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 104

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 104

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

13th Dist.]

of the Chindowan, and others, he organized the Merri- mac Land and Town Company. In the summer of the same year he located and commenced improving lands on Blue River, near what is now the city of Blue Rap- ids. In 1862 he was elected a member of the Leaven- worth County and City Medical Association, and in the fall of that year he was instrumental in uniting the two societies into one, of which he became the first presi- dent. In 1864 he received the Republican nomination for the state Legislature, but declined the candidacy. In March, 1865, he was commissioned surgeon of the 17th Regiment of Kansas Volunteers, but declined to enter the service at so late a day-when the indications were that the war would soon terminate. In the same year he was elected a member of the State Medical As- sociation. In 1863 he lost, by fire, his library, instru- ments, and valuable papers. Four years after he re- ceived intelligence that he had lost every thing by fire. In 1875 he located at South Bend, St. Joseph County, one of the most enterprising and thriving manufac- turing places in Northern Indiana, where he has made many warm friends. He is a member of the County and District Medical Associations, and ranks among the first physicians of the state.

ARKER, JOHN H., railroad car manufacturer, Michigan City, was born at Michigan City, Feb- ruary 4, 1844, and is the son of John and Cor- delia E. Barker. His father, a native of Massa- chusetts, removed to Michigan City in 1835, where he engaged in general mercantile business, forming a con- nection with the car-works in 1855. He was president of the Harbor Company during the prosecution of the improvements. Mr. Barker received his early education at the common schools of Michigan City, and afterward at Racine College, Wisconsin. At the age of nineteen he went to Chicago, where, for two years, he was en- gaged as clerk in a wholesale grocery house. Afterwards he went to Springfield, Illinois, where he embarked in the same business on his own account, remaining there three years, when he went back to Chicago. After two years he then returned to his old home, Michigan City, Indiana, where he became connected with the car- works, in which he still remains, holding the position of general manager. These are among the largest in the country, and do a most extensive business. They give employment to five hundred men, and turn out ten freight cars per day. The buildings are all substantial brick structures, the facilities being excelled by no com- pany in the country. They also build passenger, baggage, and sleeping-cars. He is at present mayor of Michigan City, having been elected by an overwhelming majority on the " citizens' ticket." Mr. Barker has traveled over

the whole Northern continent. In politics he is a Re- publican. He was married, August 29, 1872, to Genia Brooks, of Michigan City. They have one little girl. Mr. Barker is a thoroughly qualified business man, held in high esteem by the community, whose confidence he enjoys ; a man of energy and large experience, good personal appearance, a courteous and affable gentleman. The car-works alone are a monument to his ability.

ARNETT, MARTIN A., superintendent of schools at Elkhart, Indiana, is the son of William and Nancy (Buchanan) Barnett, and was born near Danville, Hendricks County, Indiana, April 21, 1845. His father was one of the pioneers of Elkhart County, having emigrated from Kentucky in 1834 and settled on a farm, where he resided until his death, in 1874. Mr. Martin Barnett is one of a large family of children, and was obliged to work on the farm until he was fifteen years of age. His education up to this time was such as could be obtained from the country schools ; his father, having been a teacher himself, gave him the best opportunities such schools could afford. A severe attack of illness having so impaired Martin Barnett's health as to render him for a time unable to do regu- lar farm work, he was sent to the Danville academy. After attending school here for one term he so arranged his plans as to prepare for Asbury University, which institution he entered in 1866. Ifaving determined to pay his own expenses while at college, he interrupted his course to teach for two terms. He also missed one entire year, and graduated in 1871. In that year he was chosen superintendent of the public schools of Vevay, Indiana. The following year he took a similar position at Attica, and, after three years, resigned to take charge of the Elkhart city schools, where he yet remains. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church while attending school at Danville, and is yet a member of that denomination. August 5, 1873, he married Miss Alice Shaw, of Vevay, Indiana. Mrs. Barnett is the younger by five years, but graduated from the Cincinnati Wesleyan College at the same date that her husband graduated from Asbury. Mr. Barnett has achieved a gratifying degree of success at the head of Elkhart's excellent schools.

EARDSLEY, DOCTOR HAVILA, the fifth son of Elijah and Sally (Hubbel) Beardsley, was born in New Fairfield, Connecticut, April 1, 1795. He removed with his father to Springfield, Ohio, and volunteered in the War of 1812, but was not called into service. In 1816 he commenced the study of medicine,

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[13th Dist.

at Urbana, with Doctor Hall. He subsequently attended lectures at Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated March 21, 1825, at the Transylvania University Medical De- partment, receiving the degree of M. D. from that insti- tution. He practiced several years in Leesburg, Ohio, .but hearing favorable reports of the "St. Joseph country," he determined to visit that section, and in the year 1830 moved to Elkhart County, Indiana, and settled on the north side of St. Joseph River. He continued his practice there for many years. The Doctor had a strong inclination for building mills, and erected no less than five after he came into the country-one on Yel- low Creek, two on Christiana Creek, and two on the Elkhart River. In 1844 he built the flouring-mill on the banks of the St. Joseph River, which is still standing, and in 1851 the paper mill, which was partially burned in 1874. Doctor Beardsley and George Crawford were the proprietors of the town of Elkhart, which is now a large and prosperous city. The Doctor was interested in the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad, and was also active in securing the right of way for the Michigan Southern and North Indiana Railroad, and for several years was one of its directors. He married, in Greenfield, Highland County, Ohio, Rachel E. Calhoun, of Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, May, 1823, and had a family. The following are the living members: Edwin R., of Kankakee County, Illinois ; Charles, of Elkhart County, Indiana ; J. Rufus, of Elkhart, Indiana; Frances, wife of Hon. B. L. Daven- port, of Elkhart; Richard, United States Consul at Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Beardsley, the father of this family, died May 23, 1856, honored and lamented by all who knew him. His widow is still living.

EARUP, HENRY I., mechanical engineer and draughtsman, of Elkhart, Indiana, was born at Albany, New York, June 25, 1847. His parents, Andrew and Sophronia Bearup, were of Scotch and German descent, respectively. His father was a mechanical engineer of great ability, and was for a number of years master mechanic of the New York Central Railroad, at Albany, New York. In the year 1854 he was called to Laporte, Indiana, to assume similar duties upon the original Michigan Southern and North Indiana Railroad, now the great Lake Shore and Michigan Southern trunk line. He died in 1862, leaving his only son, Henry I. Bearup, then fifteen years of age, to care for a mother and seven sisters. Mr. Bearup's education was thus limited to the course pursued in the common schools. Choosing the business of a mechanical engineer, he entered the company's shops, at Laporte, Indiana, June 25, 1863, to learn the trade of machinist, the practical branch of his selected profession. While thus employed, he devoted his

leisure moments to studying the theoretical part of engineering, aspiring to something more than daily work in the shop. When the company removed their works to Elkhart, Indiana, in 1871, he was called upon, at the age of twenty-three, to assume the respon- sible duties of draughtsman and designer for the entire line of the locomotive department. He still holds that position, distinguishing himself, not only as a skillful engineer, but a person of marked inventive genius, having many plans and designs that are held back for the want of means to introduce them. He is the inventor of the system of signaling known as the simultaneous system of blocking two tracks or trains, quite extensively used upon the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. He is also the inventor of a simultaneous-acting and automatic-adjusting steam brake for locomotives, which is said, by those who know, to be a great achievement in that line. The patents for it are still pending. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, in which he has taken three degrees. He was secretary, for three years, of Kane Lodge, No. 183. For the past ten years he has been engaged, in connection with other duties, as patent ex- pert. He was one of the first city officials, under the new charter, of the town of Elkhart; was nominated upon the Democratic ticket, and elected, by the working class principally, to the office of city treasurer. This office he filled creditably for a year and a half, when, through some technicality of the election laws governing cities, two of the officers, of whom he was one, had to give way to make place for the newly elected Republican candidates. His religious connection is with the Meth- odist Church. May 15, 1870, at Amber, Michigan, Mr. Bearup married Miss Helen E. Forbes, one of the daughters of Rev. Harvey Forbes, a Methodist divine, and for many years a resident of Michigan City, Indiana. She was born at New Diggings, Wisconsin, May 15, 1847. They have had three children-Lottie, Nellie, and Andrew H .- two of whom are living : An- drew, a bright boy of nine years; and Lottie, a child of three. Mr. Bearup is a man much liked and respected by all who know him. He is a kind and loving father. As a mechanical engineer and draughtsman he has few equals, and is rapidly rising in the public estimation.

doct-

ENDER, JOHN S., lawyer, of Plymouth, was born January 26, 1827, near Carlisle, Cumber- land County, Pennsylvania. His parents, Jacob and Jane ( Dobbs ) Bender, natives of the same state, were of German and Irish descent, respectively. The ancestor of Jacob Bender came to America in the year 1616. The forefathers of his wife, who emigrated from the north of Ireland at an early period, were of

Yours truly PJohn 8. Bender.

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

13th Dist.]

noble origin. John S. Bender spent his childhood in | greater portion of the next seven years. At the end of attending the common school and assisting his father, this time he sold out, deciding to make the practice of law his life's work. Mr. Bender has taken a prominent place among his professional associates. In his dealings with them he is honorable and just, while loyal to the interests of his clients. He never refuses to protect the right, nor stoops to defend the wrong. He prepares his cases with great care and method, and his presen- tation of them in court evinces his familiarity with the principles of the law. His sound sense and good judg- ment, his quick perception and unquestioned integrity, make him an eminently safe counselor. As an advocate, he is not noted for fluency of language, but his earnest- ness and thorough understanding of the work in hand enable him to reach both court and jury with clear and who was a miller, the remainder of the time. When eleven years of age he removed with the family to Wayne County, Ohio, where he remained five years. Here his time, as before, was divided between a little schooling and a great deal of hard labor. In 1843 his father removed to Bellville, Ohio, where the son at- tended select school four terms. In 1846 the family moved to Indiana, settling in Oregon, Marshall County, now Starke County. John S. Bender was active in the construction of the first school-house in that county, and when it was completed he took charge of the school for three months, receiving for his services board and twenty dollars per month. The following year, in com- pany with his father, he went to North Liberty, St. Joseph County, where they carried on a mill until 1849, when his father returned to Oregon Township. John S. Bender, in connection with Mr. A. Dively, then rented the mill and continued the business until the death of Mr. Dively, in 1850, when he closed it up, and the lease was canceled. Shortly after this he was afflicted with a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism, which prostrated him for about eighteen months. Partially recovering, he entered the high school at South Bend | in the fall of 1851, where he remained two terms. While there he studied trigonometry, geology, miner- alogy, astronomy, natural philosophy, and Latin, prepar- atory to a college course; but, being attacked with typhoid fever, which left him with a shattered constitu- tion, on the advice of his physician he abandoned study and engaged in surveying, that he might have out- door exercise. He procured a contract from the state for surveying swamp lands, establishing lines, locating and laying out ditches, etc., and continued the work until 1856, when the fatigue and exposure consequent upon the occupation obliged him to abandon it. In that year he was elected clerk and auditor of Starke County, and served four years. In 1861 he began deal- ing in general merchandise, in connection with others, at Knox, Starke County. This trade they subsequently extended to Valparaiso and Monterey, carrying it on until 1868, when, on account of failing health, Mr. Bender sold his interest in the business. Being debarred from the calling of surveyor by reason of physical dis- ability, he decided upon the law as the profession most congenial and remunerative, and in 1861 he began reading. Two years later, when he had become thor- oughly interested in his studies, he entered as a student the Law Department of the North-western Christian University, at Indianapolis, from which he graduated the following April. He then practiced law, in connec- tion with his other business, until 1868, when he re- moved to Plymouth and purchased the Marshall County Republican, which he controlled and published the

convincing power. He enjoys a large and lucrative practice, and has won the confidence and esteem of his patrons. Mr. Bender was educated in the Democratic school of politics and affiliated with that party until the beginning of the Civil War, when, seeing in the Repub- lican party elements better adapted for the preservation and government of the nation, he identified himself with it, and became a firm and earnest supporter of all President Lincoln's war measures. The same physical disabilities which compelled him to abandon surveying disqualified him for field service, but he gave the Union all the material and moral support in his power. He remained in full sympathy with the Republican party until it assumed an unmistakable hard-money policy, as evidenced in the conventions of 1876. Believing that the best interests of the people were to be found in the adoption of a system embracing the princi- ples advocated by the National Greenback party, Mr. Bender accordingly withdrew, and made the second po- litical change of his life. In all the parties with which he has been allied he has been regarded as an effective worker. While yet a Democrat, in IS60, he was a delegate to the Indiana State Conven- tion, which appointed delegates to the National Dem- ocratic Convention to be held at Charleston, South Carolina. In this body Mr. Bender strongly favored Stephen A. Douglas as a candidate for President, in opposition to the claims of John C. Breckinridge. After the nomination of Mr. Douglas, Mr. Bender gave him his warm and undivided support. He was a delegate to every Republican state convention from 1860 to 1876, and refused a seat in the convention of ISTS for the reasons above. May 8, 1878, with twenty-six other leading men of Plymouth previously belonging to both political parties, he organized an independent party, and adopted a platform in accordance with their financial views. By October of the same year their numbers had increased to eleven hundred and sixty-five. In the National Greenback Convention, which met March 4, 1869, Mr. Bender served on the committee on

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[ 13th Dist.

platform, and secured the adoption of resolutions em- bodying, substantially, those principles which governed the organization at Plymouth. He also served on the conference committee, appointed at St. Louis, Mis- souri, March 5, 1880, to confer with the National Greenback Labor Convention, held in Chicago, Illinois, June 9, 1880, in the interest of harmony. As a mem- ber of the committee on platform, he introduced the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the committee and by the convention, to wit: "The right of suffrage shall not be denied to any citizen of the United States who is twenty-one years of age, and upwards." This is the first resolution ever adopted by any national political body looking toward the en- franchisement of women. He may now be regarded as a consistent radical member of the National Green- back party. Although not an office-seeker, he is active and enthusiastic in the advocacy of the principles of his political faith. Being a man of strong will, gov- erned by a marked degree of discretion, he is, conse- quently, an effective leader of his party, a position readily accorded him in the Thirteenth District. In 1864 he was unanimously recommended by the Repub- licans of Starke County as their candidate for state Senator from the district comprising Starke and Laporte Counties, but he was defeated in the convention by the vote of the latter county. The nomination for the same position was again tendered him in 1868, but was declined. Yielding to the solicitation of his friends, he accepted the nomination in 1870 for Representative to the Legislature, but was defeated with his party. In 1872 Mr. Bender was an alternate from Indiana to the National Republican Convention. In the presidential campaign of 1876, he canvassed the counties of St. Jo- seph and Marshall in support of the Republican ticket. He made twenty-eight speeches, in which he advocated the greenback system. In the winter of 1875 he went to Europe. His letters from Liverpool, London, Paris, and other cities, were published in the Plymouth paper, and, in compliance with numerous requests from his friends, he prepared them for publication in book form on his return home. They have since been issued under the title "Hoosier's Experience in Europe," and have attracted attention as a plain narrative of incidents, an- ecdotes, and events, noted by the author from personal observation, and so interspersed with sentiment as to render it amusing, interesting, and instructive. He is also the author of " Money : Its Definition, Tests, etc.," a book intended to show that money is such by decree of the government-not made to hoard, but to be used as a tool of commerce, etc. The latter has been received with marked favor, having found its way into nearly every state in this Union. Mr. Bender has usually been successful in his business enterprises, as well as in his professional practice. He is a Mason and an Odd-fellow,

and an honored member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which he is a liberal contributor, and was a teacher in their Sabbath-school for twenty years. He was united in marriage, November 22, 1855, to Miss Maggie Bowers, of Ohio, who died November 2, 1856. They had one daughter, who died in infancy. He was again married, March 1, 1858, to Miss Rachel Hough- ton, whose rare virtues and Christian character com- mand the love and esteem of a large circle of friends. She is the third daughter of James Houghton, one of the pioneers of Marshall County. In private life Mr. Bender is a cultivated, genial, Christian gentleman. His friendships are firm, self-sacrificing, and enduring. His character is without a blemish, and his position as a lawyer and a citizen is of marked prominence in the community.

IRDSELL, JOHN C., president of the Birdsell Manufacturing Company, South Bend, was born in Westchester County, New York, March 31, 1815. His father, Benjamin Birdsell, and his mother, Charity Carpenter, were both natives of the Empire State. They belonged to that large and val- uable class of yeomanry, equally removed from the extremes of affluence or poverty, who constitute the best elements of citizenship in any land. In the boyhood and youth of John C. Birdsell his biographer finds nothing worthy of especial mention. When he had reached his majority he removed to Mendon, Monroe County, where for three years he was engaged in agri- culture on a rented farm. He then removed to the adjoining township of Rush, where he purchased a farm. This property continued to appreciate in value, by additions and improvements, until he disposed of it in 1865 for a trifle less than thirty thousand dollars. It need not be supposed, however, that during this period, extending over a quarter of a century, Mr. Birdsell had been content to lead the dull, monotonous life of a tiller of the soil, with no thoughts or aspirations beyond the sowing of the seed and the reaping of the harvest. On the contrary, all the energy of his character, aided by the conceptions of his mechanical mind, had been actively engaged in devising new improvements on the machinery for threshing and hulling clover. The time and labor expended by the old processes added very materially to the cost of clover-seed in the market. Mr. Birdsell conceived that it would facilitate the work and cheapen the product, if a machine could be made to thresh the heads from the stems, separating the stems and passing the heads through a huller and afterwards through sieves under the influence of a fan, all at one operation and in one machine. He at once began to shape his ideas, making many experiments at great ex- pense and with varying success. He was also obliged to

John & Birdsell

(

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

13th Dist.]

struggle against a great many manufacturers of hull- ing machines, whose agents already had possession of the field, and spared no pains to cause farmers and others to believe that his plans would prove a failure. His machines could not be made for the same price as the ordinary hullers, and, as they were an untried experiment, he found that for years it was almost an utter impossibility to introduce them. The public had to be gradually schooled into the merits of the invention. During all this time the machines were costing more than he could get for them, and he was becoming hopelessly involved in debt. Still his faith was not shaken, and he continued to exhibit them at state and county fairs, at great expense of time and money. In 1856 and 1857 he built shops at West Hen- rietta, New York, with borrowed capital. In this way he proceeded, almost against fate, until in 1859 his debts amounted to over fifteen thousand dollars, with scarcely any assets. Finding that the business could not be carried on with profit in New York state, on account of the ex- penses for stock and transportation, and the fact that the West furnished almost the entire market for his machines, he removed his works to South Bend, Indi- ana, in the fall of 1863. Then followed in rapid suc- cession, for the next fourteen years, a series of misfor- tunes that, in any other than the pages of a plain biography, would seem to belong more properly to the realms of fancy. A fire at West Henrietta, in the spring of 1864, nearly destroyed his office, together with a portion of his books and accounts. This was fol- lowed a few months later by another fire, which de- stroyed a store-house containing twenty-three machines and fifty frame-works, besides machinery, tools, stock, etc., which had formed a partial basis for the leniency of his creditors. Meanwhile he was suffering great losses from the unjust action of infringers, for hardly was one firm enjoined from infringement, after a long and costly suit, than, like the hydra-headed monster of an- tiquity, another would immediately spring into life- and so on, it would seem, ad infinitum, his expenses amounting to about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Without particularizing further, it will be stated that Mr. Birdsell struggled on, year after year, in the face of discouragements sufficiently overwhelming to justify even the stoutest-hearted in succumbing to them, until 1879, when, just at the time he had driven his rivals from the field and the future seemed bright in rich possibilities, his letters of patent expired. With- out an extension he saw the labor of eighteen years, seasons pregnant with hope and despair, go for naught. In a petition to Congress, in which were set forth at length the facts substantially embodied above, he prayed that justice should be done him; and it is due to the wisdom and fairness of the Senate Committee on Patents to say that they granted his request. His pe- 1

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 104

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