and he deter- mined to change his location again. In the mean time the celebrated campaign of 1840 came, and, being a stanch Whig, and believing the welfare of the country depended upon a change of administration, he went into the campaign with great earnestness, feeling as if his personal welfare depended upon its issue. As soon as the polls closed on the day of election, he went to

his office and began to pack his effects. A call came for him to go to the country, which probably settled the future of his life. We here quote the Doctor's own words: "It was a serious case of fever, the party was responsible, and the fee would assist to pay a board bill I was still owing. I determined to remain; my practice gradually increased until I kept three horses in good demand." In May, 1855, he took an extended tour through England, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, and the different states of Germany, returning in the fall of that year. Doctor Day has been a practicing physician of Shelbyville for forty years, and attained a celebrity which has not been confined to his own county. His kind treatment and sympathizing nature have endeared him to his patients. His political affiliations were with the old Whig party during its existence, and he was energetically solicitous for its success. He now votes the Democratic ticket, although he never becomes pub- licly identified with political affairs, excepting local movements, when he takes the part of a good citizen, and may be considered an active and valuable worker. He has always felt an interest in every thing calculated to benefit the city, and his genial, honorable, and up- right character has given him an enviable position among the best citizens of Shelbyville. He was married, October 28, 1847, to Miss Jane Thomson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, niece of the late Major John Hendricks, and cousin to Hon. T. A. Hendricks, ex-Governor of Indiana.

E LA MATYR, GILBERT, member of Congress, was born in Pharsalia, Chenango County, New York, July 8, 1825, and is of French and English ancestry. His father, Henry De La Matyr, was born in Chenango County, New York, in 1803, and was in direct descent from the Huguenots, every genera- tion maintaining essentially the dissenting views and in- dependency characterizing that body of people. Besides the maintenance of his family by his trade as a car- penter, he has given himself largely to the duties of the Christian ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has officiated as local deacon, according to the usages of that Church, now for more than fifty years. His mother, whose maiden name was Abigail Lion Hammond, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in the same year as his father. She was descended from the Puritans, holding in all her life their distinguishing traits of character with great tenacity. Their house- hold was therefore known for the simplicity of its management, its conscientious scrupulousness, and its decided republicanism. These traits ran into all the practical affairs of their home, and into their political faith and practices. The subject of this sketch was the third of eight children. Of the six brothers, four de-

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voted themselves to the Christian ministry, one to med- icine, and one to teaching. The two sisters became the wives of Methodist ministers, and both of them are in widowhood. The several callings the entire family have followed are conclusive proof of the intellectual and religious habit of their Huguenot-Puritan home. Mr. De La Matyr pursued the business of a carpenter with his father until he was twenty-three years of age. Mean- while he had good common school advantages. These were supplemented by teaching as assistant with his father, two winters in succession, in a select school. Aided by the professors of the town seminary, he in the end acquired a full academic education. This closed his educational work under the direction of teachers. Thereafter he pursued his own course of read- ing and of drilling himself into habits of thought, using whatever facilities were within his reach, in the mode dictated by his own judgment. He became a licen- tiate as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church at twenty years of age, and was admitted to the regular work of the itinerant ministry of his Church, in the Genesee Annual Conference, at twenty-four years of age, and in this relation he continued without inter- mission for eighteen years. His diligence in study, in- dependent mode of thought, and devotion to his work as pastor of the people, gave him quickly high stand- ing in the Churches which he served, and equally among the ministers with whom he was associated. The de- gree of Docter of Divinity was afterwards conferred on him pro merito by Willamette University, in Oregon. In both the campaigns in which Mr. Lincoln's claims for the presidency were discussed, Mr. De La Matyr took an active part, speaking through large portions of the state of New York, and he was recognized as among the most attractive and efficient orators on that side. As a man, he won the confidence of all parties by his honest statement of matters of fact, and for his fair discussion of the principles and policy involved in de- bate. In the War of the Rebellion he took an early and unabated interest. When the time came for deci- sive work for the preservation of the Union, he deemed it his duty to identify himself with the men in arms. In 1862 the fruits of his patriotic exertions were the enlistment and organization of one regiment of infantry, another of heavy artillery, and a light battery. This important service was rendered largely by himself in person. Greatly appreciating his services, the military authorities gave him the commendation which such loyal energy merited. In the latter part of the year 1862 he entered the army as chaplain, serving in that capacity the 8th New York Heavy Artillery, commanded by Colonel Peter A. Porter. In this relation he con- tinued until, in 1865, the regiment was called from active service in the field. In the fall of the same year Mr. De La Matyr returned to the regular work of the

ministry in his conference, and was appointed pre- siding elder of the Wyoming District, which field he occupied for two years. In 1867 he was nominated by the Republican party in the New York State Conven- tion for the office of state-prison inspector, for which position, after a vigorous canvass, he was defeated, al- though he ran at the polls beyond the full measure of his party vote. He was elected one of the represent- atives of his annual conference to the General Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1868, holding its session that year in Chicago, there mak- ing a record marked by diligence in work, dignity of personal demeanor, and profound interest in the behalf of progress in the work for which he was standing. In the spring of the same year he was transferred to the New York East Conference, receiv- ing his appointment as minister in charge of Sands Street Church in Brooklyn. Two years later (1870) he was transferred to the Nebraska Conference, and sta- tioned, for the work of the ministry, in the city of Omaha. The Church to which he went was new, was in the midst of an enterprising population, and de- manded a minister having talents of commanding power. The appointing authority of the Church selected Mr. De La Matyr as an available man for this important position, and competent to meet the difficulties gather- ing around that particular field of work. In this high expectation, the sequel fully proves that no parties con- cerned in the appointment were disappointed, or had occasion for regret. Two years later still, in 1872, the especial work for which he had been stationed in Omaha being completed, he was transferred to the St. Louis Conference, and appointed to the pastorate of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Here there were conditions of difficulty and embarrass- ment to be overcome not unlike those in the Church at Omaha. The circumstances of the charge had in them much of a delicate and intricate nature, requiring a conservative habit and at the same time ability for pro- gress. The appointment here proved, as in the previ- . ous two years, eminently well adapted and successful. After the lapse of two years again, he was transferred to the South-east Indiana Conference, and stationed, ac- cording to the unanimous wish of that populous Church, at Roberts Park Church, in the city of Indianapolis. This Church had been engaged in the erection of an edifice for their purposes of worship, at a cost, when complete, of one hundred and forty-five thousand dol- lars-an outlay of money and an elegance of design and structure greater than that of any other house of wor- ship in the state. The building was inclosed and the lower rooms alone were in use when he came as pastor. Mr. De La Matyr proved attractive as a preacher, and skillful as a leader in the management of financial ques- tions-a matter so needful, at this juncture, in the prog-

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ress of the Church and the unfinished state of the building. The country was lapsing into the distress of financial pressure, which has been the burden of these years. The city itself was distressed almost beyond any other center of population, under the reaction from the virulent inflation of trade and of speculation in real es- tate. Despite the forbidding outlook, the pastor quickly surrounded himself with an enlarged assembly of people, whom he inspired with his own enthusiasm and purpose. They saw the inadequacy of their present accommodations to meet the increasing demand of the population wishing to attend the Church services under the leading of their minister ; with the resolution and activity characterizing their pastor, the people cen- tered their resources on the finishing of the building, and within a few months it was brought to comple- tion-a model of spaciousness, beauty, and convenience. Remaining with the Roberts Park congregation three years-the pastoral limit under the constitutional restric- tions of the Church-he was stationed in Grace Church, in the same city, in the fall of 1877, from which pastor- ate he retired at the end of one year, by receiving a location, at his own request, from the regular itinerant ministry of the South-east Indiana Conference, of which body he had now been a member for four years. It was well known that Mr. De La Matyr held political views in common with the National party, and that, as soon as that party had taken form in an organization, he had heartily espoused its cause and was ardent in the advocacy of its doctrines. His prominence as a citizen and minister, and his influence as a man of acknowledged ability, gave to his opinions on this phase of political faith a leading strength. Accordingly, when the convention met in Indianapolis, in August, 1878, representing the Seventh Congressional District in Indi- ana, to nominate a candidate for the ensuing Congress of the United States, Mr. De La Matyr was believed to combine in himself more of the elements of strength as a political representative and advocate than any other .man in the district. He therefore had the unanimous vote of the convention. Two years before the district had given a decisive Republican vote of one thousand five hundred majority over the Democratic ticket, no National candidate being at that time in the field. This campaign was entered upon early in the fall of 1878, there being now no Democratic candidate in the canvass. The former congressional Representative having been renominated by the Republican convention, the contest lay between the old Republican and the new National candidates, the Democratic voters choosing between the two, and determining their support according to their views on the new financial questions at issue. The Nationa: nominee developed a strength in popular discussion which had not been expected, even by his most inti- mate friends. The canvass terminated in his election to

the Forty-sixth Congress by nearly one thousand ma- jority-a result which few had any ground to anticipate. An analysis of Mr. De La Matyr's character reveals the following elements very clearly : First-Intellectually, he is of the thoroughly analytic order of mind, with the habit of examining the subjects of his thoughts on all sides; and so exhaustively is he inclined to do his work that few things escape his notice-even the minutest. His tendencies are to be radical. This fact, together with great assurance of his own powers, leads him into independence in the methods, and equally in the results, of his investigations. He, therefore, some- times cuts loose from doctrines that have been consid- ered settled, arraying himself thereby against the con- servative and in favor of the progressive schools of thought, both in theology and politics. Second-His moral tendencies are based on pure intellectual discrim- inations of the relations of things, and end in a broad conscientiousness. Technologies, therefore, count little in his regard, names being considered only arbitrary titles, instead of which any other words were just as good. A high and strong faith in the true and good, with a well meant endeavor under such faith to do the best deeds and achieve the greatest practical results, both personal and benevolent, have his regard more than all possible forms, however imposing on the sense, or representative they may be as rites. Too honest to brook even the shadow of deceit, and too jealous of personal righteousness to think of the least departure from what he deems to be just and fair, he has only contempt for mercenary morals in the individual, and cqually for a purchasable integrity in positions of pub- lic trust. As a man of morals, he has therefore been found to be, in all the relations of his life, above every occasion of suspicion. Such a man regards right more highly than he can by possibility estimate any mere matter of popular favor or gratification of mere selfish desire, gained at any appreciable sacrifice of truth or justice. Third-Probably the most marked quality of the man is his unvarying readiness to do what he under- stands to be his duty. Whether in the social, the polit- ical, or the religious spheres of his life, he follows his convictions. Radical and decisive in his opinions, his purposes are taken irrespective of popular estimate, and carried forward resolutely. He has no hesitation, therefore, when occasion arises, to act in the face of public opinion. Indeed, he often confronts the opinion of his nearest friends, asserting his own opinions in op- position to theirs with great resoluteness. Courage.of assertion, and firmness as well as strength of conviction, are prime characteristics. Few men have a purpose so fully bent on accomplishing what he has in mind as has he. In clearness of mental acumen, decision in moral judgments, and resoluteness of purpose, with courage to assert and will to execute, Mr. De La Matyr has few

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equals, not to say superiors, in any of the relations in which he has held a part with men, in the Church or in the state. " A man among men," he is in the work to which his life has been chiefly devoted. In his profes- sion as a preacher of the Gospel, he enjoys an enviable prominence. Whatever his success in political life may have been, and his adaptation to meet the demand as representative of the people in the councils of the gov- ernment may prove to be, when the sum of his work in that sphere of trust shall be known, it does yet remain that he has already made the record of an honest man ; a man of unblemished moral character, and decisive- ness of achievement in all the fields of responsibility he has occupied. Mr. De La Matyr was married to Lucetta Curtis Moore, in Paw Paw, Michigan, at twenty years of age, of whom he was bereaved by death in 1865. In 1868 he was married to Marietta Osborn, in Mount Morris, New York, who departed this life in 1877, leaving him one son, at present the only member of his family.

OBBS, CYRUS JOHNSON, Indianapolis, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, October 9, 1833. His parents, John and Jane Dobbs, owned a farm there, on which they reared a large family. Cyrus received his education in the public schools, whence he went to the high school of Wooster, Ohio, closing his student life in a course of instruction at Wesleyan Col- lege, Delaware, Ohio. He entered upon manhood by traveling in the Southern States two years. He went to Europe in 1853, and while there was employed two years as agent for importers of chemicals to this coun- try. Returning to the United States, he came to Indi- anapolis in 1856, and engaged in a manufacturing business. He was thus employed when the tocsin of war was sounded in 1861; and when the President made his first call for volunteers, Mr. Dobbs at once dropped his implements of industry, in obedience to the dictates of patriotism, and was among the first to enroll himself with the ardent young men that promptly came to the front to do their duty in defend- ing the country's flag. On the organization of the 13th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers he was commissioned a captain, and served with the regiment in all its sub- sequent eventful career. In the following November he was promoted to major; the succeeding year, June, 1862, he was made lieutenant-colonel, and the next De- cember became colonel. This regiment was under McClellan in his early campaign in West Virginia, was in its first battle at Rich Mountain, and participated in all the early engagements where that general earned his first laurels and promotion to commander-in-chief. This regiment, under Colonel Dobbs, was in all the battles in the Shenandoah Valley under General James Shields,

and was in the engagement at Winchester when Stone- wall Jackson was whipped-the first and only time. The regiment afterwards joined the main army of the Potomac, and went with McClellan through the entire Peninsular campaign, and at its close marched south and joined General Gilmore, who was then in front of Charleston, South Carolina. It took part in the reduc- tion of Fort Sumter, and at the end of five months proceeded to Florida. Going up the St. John's River, the regiment assisted in defeating the rebel forces in that state in the decisive battle of Olustee. Return- ing north, it joined General Grant in his advance to- wards Richmond, and participated in the battles of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and was before Petersburg until its fall. Its term of service having then expired, it was mustered out in 1864. During all this length of time Colonel Dobbs led his battalion, which, as narrated above, had always been to the front, participated in many of the most important conflicts of the war, did yeoman service in the cause, and made a record of which the state of Indiana and the nation may well be proud. On returning home, Colonel Dobbs was ap- pointed a colonel in the United States Veteran Volun- teer Corps, then forming under General Hancock for active service, and was one of the three volunteer colo- nels admitted to that body, all the others having been taken from the regular army. This was a compliment that acknowledged the value of former military service performed by Colonel Dobbs while in the field; and in bestowing it General Hancock knew his man. At the close of the war Colonel Dobbs was detailed to take charge of public military property, and to muster out soldiers. After performing service of this kind for a while at Washington, he went to Wisconsin, making his headquarters for a year at Milwaukee, having charge of Camp Washburn, and then of Camp Randall, at Mad- ison, mustering out all but one of the Wisconsin regi- ments. Subsequently, he performed like service at Springfield, Illinois, after which he was mustered out of service. Returning to civic life and Indianapolis, he was elected, in 1868, sheriff of the Superior Court of Indiana, which office he held two years-beyond which there is a legal restriction-and is now leading a quiet life, apparently content with the world as it is and its bachelor comforts. Colonel Dobbs is a thorough Re- publican, and is liberal in religious matters, yet Chris- tian in every phase of life. He is a man of fine presence, about five feet nine inches in height, well proportioned, and is noted for a fine, flowing, golden beard of great length; his features are cast in nature's most exquisite mold. He has an animated and ex- pressive countenance, and is quick in motions. Rough- ing it for long years in the most active of military service, he came out of it retaining the smoothness and freshness of unimpaired manhood. His personal bear

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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 97

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