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 102

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1006

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 102

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through the British Possessions, This table of altitudes ; and contributed largely towards building the Grand

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Rapids and Indiana Railroad, of which he was at one time a director. Though identified with the Repub- lican party since its organization, and always a party worker, Mr. Williams has never entered very largely into politics. He was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives in 1856 and 1857. In 1854 he founded a female seminary at Lima, and sustained it for over twelve years, when it was purchased by the town for a public school. His farming interest he has always su- perintended, taking an active part in building up the town in all its various interests. The numerous fruit and shade trees planted by him in the place, on his grounds and the farm lands adjoining, each ornament the place, and add a charm which strangers, as well as citizens, are not slow to appreciate. Mr. Williams was reared in the Congregational Church, and is now con- nected with the Presbyterian Church of Lima. He is a member of the Order of Odd-fellows. Mr. Williams's wife was Miss Isabel J. Hume, a native of Delaware County, New York, and he has four daughters living. He has traveled extensively, and has a large circle of acquaintances.

ILLIAMS, COLONEL WILLIAM C., of Albion, Noble County, Indiana, was born September 9, 1830, near the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He comes of Quaker stock on his mother's side, her ancestors having come over with William Penn, and settled near the place where Colonel Williams was born. Thomas J. Williams, Colonel Williams's grandfather, was born in London, in 1754. While he was still a boy his father, a wealthy Welsh gentleman residing in London, purchased for him a midshipman's commission in the royal navy, and in the year 1774 he was sta- tioned in American waters. The young midshipman was an ardent sympathizer with the colonies in the im- pending struggle with the mother country, and, resolv- ing not to take any part against them, he tendered his resignation to the English admiral, who not only refused to accept it, but put the young officer under arrest, and in close confinement. He managed to make his escape, however, and reached Philadelphia soon after the battle of Bunker Hill. The father, on hearing of his son's flight, became so enraged that he refused to hold any communication with him, and, on the death of the former, it was found that the son was disinherited. Thomas J. Williams participated in the battles of Brandy- wine and Germantown, and spent most of the winter of 1777 and 1778 with Washington's army at Valley Forge. On the breaking up of the camp at Valley Forge, in the spring of 1778, he was employed in various confiden- tial capacities, military and civil, until the close of the war. He then settled near Philadelphia, and, in order to marry a young Quakeress, to whom he was greatly

attached, he joined the society of Friends. Here he lived until 1841, when he died, in his eighty-seventh year. Enos Rogers Williams, son of Thomas J., and father of Colonel Williams, was a talented and influen- tial clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and died in Philadelphia in 1856. The subject of this sketch is the third son of the Rev. Enos R. Williams, above named. He obtained, in the common country schools, such instruction as they afforded, until at the age of fourteen he entered the Academical Institute of Dover, Delaware, where he remained about three years, and became one of the most thorough scholars in that flourishing school. On leaving the academy, Mr. Will- iams began life on his own resources, by teaching school in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, until the fall of 1849, when he entered upon the study of medicine, with Doctor James Munholland, of Waynesburg, Chester County, Pennsylvania, one of the most successful physi- cians in the county. Here he remained until the spring of 1851, when he went to Philadelphia, and put himself, for further training and instruction, under the care of an eminent physician, who was professor of surgery in one of the medical schools of that city. A wider field now opened before the young aspirant for medical hon- ors, and he soon became the favorite student of his pre- ceptor. He graduated in February, 1853, and was regarded by the faculty and his fellow-students as one of the most accomplished and thorough young phy- sicians that had ever received the honors of the school. In 1854 Doctor Williams was elected school director for the southern part of the city, and was also the same year elected by the city council one of the city physicians for the poor. This threw an immense amount of practice into his hands, although the pay was small compared with the amount of work to be done. These positions Doctor Williams held until November, 1856, when he carried out the long-cherished purpose of going abroad. On the 19th of the month he sailed from New York direct for London, reaching his destination in December, after a terrible passage, in which the ship was badly injured, and the Doctor also, for he had some ribs fractured. Most of the winter was spent in the great hospitals of London, studying in those vast medical schools the types and treatment of disease. After visiting various parts of England, and making a short trip to Paris, Doctor Williams returned to Philadelphia in June, 1857. He remained but a short time, however, and returning to New York, accepted the position of surgeon on one of the ocean steamers plying between New York and Liverpool. During these trips he visited Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, and the countries along the Rhine, enlarging his knowledge of men and the world. In the spring of 1859 he turned his steps towards the West, and settled at Wolf Lake, Noble County, Indiana, where he imme-

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diately engaged in the practice of his profession with Doctor D. W. C. Denny, at that time a prominent physician of the county. Here Doctor Williams pur- sued the even tenor of his way, identifying him- self with all public enterprises, and taking an active interest in politics. In the summer of 1860 he was nominated by the Democratic party as its candidate for state Senator in his district; but he declined the nomi- nation. The first notes of war and disunion that came up from the South in the winter of 1860-61, found Doc- tor Williams, although a Democrat, earnestly in favor of supporting the government, and using every means to crush out treason and rebellion. In the summer of 1861 he closed up his business, recruited a company, of which he was elected captain, and marched his men into the camp of the 44th Indiana, then filling up at Fort Wayne. In the fall the 44th was ordered to Ken- tucky, and in the following February, in its first battle, at Fort Donelson, under that heroic commander, Colonel H. B. Reed, won much credit for efficiency and gal- lantry. The regiment covered itself with undying honor at Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862. The first day of the battle it made a brave stand on the left against over- whelming odds, holding the disciplined ranks of an im- petuous enemy in check until the last round of ammu- nition was gone, and about two-thirds of the regiment killed and wounded. A retreat was then ordered, and the survivors were led from the bloody slope by their gallant colonel with as much coolness and order as though on dress parade. All through that terrible struggle Captain Williams bore himself with great cool- ness and courage, and was early singled out as one of the most trusty, accomplished, and gallant officers in the regiment. It was during the first day at Shiloh that General Hurlbut, commanding the division, ex- claimed, as the regiment made its last charge : "Great God! Did men ever before show such bravery? Those men are made of iron!" Through the tedious and harassing siege of Corinth, Mississippi, Captain Will- iams was conspicuous for his energy and faithfulness to duty, though much weakened and reduced by illness. The summer of 1862 was famous for long and painful marches through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, in all which the 44th bore its full share. On reaching Louisville, Buell's army rested a few days and then started to meet Bragg at Perryville, in Eastern Kentucky. From Perryville the 44th went to Wildcat Mountains, where it remained until ordered to rejoin the army then on the move, under General Rosecrans, for Nashville. There the regiment went into camp, and remained until the army-now called the Army of the Cumberland-was ready to move on the Confederate stronghold at Murfreesboro, some twenty- five miles south from Nashville. It was during this time that Colonel Reed resigned; and, Lieutenant-

colonel Stoughton having been commissioned colonel of the 100th Indiana, Governor Morton ordered the commissioned officers of the regiment to choose those whom they desired to fill the vacancies. This resulted in the election of Captain Williams for colonel, much to the satisfaction of both officers and men, who had long regarded him as best fitted to succeed Colonel Reed. On the 27th of November, 1862, Governor Morton commissioned Captain Williams colonel of the 44th, and he assumed his new position immediately on receipt of his commission. Preparations were now rapidly going forward for an advance of the Army of the Cum- berland on the Confederate position. In the latter part of December the army began its movement, the 44th in the Third Brigade, First Division, Twenty-first Corps. In a few days the Union and Confederate forces met face to face on Stone River, and at once opened one of the fiercest battles of the war, ending in the hasty and disorderly retreat of General Bragg to Tullahoma, where he rapidly intrenched himself. In this battle Colonel Williams and his gallant regiment bore a distinguished part, and two days before its termination, Colonel Fyffe commanding the brigade, being disabled, Colonel Will- iams succeeded to the command. He moved his troops across the river on the enemy's right, and placed his line in ambush in a piece of timber fronting the Con- federate lines. The division commander ordered all field officers in the brigade to dismount and send their horses to the rear, as they indicated too plainly to the

enemy the exact position of the ambush. Here the brigade remained for twenty-four hours, when, on Fri- day afternoon, January 2, 1868, General Breckinridge made his famous and terrible charge on the Union left, the brunt of which fell on Colonel Williams's brigade.

So rapid and overwhelming was the Confederate onset, that the field officers of the brigade had not time to get their horses; the yelling, exulting enemy broke through Colonel Williams's thin line in several places and swarmed toward the river. Never was a more dar- ing and splendid charge made than that of Breckin- ridge's famous division on that Friday afternoon. While conducting his men to the rear, Colonel Williams was wounded in the left leg, and was made a prisoner of war; he was taken to Atlanta, Georgia, where he remained in close confinement until the March following, being held as a hostage for Judge March- bank, of Tennessee, who was at the time confined in Fort Lafayette. In March, 1863, Colonel Williams was transferred to the world-renowned Libby Prison, Rich- mond, where he was subjected to the indignities and cruelties that brought so much deserved disgrace on the Confederate government. About the middle of May, 1863, Colonel Williams was exchanged, and was ordered to report to his command for duty. On his way to the front he was stopped at Jeffersonville, Indi-

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ana, and put in command of the Union forces there, as General John Morgan had just crossed the Ohio River on his famous raid into Indiana and Ohio, one of his principal objects being to destroy the immense govern- ment stores at Jeffersonville. With his usual vigor, Colonel Williams soon had the place in a condition to resist any attack. At his command was a large force of infantry and artillery, and his cavalry scouts were scour- ing every road and by-path for miles around. Morgan soon discovered that an attack on Jeffersonville was out of the question, and rapidly pushed his way for the Ohio line. Colonel Williams rejoined his regiment and brigade at McMinnville, Tennessee, soon after Morgan left Indiana, much to the joy of the officers and men. But his stay was short. He tendered his resignation, which was accepted, and left the regiment for his home in Indiana, carrying with him a testi- monial signed by all his officers, of which he might justly feel proud. At the close of the war Colonel Will- iams resumed the practice of medicine in Noble County. In 1867 he was elected to the clerkship of the Circuit Court of his county, and was re-elected in 1870, filling this responsible position eight years with signal ability. Since his retirement from office, Colonel Williams has not been actively engaged in any business, giving most of his time to literary pursuits. He has re- sided in Albion since 1867. In 1878 he was nominated for member of Congress by the National Greenback party, and made a thorough canvass of the district. In 1864 he married Miss Nellie Bliss, a lady of rare merits and accomplishments, daughter of John H. Bliss, Esq., of Albion. Colonel Williams has devoted much of his time to literary and scientific pursuits; and there are, perhaps, few persons in Northern Indiana who have a more extensive and accurate acquaintance with the whole range of English literature, and of the results of modern scientific investigation. He possesses one of the most carefully selected libraries, covering the ground of his favorite studies, to be found in his part of the state. As a public speaker he is fervent, polished, animated, and eloquent. His lectures are models of research, force, beauty of diction, and logical power ; they show clearly that had Colonel Williams devoted his talents entirely to literary or scientific pursuits, he would long since have become eminent as a thinker and writer. As a student in ancient and modern history he has probably few superiors in the state; and his acquaintance with American history and politics is especially broad and accurate. He is a close observer of foreign affairs, and his familiarity with the history of Continental nations enables him to form very correct and intelligent opinions on all movements on the complicated checker-board of European politics. We have thus imperfectly and briefly sketched an outline of the life of one of the prominent citizens of Northern Indiana. As in the

character of so many others noticed in this work, one feature stands out in bold relief, and is an invariable in- dication of the true American, namely, the early deter- mination of Mr. Williams to push out into the world and fight the battle of life on his own resources, a de- termination that rarely fails of success.

ITHERS, WARREN HASTINGS, lawyer, of Fort Wayne, was born at Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana, January 16, 1824. He is the third son of William L. Withers, who at an early day emigrated to Indiana territory from Virginia, and was a member of the family of Withers that has been conspicuous in the history-political, social, and religious-of Virginia from the earliest settlement of Jamestown. When the subject of this sketch was still a boy his parents died, leaving him in a new country to make his own way in life without help, and with only the rudiments of an English education. He began at once to learn the printing business, and at the same time studied law, at Andersontown, Indiana. When only eighteen years of age he was admitted to the bar, and located at Muncie, Indiana; but having a love for politics he did not engage in the practice of his pro- fession, but became the editor of the Muncie Journal, filling this position during the Mexican War. At the close of which, in the spring of 1848, he was induced by the late Judge William G. Ewing to remove to Fort Wayne and take charge of the Whig paper there, and accordingly edited the Fort Wayne Times during the Taylor campaign. In 1849 he married Martha, eldest daughter of the late Captain Henry Ru- disill, and resumed the practice of his profession, in which he has since continued, having for partners suc- cessively E. F. Colerick, Colonel Charles Chase, Judge J. L. Worden, now on the Supreme Bench of the state, and Hon. John Morrow. While he had a great fond- ness for and took a very active part in politics, he has not been a place-seeker, never having held but two offices, and being but twice a candidate for popular favor. After the breaking out of the Rebellion, he was, in 1862, without solicitation, appointed by Presi- dent Lincoln Collector of Internal Revenue for the Tenth District of Indiana, which he held for seven years, until he was succeeded by George Moon, Esq., of Warsaw. In 1874 he was induced by his friends to become a candidate for Judge of the Criminal Circuit Court and was defeated by his Democratic opponent by about one hundred votes, while the usual Demo- cratic majority in the county was three thousand five hundred. In 1876 he was elected a member of the common council of the city of Fort Wayne, in the pro- ceedings of which he took an active and important part.

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He was appointed by the Democratic mayor chairman of the committee on finance. During the time he was a member of the city council he inaugurated many re- forms in the city government, by which its annual ex- penses were reduced thousands of dollars, the taxes were greatly lessened, and the credit of the city, which, for years, had been very low, was enhanced. As a law- yer he is painstaking and industrious, and his efforts have been rewarded with the success they deserve, pe- cuniarily and professionally. His great aim in life has been to be known as an honorable and trustworthy man. In the heated political contests in the country-and he has always been actively engaged in them all since he was a boy-the honesty and integrity of Mr. Withers have never been questioned ; and while he is, and always has been, radical as a politician, among his warmest per- sonal friends are numbered the leading and most re- spected Democrats in the county and the section of the state in which he resides. The large vote he re- ceived in 1874 for Judge of the Criminal Court proves his popularity, and shows the esteem in which he is held by all that know him. Mr. Withers is peculiarly adapted to society. His conversation is racy and agree- able. His sociability and pleasant manners bring him many friends. He treats every one, whether ignorant and poor, or not, in an unassuming manner as an equal. Consequently he has a good law practice, and his pres- ence, whether at home or in public meetings, political or otherwise, or at social gatherings, is always welcome as a most pleasant addition.

OODWORTH, DOCTOR BENJAMIN STUD- LEY, of Fort Wayne, was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, in 1816. When twelve or thir- teen years of age he went to Rome, New York, to reside with his sister. He was fitted for college in a private school of girls and boys kept by a Mr. Grosvenor. Many of his fellow-students afterwards became famous, among whom were Daniel Huntington, the artist ; Judges Caton and Miller, of Illinois ; Calvert Comstock, of the Albany Argus; Daniel D. Whedon, D. D., ex- professor of Michigan University ; Hon. N. B. Judd, of Chicago; and John B. Jervis, engineer of the Croton Aqueduct Company. In this school he learned some Latin and Greek, but very little of mathematics. He was, however, admitted to Hamilton College in 1831, at the age of fifteen, but was obliged to leave before graduating and go to work. When he was eighteen years of age he commenced the study of medicine with Doctor A. Blair, of Rome, New York, who, though not a great physician, was one of the best men that ever lived. Doctor Woodworth attended his first lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Fairfield,

New York. At that time, 1835, 1836, and 1837, there were but few medical colleges in the United States and none in Canada. The faculty of Fairfield, as eminent as any on this side of the Atlantic, was composed of such men as T. Romeyn Beck, Mussey, McNaughton, Dela- mater, Hadley, Willoughby, and others, but now the town would be considered a poor place for a medical college. It is situated eight miles from a railroad, and has a cold, inhospitable climate, congenial only to Cana- dians. Mr. Woodworth afterwards attended lectures at Berkshire Medical College, from which he graduated in 1837, at the early age of twenty-one. He remained in Massachusetts until the spring of 1838, when he went to Ohio. He settled near the Grand Rapids, in the Maumee Valley, during the construction of the Wabash and Erie Canal. Here he resided for seven years, suf- fering unutterable hardships. The ordinary trials of pioneer life are severe, but when there is added to them proximity to a large, sluggish river and a deep, rich soil stirred up from the depths to make a canal, the result is indeed dangerous. It was said of the Panama Railroad that every tie cost a man's life, and it might be said of the Wabash Canal that every rod cost a life. However, Mr. Woodworth lived to see the canal completed, as well as the Indiana portion abandoned. In the spring of 1846 he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he has since resided. When he reached Fort Wayne it had about four thou- sand inhabitants. There were no roads or other facili- ties for locomotion except the canal, and that was frozen over more than one-third of the year. Fort Wayne was indeed isolated from the rest of the world, little expect- ing to be the center of a great network of railroads, as it now is. At that time malarial fever, the epidemic of the country, was treated with immense doses of calomel and infinitesimal doses of quinine, emetics of antimony, drastics, cathartics, and frequently copious bleeding. Dr. Woodworth reformed this terrible practice, and sub- stituted for it a more rational and, of course, more suc- cessful one. All the old settlers give him credit for thus initiating the reform. Dr. Woodworth was born with a feeble constitution and a strong predisposition to consumption. He weighs but a little over one hundred pounds, and suffers terribly from the climate. For the fact that he was preserved through the hardships of his pioneer life, augmented by the deadly malaria, he is grateful to a kind Providence. He has been president of the State Medical Society, of various county med- ical societies, and of the American Medical Association. He was postmaster under Polk's administration, and a clerk in the New Orleans Custom-house under William Pitt Kellogg, who is now Senator. With the exception of the time spent in a few such official positions, Mr. Woodworth has devoted his life to the practice of medicine.

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ORDEN, JUDGE JAMES LORENZO, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was born May 10, 1819, in Sandisfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. He was the son of John and Jane Worden. His father died when he was a lad only seven or eight years old. A year or two later he moved with his mother to Portage County, Ohio, having one elder brother and sister living in Charlestown. His youth was spent on a farm, but he had the benefit of such common school education as the country offered, and devoted himself in some measure to literary pursuits. At the age of nineteen he commenced the study of law, and in 1839 entered the office of Thomas J. Straight, of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1841 he was admitted to the bar of the Su- preme Court of Ohio, at Lancaster. He afterwards removed to Tiffin, Ohio, where he practiced two or three years. In the spring of 1844 he changed to Whitley County, Indiana. Being a Democrat in poli- tics he took some part in the presidential election of that year. In the spring of 1845 he married Annie Grable, daughter of Benjamin Grable, then the treas- urer of Whitley County. . In the fall he removed to Noble County, which, being a larger and more thickly settled county, offered a better field for the practice of his profession. He was soon after elected prosecuting attorney for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, an office which he held by successive re-elections until he was appointed Judge of the Circuit. In 1848 an atrocious murder was committed in Noble County by a man who was indicted and for trial took a change of venue to Allen County. As prosecutor, Mr. Worden followed the case and brought it to a successful termination. The cordial reception which he met with at Fort Wayne, and the solicitations of many persons there, in- duced him to remove to that place in 1849. He prac- ticed his profession until 1855, when he was appointed Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, by Governor Joseph A. Wright, to fill a vacancy occurring on the bench; and in the same year was elected to the office by the people without opposition. In 1857, much against his inclination, he allowed his name to be placed upon the Democratic ticket for Congress. The district was largely Republican, and he was, of course, de- feated. In January, 1858, he was appointed, by Governor Willard, to fill a vacancy upon the Supreme Bench occa- sioned by the resignation of Judge Stewart, of Logans- port, and a year later he held the office by election. In 1864 he was a candidate for the same office, but with the rest of the ticket suffered defeat. In the spring of 1865 he was elected mayor of Fort Wayne, but, after holding the office about a year, was obliged to resign on account of increased practice. From 1865 to 1871, he was engaged at his profession in partner- ship with Hon. John Morris, the relation being a very agreeable one, and the practice of the firm extensive

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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 II, Part 102

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1006

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1006