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 II > Part 10
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about the middle of December, 1862, when he resigned and returned home. After a brief sojourn home, he was again ready for active service, and, having learned that at Nashville, Tennessee, there was a demand for competent surgeons, he proceeded thither; and, after a two days' searching examination by the army medical board, the result was pronounced satisfactory, and he immediately consummated a contract with A. Henry Thurston, assistant surgeon-general United States army, and medical director at Nashville, and was ordered on duty at the officers' hospital. He subsequently assisted Doctor Saulter in organizing the Cumberland Hospital, which had a capacity for three thousand patients, and here he remained in the active discharge of his duties until October 12, 1863. During his leisure hours, hav- ing discovered a new preservative and disinfectant com- pound for embalming bodies, he enlisted in that busi- ness with much success during the remainder of the war, by permission of Major-general George H. Thomas, hav- ing his headquarters at Nashville, with branch offices at Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee; Dalton, At- lanta, and Marietta, Georgia ; and Huntsville, Alabama. He rendered valuable services to the remains of Gen- eral McPherson and numerous fallen heroes during the Georgia campaign. After the close of the war he re- turned to Indianapolis, and has since devoted his ener- gies to the practice of medicine and surgery, in which he has achieved marked success. To smooth his pro- fessional journey, which had often been assailed by foes without and foes within the profession, on account of his school, he determined to remove the obloquy of an ism by graduating, at the close of the winter session of 1874-75, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, just twenty years after he had received his first degree at Cincinnati, Ohio. Doctor Prunk's standing as a physician is of the first class, and his social demeanor and agreeable presence and conversation make him de- servedly popular with all patients, and stamp him as a gentleman of culture and refinement, while his private character as a citizen, a husband, and a father is above reproach. Doctor Prunk is, politically, a Republican. His early religious associations were with the good old Methodist Church, which sent its itinerant preachers along with the pioneer in the fastnesses of the wilder- ness. HIe became a member of that Church at Lacon, Ilinois, in 1849, and continued his membership therein until 1867, when, appreciating the old adage, that "a house divided against itself can not stand," etc., he asso- ciated with the Episcopal Church, of which his wife was a member. On March 30, 1858, Doctor Prunk was married to Miss Hattie A. Smith, and their family con- sists of Frank Howard, born in Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois, March 14, 1860; Harry Clayton, born in Indianapolis, August 17, 1861; and Byron Fletcher, born in Indianapolis, December 20, 1866. We are im-
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pelled to take more than a passing glance at the bright and talented lady who presides over the Doctor's house- hold, and whose place in the hearts of the public is commensurate with her rare genius and her truly womanly qualities of head and heart. We give a brief outline of that part of her life which is of public in- terest. Her brilliant social qualities endear her to a large and constantly widening, though select, circle of friends. Mrs. Hattie A. Prunk is a native of Cincin- nati, Ohio, although soon after her birth her parents, William J. and Lavinia (Lenox) Smith, moved to Cov- ington, Kentucky, where she was brought up, and where she resided until her marriage with Doctor Prunk. Both parents of Mrs. Prunk were natives of old Vir- ginia, where the maternal family name of Lenox has figured prominently for many generations. Her mater- nal grandfather was a lieutenant in the War of the Revolution. After a thorough and careful training in the usual branches of a liberal English education, she entered the Wesleyan Female College at Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from that institution in 1858, a short time before her marriage. Very early in life she evinced a peculiar aptitude for declamation, developing a fluency in reading, and a dramatic power of expres- sion, remarkable in one of her age, and this talent brought her into requisition as the representative of her class on all occasions of public entertainment, and in society at popular and social gatherings. Her friends and herself soon awoke to the consciousness that there existed in her the germs of the divine art, which only needed careful cultivation to bud and blossom into the ripe fruitage of rare dramatic and elocutionary genius. The highest possibilities in any art or profession are at- tained only by constant and unceasing, sometimes la- borious, application, and Mrs. Prunk possessed both the innate love for art and the will-power and determined energy to apply herself to the task of perfecting her powers. For eight years previous to her subsequent graduation she devoted every spare moment to study, and to the task of training her vocal organs for the platform, under the instructions of celebrated profess- ors in the East. Desiring still to secure the most per- fect training that the country affords, in the month of October, 1877, she entered the Boston University School of Oratory, under the control of the late Professor Louis B. Monroe, and after the most diligent and per- sistent application for two years graduated from that institution in May, 1879, which was one year less than the regular course. She also enjoyed the privilege of special instruction from Professors Steele Mackaye and R. R. Raymond, of Brooklyn, New York. Mrs. Prunk's first appearance before the public in a professional ca- pacity was at the Grand Opera-house, Indianapolis, October 14, 1878, in response to a pressing invitation from the leading citizens of that city; and press and
critics united in paying the most flattering tributes to her graceful presence, remarkable purity and quality of voice, and high dramatic talents. Her second appear- ance was at Tremont Temple, Boston, May 19, 1879, before a large assembly of the élite of that cultured city. Her reception partook largely of the character of an ovation, and the press teemed with the most compli- mentary allusions to the accomplished débutante. Since that time she has appeared before the public at various times, principally in Indianapolis; and the encomiums lavished upon her, and her constantly growing popularity, have awakened a wide-spread desire on the part of her friends to see the lady permanently adopt the platform as a profession. Thus far the press of domestic and other duties has kept her from acceding to the popular desire in this regard, but it is to be hoped that before long she may see fit to gain for herself the national reputation which only awaits her bidding. To the people of her own city and state, or in the educational circles of the East, she needs no introduction, and her place in the public heart is assuredly a warm one. A sketch of Mrs. Prunk would be incomplete without a slight analysis of her standing and powers as an artiste. Her friends do not hesitate to claim for her a place alongside the hand- some and gifted Mrs. Siddons, and in many respects the resemblance between the power and presence of both artistes is very marked. Mrs. Prunk combines in a marked degree those faculties, mental and physical, which constitute excellence in her art, and in any other situation or profession some one or other of her splendid gifts would have been misplaced or dormant. With a face and form so attractive as to command the respect- ful attention of the most casual observer, she has reached that point of perfection in her art at which it ceases to be art and becomes second nature. She has studied profoundly the forms and capabilities of lan- guage, so that a delicacy of emphasis is assured by which the meaning of an author is most distinctly con- veyed; and no critic could suggest in her delivery a shade of intonation by which the sentiment could be more fully or more faithfully expressed. With an un- equaled genius for, and a passionate devotion to, her art, the utmost patience in study, and a purely sym- pathetic nature, there is not a passage that she can not delineate; and the nicest shade or most delicate modification of passion she seizes with philosophical ac- curacy, and renders with such immediate force of nature and truth, as well as precision, that what is the result of deep study and unwearied practice appears like sud- den inspiration. There is not a height of grandeur to which she does not soar; not a depth of misery to which she can not descend; not a chord of feeling, from the sternest to the most delicate, which she can not cause to vibrate at her will. Her personal appear- ance and presence are stately and dignified, while her
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command of facial expression seems almost unlimited ; now capable of delineating the sunniest of smiles; now picturing the sternest of frowns; now lighted up with the bright beams of hope; and anon shrouded in the gloom of despair. Unlike a good many who seem not to live outside of their profession, Mrs. Prunk shines as brightly in the social circle as on the platform, is a versatile and brilliant conversationalist, quick as the lightning's flash, apt at repartee, and in the arena of re- fined sarcasm able to cut and parry with all the polish and dash of the witty, refined, and accomplished lady. In her domestic relations she is pre-eminently happy, a noble wife and a devoted mother. Mrs. Prunk is now -in the very prime of life, and can not yet have reached the zenith of her physical. and intellectual powers. As- suredly, higher honors yet await her than any she has yet achieved.
ANSDELL, DANIEL M., clerk of Marion County, was born June 15, 1842, in the county of which he is now clerk. He was the son of a Baptist minister of limited means, and had no ad- vantages for education beyond that of the district country school until he arrived at the age of seventeen years, when, by his own will and energy, he had se- cured a scholarship in Franklin College, Johnson County, where he remained three years, excepting the time during which he taught school. He was in his junior year in 1862, and had a great desire to complete his college course, but he, like thousands of others, felt that his country required his services in the tented field, and he accordingly enlisted as a private in Company G, 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, General Benjamin Harrison commanding, and was with his command con- tinuously until the battle of Resaca, Georgia, May 15, 1864. During the dreadful charge on that Sunday after- noon, General Joe Hooker commanding, in which the 70th Indiana took the lead, when within twenty feet of the rebel works, amidst a shower of shot and shell, he lost his right hand, a rebel bullet having pierced his wrist, almost entirely severing the hand from the arm. Thus ended his military history. Though humble, yet his duties were performed with fidelity. No doubt had opportunity offered, even though young, he would have displayed those superior qualities in the army that he has developed in civil life. Coming back to his native county in the spring of 1864, with his mangled arm yet under the surgeon's care, while in the city hospital of Indianapolis, he employed his leisure time in attending a commercial college, from which he graduated in the winter of 1864-5, receiving his discharge from the army at about the same time. After traveling for six months selling school furniture for Asher & Adams, he returned to the avocation that made him his first dollar-that of
school teaching-at which he continued until June, 1866, when he was called to the deputyship of General W. J. Elliott, then recorder of Marion County. From this dates the era of his successful political history. In the spring of 1867 Mr. Ransdell was nominated by the Re- publican party for clerk of the city of Indianapolis, which office he filled, in a manner highly acceptable to the city and with credit to himself, for two terms in succession. After retiring from office he engaged in business. In 1875 he was again brought forward into public life, and elected a member of the city council of Indian- apolis, from the largest and heaviest tax-paying ward of the city, where he displayed those qualities that make a successful representative of an enterprising people. He stood in the front of all movements looking to the advancement of the city's interest, prominent among which was the establishment of the Belt Railroad and stock-yards. At the Republican convention, held at Indianapolis on the 2d of March, 1878, Mr. Ransdell was nominated on the first ballot for county clerk. He entered actively into the canvass, and was elected over his competitor by two thousand votes, his ma- jority being twelve hundred more than the aver- age majority of the Republican ticket. He entered at once upon the duties of his office, and it is no disparagement to his predecessors to say that his administration has been eminently successful. Few men of the age of Mr. Ransdell have filled as many public positions, and certainly none have given more general satisfaction in the discharge of pub- lic duties. The private and social side of his life is as pleasant as his public career has been successful. In December, 1869, he was united in marriage with Mary R. Cathcart, a woman of education, rare good sense, and excellent judgment, and no doubt he can attribute much of his success to the quiet influence this amiable woman has exerted over him in his peaceful and happy home. Mr. Ransdell has a family of four lovely chil- dren : Charlotte B., the eldest, is nine years of age ; William J. is seven ; Mary C. is a winsome little fairy, aged four; and Daniel M., junior, is an infant, aged one year. Mr. Ransdell is one of the men of the state who will do honor to any public position in which he may be placed.
AY, MARTIN M., late of Shelbyville, was born in the year 1820, in Butler County, Ohio, and died in the city of Indianapolis on the sixth day of August, 1872. He was a son of John Ray, and a nephew of ex-Governor James B: Ray. But little is known of his childhood and youth ; but there is suf- ficient to establish the fact that he had many struggles with poverty. This, however, seemed only to stimulate his ambition to rise in the world and become a great
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lawyer. He was one of the purest of men, and has left an unsullied record. It was his fortune to be placed several times before the public as a candidate for office, and his opponents could find little in his life and char- acter to attack. At an early age he obtained a deputy clerkship in the clerk's office of Wayne County, where he remained about one year, and then went into the law office of his uncle, Governor Ray. He was passionately fond of legal studies, and, to further perfect himself in them, went to the Law School of Harvard University, where he remained for a period of eighteen months. He returned to Indianapolis and resumed his reading under his uncle; and in 1843, having been licensed to practice, he opened an office in Shelbyville, Indiana. At this time he was almost penniless, and a complete stranger in the community. In a short time, however, he was in the midst of a large and lucrative practice, and surrounded by a circle of admiring friends. In 1845 he married Miss Susan Cross, who is now living in Shelbyville. Twelve children blessed their union, all but one of whom are living. It was his good fortune in settling at Shelbyville to be brought into early asso- ciation with Hon. T. A. Hendricks. As lawyers, they grew up together. It is related that, when it was known that they were to be opposing counsel in a lawsuit, the court-room was always filled. A friendship was formed between these two gentlemen which existed unbroken up to the time of Mr. Ray's death. For the first ten or twelve years they were of different politics, Mr. Ray being a Whig, and Mr. Hendricks a Democrat. Upon the dissolution of the Whig party Mr. Ray united with the Democracy, and ever afterward maintained his con- nection with it. In 1860 he was elected to the Indiana state Senate by the Democratic party, and was one of the leading spirits of that body. He showed himself a keen and ready debater, a ripe scholar, and a polished gentleman. He felt deeply the situation of the country when he entered the Senate in January, 1861, and ear- nestly endeavored to bring about a compromise between the North and South; but, seeing that all such efforts were of no avail, he took strong grounds for the gov- ernment, and made some of the ablest speeches of his life in support of the war. He was a devoted patriot, who loved his country more than he loved his party. In 1858 he was honored with the nomination for Con- gress, but was defeated by his opponent, Hon. A. G. Porter, the district being Republican by about fifteen hundred. In 1863 he removed to the city of Indian- apolis. His reputation as a lawyer had preceded him, and in a short time he had a magnificent practice. As a lawyer, he stood at the head of his profession, and enjoyed many great successes, his business extending throughout the entire state. His preparation as an ad- vocate was complete. Upon the trial of causes his faculties had fair play and appeared to great advantage.
His humor, genial and highly cultivated, charmed all within its influence. His disgust at what was vile or mean was sincere and earnest, and he took great pleas- ure in denouncing whatever he thought dishonest or dishonorable. His eloquence was in a high degree pleasing and powerful. His imagination was bold and strong, and he had command of the most appropriate language. In private life he was a recognized favorite. The purity and vigor of his thoughts, the richness of his humor, and the elegance of his conversation attracted all toward him. He was always kind to the young of the profession, and exercised an elevating influence upon them.
ICE, MARTIN H., is a fair representative of New England's training and life. Though the circum- stances bearing upon a character seem able to change it radically, the laws of heredity are im- mutable, and the most an alien influence can do is to bias what it can not create. He was born on the fourth day of October, 1829, in the town of Jamaica, Windham County, Vermont. His parents were John and Mary Rice. His father was a carpenter, in moderate circum- stances, enjoying to the fullest extent the confidence of his community. In 1856 he was killed by a fall in his barn. Ephraim, the grandfather, was one of the famous "Green Mountain Boys," of Revolutionary fame, to whom history most justly gives high praise. He fought under General Stark at the battle of Bennington, and was concerned in many other engagements, dying at the ripe age of ninety-four. His grandmother's brother, William French, was shot in the court-house at West- minster, Vermont, then known as the Hampshire Grants, March 13, 1775. This is said to have been the first life lost in the struggle for American independence. Court was at that time holding under the authority of King George, of England, when the people, becoming exas- perated at the injustice done them in the findings of that body, took possession of the court-house. A com- pany of British troops was sent to disperse them and to enforce submission. A volley was fired into the room, and William French fell. Such, in brief, are the facts in Mr. Rice's genealogy. Of hardy, honest parentage, he could cope with the ills of life and not weary. Nor in his ancestry is there aught of which any man might not be proud. His early life was spent at home, work- ing with his father upon the farm. Subsequently, he at- tended school, and, having acquired a thorough educa- tion, taught until 1848, when he moved to Woodstock, Vermont, acting there in the capacity of bookkeeper for a large dry-goods house till 1853. Leaving his native state, he went to Piqua, Ohio, and commenced civil engineering. In the fall of the same year he came to Indiana, continuing to follow the same business.
Gratomally Your Martin . . Vice
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In the spring of 1875, however, he removed to Indianapolis, and took charge of the office of the In- dianapolis State Sentinel, which he retained up to 1856. While living in this city he married Miss Regina C. Smith, in April, 1856, shortly afterward moving to Plymouth, where he commenced the business of a dry- goods merchant, which he conducted successfully until the spring of 1868. In 1866 he accepted the position of chief engineer of the Chicago, Cincinnati and Louis- ville Railroad, a position he held until the comple- tion of the road. He removed to Indianapolis in 1859, assuming charge of the Masonic Advocate, as editor and publisher, in the interest of which he is still engaged. Under his management this periodical, the organ of the craft in the West, has attained great popularity, and is to-day the best supported Masonic journal published. For seven years he was vice-president of the Masonic Mutual Benefit Society of Indiana, and in July, 1877, became its secretary, which office he is now filling. Mr. Rice was made a Mason in Plymouth Lodge, No. 149, in June of 1858. He was elected Grand Master of Masons in Indiana in 1868, and was three times re- elected, holding that office four years, which is a longer continuous term than was ever held by any other Grand Master in the whole history of the Grand Lodge of In- diana. He was elected Most Puissant Grand Master of the Grand Council of the Royal and Select Masons of Indiana in 1871, and served one year, and chosen Grand High-priest of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Indiana in 1878, which position he is now holding. He received the high honor of the thirty- third degree in the Supreme Council for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America in 1878, and is the present Eminent Commander of the famous Raper Commandery of Indianapolis. As a ritualist in Masonry, he has a thorough knowledge of the work in all its branches of the York Rite, and also confers many of the degrees in the Scottish Rite. Possessed of a judicial mind and a natural disposition to investigate intricate questions of law and jurisprudence, he has a reputation as a Masonic jurist that gives to his opinions the highest credit. No man stands above Mr. Rice in his fraternity, while he is regarded by the world as an exemplary man, a good citizen, and a man of firm, unflinching integrity.
OBINS, MILTON, M. D., of Shelbyville, was born at Hillsboro, Ohio, November 16, 1810. His father, Philip Robins, was a native of Wash- ington County, Pennsylvania. He emigrated at an early day to Ohio, and settled in Ross County, near Greenfield, where some of the family still reside, but the greater part are scattered over Ohio, Indiana, and
Iowa. John Robins, Milton's grandfather, was born in New Jersey, in 1760, and became a citizen of Pennsyl- vania in 1780, and lived there during the famous Whisky Insurrection. In October, 1821, when he had reached the age of eleven, Milton was taken with the family to Shelby County, Indiana. There were at that time no schools worthy of the name, and such as they were they could hardly be sustained three months of the year. But he supplied in part the lack of such advantages by reading the best works in the county li- brary. This was at Shelbyville, ten miles distant, and therefore not easy of access; but whenever he obtained one of its precious volumes he read it with avidity, and treasured up its contents. Having no inclination to hunt, fish, or engage in rural games and pastimes, he thus improved every opportunity to store his mind with the knowledge of the best literature he could ob- tain, often keeping his book in the field when plow- ing, so that when his horses were resting he could read, and while working meditate. In this way he laid a foundation for professional study in which he was soon to engage. In the fall of 1831 he became a student of medicine under Doctor S. B. Morris, in Shelbyville. While prosecuting his studies he supported himself by assessing the county for the years 1832 and 1833, and occasionally assisting the clerk of the Circuit Court. At length he graduated at the Ohio Medical College, and entered upon the practice of his profession in the southern part of Shelby County. After he had been there some time the people required his services in another capacity, and elected him recorder of the county. He then returned to Shelbyville and assumed the duties of the office. In that place he has since re- mained, engaged most of the time in the practice of medicine and in the drug trade. In both he was suc- cessful, and has now retired from business. Having been reared by very exemplary parents, Doctor Robins early attached himself to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has adhered to it with earnestness and de- votion for the past fifty years. His father, grandfather, and all the members of their families, were also of that denomination. In politics he was formerly a Whig, and has been a most decided Republican ever since the or- ganization of that party, believing that upon its success depends the salvation of our country. Doctor Robins was married, in Shelbyville, March 1, 1836, to Miss Frances Powell, whose father, Erasmus Powell, repre- sented Dearborn County in the Legislature. Three sons and one daughter have been born to him. All are living, and the family have enjoyed such remarkably good health that during the forty-two years of his mar- ried life they have had only one case of sickness. The Doctor has used all his influence for the promotion of good morals, temperance, and religion. He has been identified with Shelby County from its very be-
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