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 105

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

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tition is still before Congress, however, and it will without doubt pass the House of Representatives dur- ing the present session of Congress. The company are now building a new machine, under a recent patent, and the company's affairs are in a healthful condition of prosperity and success. Mr. Birdsell was married, June 7, 1838, to Miss Harriet A. Lunt, daughter of Joseph Lunt, of Monroe County, New York. Of the six children born to them, three are still living. J. Benjamin, born December 2, 1843, occupies the posi- tion of secretary and treasurer of the Birdsell Manu- facturing Company ; Byron A., born March 6, 1846, is superintendent of the works; while John C., junior, born June 25, 1859, has charge of the books. The old- est son, V. O., who was born January 5, 1841, discharged the duties of secretary until his death, which occurred December 6, 1875. In April, 1869, Mr. Birdsell had the misfortune to lose his wife; and ten years later, on the 6th day of June, 1879, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Susan Snelling, of Boston. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and a Republican in politics. Few men have a more commanding per- sonal appearance. He is nearly six feet in height, with a large frame, strongly cast features, and a Napoleonic face, except that it is covered with heavy beard and mustache. In short he is one of those men who would attract attention anywhere or in any assemblage of dis- tinguished men. Personally, he is a genial, kind-hearted gentleman, and among his friends is known as the per- sonification of good humor. These qualities of a social nature, combined with his quick wit, his good sense, his broad views of humanity, and his unbounded enterprise, have made him very popular among his fellow-citizens, and no man stands higher in the community, socially or financially, than he. The great success of his invention has endowed him with an immense fortune. Unlike too many men who have been thus exceptionally blessed, his prosperity has in no wise changed a single element of his character. On the contrary, he bestows his money liberally in every direction where its proper use will alleviate suffering and elevate and ennoble mankind.

ROWER, NORMAN V., editor of the South Bend Daily Register, was born in Constantine, Michigan, February 27, 1843. While yet an infant his par- ents removed to Mishawaka, Indiana, where he passed his youth. He attended the public schools, and was a quick pupil, being in the most advanced classes of the high school when only thirteen years old. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice in the print- ing office of the Mishawaka Enterprise, Mr. A. B.al being proprietor and editor. After remaining here about a year and a half, he found employment at South Bend,

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four miles distant, in the office of A. E. Draper, pro- prietor of the South Bend Farmer. Here he remained until the winter of 1860-61, when he was employed in the Plymouth Republican. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted in the first company raised in his county, his being the fifth name enrolled on the list. Upon going to Indianapolis, however, he was rejected by the mustering officer on account of a slight deafness and a twisted wrist. He then worked for a time in the office of the Indianapolis Journal. Afterward, by using the discharge paper of a comrade who had been in the three months' service, he enlisted, was accepted, and served from August 21, 1861, until October 12, 1865. He was severely wounded at the battle of Jonesboro, Georgia. He held the rank of sergeant during the last half of the war, and was twice honorably mentioned before the regiment for valor on the field of battle, but his deafness proved a serious drawback to his advance- ment in the army. Just three days after his return home, when not yet twenty-three years of age, he bought the office of the Mishawaka Enterprise from his old employer, and thus became proprietor and editor of the paper on which he had commenced as a printer. This purchase he made with money saved from his pay as a soldier and as a correspondent of Cincinnati papers. It proved a good investment; and in a short time the Enterprise was among the leading weeklies of the state. After conducting the paper for five years he sought a wider field in the West. Settling in Iowa, he bought a one-fourth interest in the Clinton Daily Herald. In a short time he withdrew from the paper at some loss, and became city editor of the Davenport Gazette. While waiting for an opportunity for a new invest- ment, he received urgent overtures from the proprietor of the Gazette to become connected with its interests; but, desirable as was the opportunity, Mr. Brower was unable to embrace it. From Davenport he removed to Mason City, Iowa, where he purchased the Cerro Gordo Republican, the leading paper of that congressional dis- trict. This he edited with marked ability for two years, and was then obliged to move, as the climate was unfa- vorable for his wife's health. He sold out at a consid- erable advance, and accepted the position of city editor of the Dubuque Times, on which paper he added to an already favorable reputation as a ready and graceful writer, being frequently styled the B. F. Taylor of Iowa. He remained here for two years, when, owing to the claims of an invalid mother and the business affairs of his father, he was obliged to return to Mishawaka. In February, 1876, he bought an interest in the South Bend Daily Register, and became its chief editor. The Register is the leading Republican paper in the old Colfax district, and has a larger circulation than any other paper in the state outside of Indianapolis. It was established by Mr. Colfax more than thirty years

ago, and was edited by him for many years. No paper is more frequently quoted. Mr. Brower is still in the prime of life.

ROWNFIELD, JOHN, merchant, of South Bend, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, December 24, 1808. HIe received a common school educa- tion, and at the age of twenty-one commenced business in his native town with an elder brother, Call- ing Brownfield. In 1834 he emigrated to South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, where he has ever since carried on business. On the location of the Branch Bank of Indiana at South Bend, Mr. Brownfield re- ceived the appointment of director on the part of the state, and was president of the bank for a term of twelve years. He has also been president of the South Bend National Bank since its organization. For several years he has been president of the South Bend Iron Works, which have been doing a very large business. He has been an honored member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for forty-seven years, a class-leader forty-six years, and superintendent of the South Bend Sabbath-school for thirty-seven years. He was a large contributor to the endowment of Asbury University, and for nineteen years has been one of the trustees. He was elected, by a convention of laymen, a delegate to the General Conference which met in Brooklyn in May, 1872. Mr. Brownfield is a Democrat of the Jack- sonian school, and in his younger days was regarded as the leader of his party in St. Joseph County. As director of the Branch Bank of Indiana, he passed through some trying ordeals in defense of right against what he conceived to be wrong. Two or three of the directors, being speculators, made unreasonable dle- mands, and, as Mr. Brownfield was in the minority, it required great nerve to resist their importunities. In 1840 Mr. Brownfield was a candidate for the state Sen- ate, but was defeated, the district at that time giving a Whig majority. Ile was married, January 14, 1832, to Miss Lida A. Beeson, daughter of Jacob Beeson, Esq., a merchant of Uniontown. They have had four children, two of whom are living. Mrs. Brownfield died at Fox Springs, Kentucky, July 3, 1853. Mr. Brownfield was agam married in April, 1856, to Miss Elizabeth R. Ellis, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

UCKLEN, ISAAC, a prominent and wealthy citi- zen of Elkhart, was born in Winfield Township, Herkimer County, New York, August 30, 1816. His father, Simeon Bucklen, born September 12, 1780, in Sutton Township, Worcester County, Massachu- setts, was a farmer by occupation, and died June 8,

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1845. His mother, Mary (Southwick) Bucklen, a mem- ber of the society of Friends, was married to Simon Bucklen in 1800. Isaac Bucklen is the tenth of twelve children. He worked on his father's farm until he was twenty-one, when he began to till a farm on his own account in the same town. He continued at this until 1860, having made two removals: first, in 1849, to Galen Township, Wayne County; and, second, in 1855, to Winfield Township. In 1860 he removed to Cold- water, Michigan, where he remained eighteen months, being engaged part of the time as teacher of a district school. January 1, 1861, he moved to Elkhart, Indiana, and began the drug business, which he continued until the 26th of January, 1876, having, for the first two years, Albert R. Burns as partner. In 1866, in connection with Wm. Proctor, he built, at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, the large business block at the corner of Jackson and Main Streets, known as the Bucklen & Proctor Block. Since closing the drug business, he has lived a comparatively retired life, occupying his leisure in di- recting agricultural pursuits. Mr. Bucklen's business success has been satisfactory, and has yielded him a com- petence. He is not a professional politician, but is an earnest Republican. September 26, 1842, he married Miss Olive Wilcox, third child of Hezekiah and Abiah Wilcox. They have had four children, two sons and two daughters, as follows: Simeon H. Bucklen, born at Win- field, Herkimer County, New York, August 28, 1845, died August 15, 1858; Herbert E. Bucklen, born at Winfield, Herkimer County, New York, July 19, 1848, now a prominent business man of Chicago and Elkhart; Mary A. Bucklen, born at Galen, Wayne County, New York, July 11, 1852; and a daughter, born in German Flats, Herkimer County, New York, October 30, 1857, died January 30, 1858. Mr. Bucklen is much beloved by his family and friends, and during his eighteen years' residence in Elkhart has, by his genial manner and fair dealing, won the respect and cordial liking of his neighbors and fellow-citizens, and the good opinion of the world at large.

ALKINS, MAJOR WILLIAM H., of Laporte, Indiana, was born February 18, 1842, in Pike County, Ohio. He emigrated with his father to Benton County, Indiana, in 1853, and then worked on a farm until 1856. His father being elected county auditor in the latter year, he acted as his deputy for two years. From 1858 to the spring of 1861 he was city editor and bookkeeper of the Indiana Daily Cour- ier, at Lafayette, and employed all his leisure in the study of law, first under the instruction of Major Daniel Mace, and afterwards ,in the office of Colonel William Wilson. He also attended the Commercial and Law

School at Louisville, Kentucky, for about three months. At the breaking out of the late Civil War, he enlisted as a private in the company of Captain W. J. Temple- ton, from Benton County, Indiana. The company was intended for three months' service ; but, the quota being filled, it was transferred to the state service for one year, and temporarily attached to the 15th Indiana Regiment, and the following August it was disbanded. Mr. Calkins then went to Iowa, and assisted in raising a company in Jones County, in that state; and in 1861 he entered the three years' service as first lieutenant of Company H, of the 14th Iowa Infantry. He fought at Forts Henry and Donelson, and at the battle of Shiloh. At the close of the first day's fight, in the last-named battle, the remnant of his regiment surrendered, and he with the other officers was taken prisoner. After being confined seven months in the prisons of Macon and Madi- son, Georgia, and Libby Prison, he was paroled in Octo- ber, 1862. The treatment he received was very severe, at times verging on brutality. After his release he joined his regiment and was ordered to Springfield, Missouri, to repel the invasion of the Confederate General Mar- maduke. He was then sent to Cairo, Illinois, and thence to Paducah, Kentucky, where, in 1863, he left the regiment, with his health seriously impaired from imprisonment and exposure. He re-entered the army in October, 1863, and was temporarily assigned to the 128th Indiana Infantry, then being recruited. In Feb- ruary, 1864, he was promoted to the rank of major of the 12th Indiana Cavalry, with which he remained until it was mustered out of service, in December, 1865, commanding it more than half the time which he passed in active service. At the close of the war he was bre- veted for meritorious conduct. In December, 1865, he returned to Valparaiso, Indiana, to which place his father had, in the mean time, removed, and entered upon the practice of law. In October, 1866, he was elected prosecuting attorney for the district composed of nine of the north-western counties of the state, and served with entire satisfaction to his constituents, as is evinced by the fact that he was re-elected in 1868. In 1870 he was elected a member of the Forty-seventh General As- sembly, from Porter County. In May, 1871, h. s tt. d in Laporte, entering upon practice with Judge Osborn. In 1874 he was nominated for Congress by the Repub- licans, and was defeated by Doctor Haymond, of Monti- cello; in 1876 he was again nominated, and was elected, by eleven hundred, over his old competitor, and was re-elected in 1878. January 20, 1864, Mr. Calkins was married to Miss Hattie Shipley Holton, a charming young lady of Rush County, Indiana, daughter of James N. Holton, of Maysville, Kentucky. She was educated in the academy of Rushville, and spent the greater part of her life there, and in Benton County, un- til she went to grace her husband's home at Laporte.

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Much of a man's success in life is due to the loving in- fluence exerted over him by the sympathetic compan- ionship of woman, and Major Calkins is blessed in the helpmate of his life. Lovely and refined, thoughtful and charitable, she is ever active in good works-an official of the Christian Church, a Sunday-school teacher and home missionary. Mrs. Calkins was re- lated by marriage to Hon. John L. Robinson, who was United States marshal for Indiana during the ad- ministration of President Buchanan. Hospitable and of pleasing address and manners, the wife of Major Cal- kins is a charming hostess for her husband's friends in Washington, and at their lovely home in Laporte. They have several interesting children.

HAMBERLAIN, ORVILLE T., lawyer, was born in Leesburg, Kosciusko County, Indiana, Septem- ber 1, 1841. His father, Dr. Joseph W. Chamber- lam, and his mother, whose maiden name was Caroline Tryon, were born in America, and were of English descent. They removed to Elkhart, Indiana, when Orville Chamberlain was but two years old; and there he has since resided, except while serving in the defense of his country. He received the rudiments of his education in the public schools of Elkhart, and was distinguished for the avidity with which he acquired knowledge. Having finished the school course at the age of seventeen, he began serving an apprenticeship at the printing business in the Elkhart Review office. Here his superior talents speedily attracted the attention of his employer, who advised him to obtain a more liberal education, and study a profession. Following this advice, he immediately entered the University of Notre Dame, in 1860, spending two years in the com- mercial department, studying higher English and the classics, and winning golden opinions from the pro- fessors for his application, quick comprehension, and gentlemanly deportment. Returning home just at the beginning of the Civil War, he was seized with the wat-spirit, and entered as a private in the 74th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. Fearless and prompt in the discharge of every duty, though among the youngest in his company, he soon attracted the atten- tion of the officers, who, in little more than a year, promoted him to the rank of captain. The confidence of his superiors was manifested by the offer of many tempting positions outside of his regiment; but with commendable self-abnegation he clung to his early com- rades, whose idol he was, and remained with them until he was mustered out at the close of the war. During his term of service, Captain Chamberlain took part in the engagements at " Hoover's Gap," Chickamauga, Jonesboro, Chattanooga, Mission Ridge, and Atlanta ;

in all of which his coolness, bravery, and skill were manifest. He marched with Sherman to the sea and up through the Carolinas, participating in all the glory and hardships of those great campaigns. Captain Chamberlain entered the service of his country from the purest motives, served it with unflagging zeal, and re- turned with a spotless and brilliant army record. Had he been more ambitious, he might have occupied a much higher position; but he could not have gained more affectionate regard from his comrades in arms, who still love and honor him. Return- ing to civil life, Captain Chamberlain entered upon the study of law with enthusiasm ; and in May, 1867, was duly admitted to the bar, and opened an office in Elkhart. Ile was tendered a first lieutenancy in the regular army while engaged in his law studies ; but his military ambition was satisfied, and he declined the offer. Captain Chamberlain has never been a member of any secret organization. His religious sympathies are Roman Catholic. In politics he has always been an earnest Republican, but is unfriendly to what he re- gards as the treachery of President Hayes in surrender- ing the fruits of victory to those so recently in rebellion. For this cause he has withdrawn from party shackles. His best friends, however, know that he will always be found on the side of what he considers to be right, and, in short, he is thoroughly and honestly Republican in the broad sense of the word. He is rapidly com- ing to the front in his profession, and is devoted to its duties. He has been prosecuting attorney, and for a short time was town clerk ; when the town became a city he was its first attorney. All of these positions he filled admirably, to the satisfaction of all concerned. In 1868 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts, thus honoring itself as well as him by recognizing his eminent abilities. Captain Chamber- lain is a man of decided convictions, fearless in expres- sion, and at times somewhat aggressive, but his tender feelings never permit him to trespass upon those of others or deny them the right which he claims for himself-in- dependent thought and action. True to his friends, he has many who watch with the utmost interest his rising career, and predict for him a brilliant future. Septem- ber 1, 1869, he married Miss Helen M. Mead, a native of Lyons, Wayne County, New York. They have one daughter.

HAPMAN, CHARLES WARNER, of Warsaw, better and more familiarly known as. Colonel Chapman, was born in Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, September 19, 1826. His father, John B. Chapman, is a Virginian by birth, while his mother, Margaretta (née McCoy), is of Irish ancestry, her parents having emigrated from the "Emerald Isle" when she

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was but five years of age, and located in Tyler County, West Virginia. Shortly after the birth of Charles War- ner, the subject of this sketch, his parents removed West from the Old Dominion, and resided for a time in Craw- fordsville, then in Logansport, and finally on the Little Turkey Creek Prairie, near Leesburg. Securing the services of a private tutor during several succeeding winters, he was prepared for college, entering Asbury University, where he remained until 1845. On his return home he began the study of law, but, tiring of the monotony of office work, he soon abandoned his professional aspirations and engaged in saw-milling, with his brother, on Eagle Creek, two miles east of Warsaw. Here he continued until the spring of 1847, when, with a borrowed capital of one thousand dollars, advanced by his father, he entered into general mercantile business, at which he continued until the secession of the southern states precipitated the country into the horrors of civil war. The first flouring-mill erected in Warsaw, now the property of the Hon. J. D. Thayer, was built by Colonel Chapman. Its financial success is the best proof of the erector's keen insight and ability, for in the belief of its success he stood alone, his neighbors, with one accord, believing the enterprise extremely hazardous. In 1862, when President Lincoln issued his call for five hundred thousand troops, Mr. Chapman, unmindful of his exten- sive business arrangements, and remembering only that the honor of the country was menaced by demagogues and unscrupulous partisans, hastily raised a body of one hundred men, and was elected captain of Company A, 74th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Upon the organiza- tion of the regiment he was elected by the line officers to the colonelcy, and commissioned as such July 25, 1862. In the autumn of this year his regiment was transferred to the Army of the South-west, commanded by General Buell, with which it remained until it was reorganized and became the Army of the Cumberland, under General Rosecrans, participating in the battles of Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, and Chapel Hill. During the early part of the Chickamauga fight, Colonel Chap- man commanded the brigade, and, while leading a charge upon a rebel battery, his horse was instantly killed by a grape-shot. The violence of the fall threw him with great force against a snag, breaking his arm and shoulder, and otherwise severely injuring him. From these wounds, which caused him to resign his commis- sion, he did not fully recover for years, although, after returning home and regaining partial health, he was instrumental in raising the 142d Indiana Volunteer In- fantry. This labor he performed from a patriot's sense of duty-all the more creditable to him, since his inju- ries incapacitated him from sharing its glory. As an evi- dence of the regard entertained for him by Governor Morton, he was invited to form one of the military es- cort which accompanied the body of President Lincoln

from the capital to Springfield, Illinois. It is fitting that before closing this brief sketch, which does but scant justice to his eminent career, the political life of Colonel Chapman should receive some slight notice. He was a Whig until the extinction of that party, since which he has always been an uncompromising Repub- lican. He was twice elected a Representative from his county to the House of Representatives, and in 1865 and 1866 represented the counties of Kosciusko and Wabash in the state Senate. To this he was again elected for four years in 1872, during which time he served as chairman of the Committee on Finance. He was appointed register in bankruptcy in 1868 by David McDonald, now deceased, District Judge of the United States for Indiana, in pursuance of an act approved March 2, 1867, and resigned the office in 1872, to accept the Senatorship alluded to. In matters of public inter- est Mr. Chapman has always cheerfully co-operated. He was instrumental in building the Warsaw woolen mills, and was elected president of the company. In the organ- ization of the North and South Railroad he took an ac- tive part. Of this company he was chosen one of its first directors, which position he still fills. In educational matters he has always been noted for his liberality and enterprise. He is perhaps the largest land-owner in the county, and has about one thousand acres under cultiva- tion. Colonel Chapman has been twice married. His first wife was Hester Ann Minear, of Warsaw. One son, Charles Allen, still living, was the result of this union. To his present wife, Catharine E. Minear, he was married in March, 1857. They have two children, John and Re- gina. Colonel Chapman's religion is of that broad and comprehensive character which has for its basis the golden rule, untrammeled by creeds or church dogmas.

HASE, CHARLES H., was born at Franconia, New Hampshire, November 14, 1833, of J. C. and Lucretia Chase. His ancestors on his father's side trace the line of their descent from the " May- flower ;" and they possessed, and transmitted unimpaired from one generation to another, those sturdy traits of character which marked the men and women who crossed the Atlantic and were rocked in the " cradle of liberty." When a boy of six, Charles went to Derby Line, Vermont, and his entire school training was re- ceived in the academy at Stanstead Plain, Canada East. At the age of fourteen he removed to Sherbrooke, Can- ada, to learn the art of printing. Here he spent two years, and he showed himself possessed of such a meas- ure of ambition, steadiness of purpose, and energy of action, as presaged a future promise. At the end of the two years at Sherbrooke, he went to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he worked at his trade two years,

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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 105

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