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 12

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 12

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).

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with banners flying, while shot and shell fell like hail | around them, and plowed great gaps through their ranks. Here he first saw General Burnside, standing beside a camp-fire made of rails, calmly surveying his retreating hosts. They arrived at Knoxville the next morning at daybreak, having had no sleep for three nights except occasional naps of a few minutes. He was present at the siege at Knoxville. He was on the picket line the night the fierce charge was made by the enemy on Fort Saunders, and retreated within the fort, and there witnessed the terrible slaughter which ensued in the ditches surrounding it. During this siege, and in the Dandridge campaign, he was in charge of many scouting parties. In the spring of 1864 his regiment joined Sherman's army on the "march to the sea," proceeding for that purpose by a long and toilsome march from Knoxville to Buzzard's Roost, Georgia. They were engaged in the attempt to storm the rebel works at that place, but were obliged to retreat to avoid capture. Then commenced a series of battles. Almost every day and night they were fighting, the most nota- ble engagement being the battle of Resaca. His regi- ment was in the Second Brigade, Second Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, which suffered more than any other brigade engaged in that conflict. He received a wound in his right shoulder from a piece of shell, not severe enough, however, to cause him to retire to the rear till he had seen the rebel stronghold in the pos- session of its assailants. Soon afterward, in the Altoona Mountains, a ball from an enemy passed through his canteen hanging upon his hip, and another lodged in his blanket rolled up and thrown across his shoulders. Fighting their way step by step, the Union army arrived before Kenesaw Mountain. Here, on the 27th of June, 1864, he received two wounds from Minie-balls, one of them striking him on the inside of the left thigh and ranging upward, and lodging under the skin near the hip joint, slightly fracturing the thigh bone; the other striking him after he fell, entered his right leg on the inside, a little below the knee, and made a very pain- ful, though not a dangerous, wound. The wound first received was pronounced a mortal one by the surgeon of the regiment, who extracted the ball. The wounded man was carried back to the division hospital, where he remained till toward morning, when he was placed in an ambulance and carried over a very rough road, seven miles, to Big Shanty, suffering greatly from the pain and loss of blood occasioned by the jolting of the am- bulance. The rebel batteries on the crest of Kenesaw Mountain belched forth their iron missiles during the entire journey, one of them carrying away a part of the hand of a hospital steward-the only medical attendant with the ambulance train. At Big Shanty he was placed upon the ground in an open field, with many hundreds of wounded men. In the morning Sergeant Russ was

placed, with ten other wounded men, in a stock car, in which, after two days and a night, they arrived at Chattanooga. During all this time their wounds re- ceived no attention, and what with the heart-rending groans and lamentations of the wounded, the intoler- able heat of the close freight car, their burning thirst, the incessant jolting, and the swarms of flies which in- fested their narrow quarters, and in battling with which they exhausted their strength, their situation was one of extreme suffering and peril. Death came to the re- lief of three of the occupants of our heroic soldier's car, and their corpses lay with the wounded to the end of the terrible journey. At Chattanooga he remained four months, receiving the kindest attention from sur- geons and nurses. All this time he was in a hospital tent, which once, during a thunder-storm, was struck by lightning, and the nurse who was his immediate at- tendant, and who had most kindly administered to his wants, fell dead across the bunk of the wounded man. The shock which he himself received from the lightning stroke, together with the loss of this kind attendant, came near being fatal to him. He now came near losing his hitherto almost unconquerable courage; for, in ad- dition to the appalling death of his attendant, and the shock which his nervous system received, it was immediately discovered that in one of his wounds gangrene -the terror of the wounded soldier-had set in. His fortitude and indomitable pluck and heroism nearly forsook him. He was transferred to what was known as the "Gangrene Tent," where the surgeon's knife was applied to stay the dread disease. He had seen many carried thither, but none of them had returned. He, therefore, felt, as he went, that he was being taken to his death. He gave what little money he possessed to the surgeon, with instructions where to send it. But, contrary to his ex- pectations, he withstood the loss of blood sustained under the surgeon's knife, and the baneful effects of the chloroform administered, and in a few days, amid the cheers of his wounded comrades, he was received back to his old quarters. Having at length regained sufficient strength, he was conveyed to Nashville and placed in a church used as a hospital. Though in better quarters than those to which he had been accustomed, he re- ceived such heartless treatment from surgeons and at- tendants that he implored to be sent on toward the North, and, after remaining there one week, he was sent on a hospital train to Louisville. Here he remained about ten days, gradually regaining his strength. A kind lady presented him a pair of crutches, and for the first time-this being in November, 1864-since he was wounded, he attempted, with the aid of these crutches and their fair donor, to walk. He, however, found himself still too weak to move more than a few steps without halting to rest. The next day he was sent to

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Camp Dennison, Ohio, where he remained till the end of the war. While here he received several com- munications from the colonel of his regiment, informing him that there were vacancies in the regiment, and that he would procure him a commission upon his return. The muscles of his left leg were contracted by his wound, and, until after the close of the war, he was rendered incapable of using his left foot in walking, and he was therefore unable to accept the offer. He was commended by the military committee of his county for promotion for meritorious services, and re- ceived notice from Governor Brough to report to him at Columbus, which he did, entering the Governor's pres- ence upon crutches. The Governor received him kindly, and tendered him a major's commission, but at the same time advising him to decline it upon learning the con- dition of his wounds. At Camp Dennison he was ap- pointed ordnance officer, as which he continued to serve until the war was ended, refusing a discharge till his term of service should expire or the war cease.

While here, having much leisure and a probability of re- maining a cripple, he resumed his studies, making con- siderable advancement. At the close of the war he returned to his home, to be greeted with an appoint- ment as marshal of a procession on the 4th of July, 1865.

After a short rest among his friends, he entered into business, in which he was unsuccessful, losing nearly all

he had saved out of his pay as a soldier. He made his

way to Cincinnati, with a view of seeking employment, but was unable to obtain a position. In November, 1865, finding his funds reduced to ten dollars, he deter- mined to go to the country and find work. Purchasing a ticket to Morris, Ripley County, Indiana, he at once

obtained employment there at chopping cord wood, at

which he continued for six weeks, when he was chosen to teach the Morris school. He conducted it for three months, when he was selected to teach the school at Pennsylvaniaburg, at an increased compensation. Re- maining here for one term, he went, in the fall of 1866,

to Missouri, but with an engagement to return to marry a young lady. On his arrival at Missouri he at once commenced teaching at Fair Grove school-house,

Buchanan County, where he continued for six months.

Ile relinquished this position to accept a professorship in the Plattsburg College, at Plattsburg, Missouri, at which institution he remained till January, 1868, when

he returned to Morris. When he was a professor in

this college, and being occupied only four hours each day in hearing recitations, at three dollars per day, he received two dollars and a half for the remainder

of his time as deputy circuit clerk and recorder-

making five dollars and a half per day from all sources. He was married to Miss Emma Tron, on the Ist of January, 1868, by Archbishop Purcell, at the Cathedral, Cincinnati. He was expected to

return to Plattsburg College after his marriage, but his health being greatly impaired by hard study, he permitted his friends to prevail on him to remain in Ripley County, and for a time he served as a clerk in a store at Morris. In May, 1868, he removed to Ver- sailles, the county seat of Ripley County, to accept the position of deputy auditor of the county. In 1869 he was appointed county superintendent of schools, and was also appointed special agent of the Ætna Fire In- surance Company, which positions he continued to hold until he was elected sheriff, for which, in the summer of 1870, he was nominated by acclammation by the Re- publican county convention. His opponent was O. P. Mccullough, a very popular gentleman, who was a can- didate for re-election. After a canvass lasting four months, General Russ was elected by a handsome ma- jority, though the county went Democratic on the state ticket by two hundred majority. At the end of his term he declined a renomination. At the district con- vention at Vernon, in 1872, he was tendered the nom- ination for Representative in the General Assembly for the counties of Ripley and Jefferson, but declined, hav- ing determined to go to Texas, whither he went in the fall, remaining there, engaged in shipping hay, till the spring of 1873. He then returned to Indiana, locating in Indianapolis, his home since that time. Here he en- gaged in the real estate and brokerage business, em- barking, also, in other large and profitable enterprises, and has been very successful, having accumulated a fortune closely approximating, if not exceeding, one hundred thousand dollars. During his speculations of this period he owned and managed several large farms, a one-half interest in a cattle ranche, a dry-goods and notion store, a wood-yard, a lumber-yard, and owned the Pimento coal shaft, located in Vigo County, In- diana. In 1875 he again took some interest in politics, and, being dissatisfied with the administration of Pres- ident Grant, joined the Independent Greenback party, and at the state convention was elected chairman of the state central committee of that party. Soon after- wards, being convinced that the leaders of the party were about to sell out to the Republicans, he wrote a communication to the Indianapolis Sentinel, in which he exposed their conduct with characteristic frankness. He was elected colonel of the regiment of the Tilden and Hendricks Guards of Indianapolis. Soon after- wards, a brigade having been formed, he was elected brigadier-general, in which capacity he served during the campaign of 1876, succeeding so well in the man- agement of the brigade, and exhibiting so much knowl-

edge of military affairs, that at the end of the contest,

which resulted in the election of Governor Williams, he was strongly recommended to the Governor for appoint- ment to the office of adjutant-general of the state, which he received on the 14th of February, 1877. He found,

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upon entering on the duties of this office, that it had greatly run down since the war, and he immediately set about restoring its usefulness and importanee. In a short time he " brought order out of chaos," and the office is now in prime order. After systematizing the affairs of the office, he turned his attention to the or- ganization of an efficient military force, which he soon accomplished. At the time of receiving his appoint- ment as adjutant-general there was not a militia com- pany in the state. In a short time he had organized a number of companies in various localities, and placed arms in their hands. Some of these companies, through his influence, procured for themselves costly uniforms and equipments, and entered with zeal upon the duties necessary to prepare themselves for efficient service when called upon. He received from Governor Williams, in his message to the General Assembly, warm commen- dations for the manner in which he had discharged the duties of his office during the railroad strike of 1877, and the subsequent troubles with the Fountain County coal miners. The General Assembly of 1879 recognized his valuable services by increasing the salary of his office. General Russ is a member of the Masonic Fra- ternity, being connected with Center Lodge, of Indian- apolis. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and attached to Occidental Lodge, of Indianapolis, of which lodge he served two terms as Master, and was Grand Marshal at the last meeting of that order in that city. The reader of the foregoing sketch need not be informed that General Russ is a man of great energy and unusually high order of business talents. His good fortune has not come to him by ac- cident, but through his untiring perseverance, industry, great energy, tact, shrewdness, and undeviating integ- rity. He is also greatly indebted for his success in life to his frank and manly demeanor and great kindness of heart. He has hosts of warm, stanch friends wherever he is known. He has always had the happy faculty of making them and keeping them. One can not be in his presence without feeling the effects of his magnetic influence. Through toil, poverty, and disappointments, which would have quite discouraged most men, he has cheerfully struggled to an honorable and useful man- hood. He was a brave and gallant soldier, and attested his devotion to his country by pouring out his blood for it upon the field of battle, and by sufferings which can not be adequately described. He well deserves the high esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens. He is still a young man, and has the prospect of many years of usefulness and honor. In every position in which he has been placed he has filled the duties with care, watchfulness, and zeal. No labor or exertion has been too great to cause him to turn aside from a cherished end or from a result that ought to be obtained. He is a successful man.

ALSBURY, HENRY, president of the Salsbury & Vinton Paper Company, Indianapolis, was born at Long Meadow, near Springfield, Massachusetts, November 22, 1820, and is the son of Burgess and Chloe (West) Salsbury. His father's family was origi- nally from the state of Rhode Island, and was of En- glish descent, as was his mother's. The elder Mr. Sals- bury was a farmer and stone contractor, and Henry Salsbury was intended by his father for a farmer's life and the trade of stone-cutter; but in youth his health was precarious, and he proved unequal to the hard work incidental to those avocations. He had very early in life developed a very decided talent for music, and the bent of his inclination in that direction was fostered and encouraged, until he succeeded in obtaining a fin- ished musical education, which fitted him for the posi- tion of teacher of that art. His general education was obtained in the academies and select schools of the day, and his subsequent career has proved that he was very early imbued with that spirit of business enterprise and activity which we are apt to consider characteristic of the Eastern man. While acquiring his musical educa- tion, Mr. Salsbury was for some time the pupil in sing- ing of Lowell Mason, the greatest teacher in that line in America in the first half of the present century. When nineteen years of age he left his native state and went to Richmond, Virginia, where he found employment for several years as a teacher of vocal and instrumental music. Here he had ample opportunity for observing the workings of the growing curse of slavery, and his natural antipathy to the institution was intensified to the highest degree by the scenes which he had wit- nessed in the future Confederate capital. Human be- ings chained together in droves like cattle, sold at the block as chattels, and driven by the lash, were frequent sights in those days; and, like all men in whom the greed of gain or partisan malignity has not driven out humanity, Mr. Salsbury rejoices that slavery is a thing of the past. After a residence of five or six years in Richmond, he returned to his native state and went into mercantile business at Springfield, where he con-

ducted a successful trade for five years. He then sold out, and hired a mill in the little village of Williman- sett, on the Connecticut River, where he carried on the manufacture of woolen goods, and, by hard work and close attention to every detail, was highly successful, soon becoming the sole owner of the mill and prosper- ous business. His health having become impaired from overwork, he sold out his mill in 1857, and the ensuing two years took a much needed rest from active occupa- tion. Having recovered his usual health, Mr. Salsbury again went into active business, and bought out a paper stock establishment, which, in a couple of years led him into the manufacture of paper, which he carried on in the town of South Hadley until 1869, when he disposed

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reputation of being a shrewd, careful, methodical busi- ness man, quiet and unpretentious in his manner, do- mestic in his habits, and his character and standing as a financial manager and good citizen are above reproach.

of it and came to Indianapolis. The manufacture of paper was at that time in the zenith of its prosperity, and Mr. Salsbury was induced to try his fortune in the West, in which paper-mills were few and far between, by the certainty that a profitable field was open. Mr. Vinton, a cousin of Mrs. Salsbury, had for some time been in Indianapolis, and Mr. Salsbury bought an in- terest in the mill with him, which is still operated un- CHMUCK, GABRIEL, was born in Sobernheim, Rhenish Prussia, June 13, 1833. His parents were Adam Schmuck and Elizabetha, née Klein, who came to the United States with their family in February, 1848. In April of that year they decided upon Pittsburgh as a place of residence, and remained there until June, 1850, at which time they removed to Cannelton, Perry County, Indiana, a place they have since made their home. Gabriel received his education at the common and high school of his native town in Germany. During the residence of his father's family in Pittsburgh, Gabriel was apprenticed to Messrs. Scribe & Neff, of Alleghany City, with the intention of becom- ing a practical printer. This employment did not prove at all suited to his tastes; so, at the end of one year, he was released. At Cannelton Gabriel made himself useful to his father in various ways; and, as the family was large and without fortune, the early discipline of those years, devoted as they were to habits of industry and usefulness, served to mature his character, and to strengthen those qualities that have since made him prominent, not only in his own community, but in the affairs of the state. Even as a youth he had none of that false pride that prevented him from pursuing any kind of labor or business that was honest and legitimate. But a young man of his capabilities is seldom obliged to labor with his hands, and he was invited to responsible and agreeable positions in mercantile and manufactur- ing establishments. As he grew older, Gabriel's desire to travel became irresistible, and, with that spirit of ad- venture inseparable from a vigorous and intelligent or- ganization, he left his home in Cannelton, determined to see what fortune had in store for him. It was nec- essary for him to earn the money he spent; so he worked temporarily in many of the cities of the South and West. In this way he not only satisfied his taste for travel, but added largely to his experience, and in- creased those resources which have since been often drawn upon by the requirements of the public stations to which he has been called, and which he has always filled with distinguished merit. But there comes a time in every man's life when the desire for a perma- nent home is masterful. So, after several years of this roving career, Mr. Schmuck returned to Cannelton, and there established himself. On December 24, 1861, he was married to Miss Mary F. Saunders, the adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. D. Talbot. His union der his management. The original firm was known as HI. Salsbury & Co., Mr. Salsbury managing the business, and Messrs. McLene, Talbot, and Vinton being his part- ners. In 1870 Mr. Vinton died, leaving his interest to his son Merrick. The next year Mr. Talbot died. His interest was bought out by M. E. Vinton, and the business was conducted under the name of Salsbury, Vinton & Co. until 1878, when it was merged into a stock com- pany, under the name of the Salsbury & Vinton Paper Company. Mr. Salsbury is the sole manager and super- intendent and president of the company. The mill has a capacity of five to six thousand pounds per day, and turns out the finest quality of book and news paper, and its business reaches over every portion of the great West. Its trade extends completely through to San Francisco, along the line of the Union Pacific, and sup- plies have been shipped to Leadville and other new mining towns in Colorado. From sixty to seventy-five hands are regularly employed about the mill and in the handling of paper stock; and, although in the hard times through which the country has recently passed paper-making suffered as well as other industries, the mill has been so managed that it has never failed to pay a dividend, and is now in an exceedingly prosper- ous condition. Mr. Salsbury gives his close personal attention to every detail of the management, and his prudent and careful control insures its continued pros- perity. Mr. Salsbury was married, in 1848, to Miss Emily Stebbins. She died in June 1852, leaving a little girl six months old, who died the following September. In 1854 Mr. Salsbury was united to Miss Jane Stebbins, a younger sister of his deceased wife. Mrs. Salsbury still survives, after having accompanied her husband on the journey of life for twenty-seven years. She has been in all things a devoted helpmate to her worthy hus- band. Mr. Salsbury's political affiliations can be readily gathered from the sketch of his early history. While the Whig party was a factor in the politics of the country it received his sympathy and support, and when it was merged into the Republican party he gave his hearty support to the latter. He has never held or sought office of any kind. He was brought up in the Congregational Church, and is now a regular at- tendant at the First Presbyterian Church of Indian- apolis. In addition to the business interests named, Mr. Salsbury has been interested in various enterprises, such as cotton mills and other industries. He has the | has been a most happy and fortunate one in every par-

Yours Truly Oschmuck

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ticular. Of seven children born to them, four are still living. During his absence Cannelton had improved in population, and had developed considerable manufactur- ing interests, and with these Mr. Schmuck soon became identified. He encouraged and aided to the extent of his ability all industrial, mechanical, and social enter- prises that were from time to time undertaken there. Among other evidences of his public spirit is a large grist-mill, known as the "Superior Mills," and still owned by him. In 1859 Mr. Schmuck was drawn from private life and elected recorder of Perry County, an office which he held from March 10, 1860, for four years. Before his term as recorder had expired he was nominated and elected clerk of the Circuit Court of the same county, and subsequently was re-elected, holding that office from March 10, 1864, to March 10, 1872. In the fall of the latter year he was elected a Representa- tive to the Legislature of 1872 and 1873. This was an important session, and Mr. Schmuck soon took a posi- tion among the foremost members of the House. Among other measures prominent in the Legislature of that session was the memorable " Baxter Bill," which he op- posed with all the power he could command. The law to guarantee protection to the health and lives of miners he defended and supported so ably as to bring him into very favorable notice among the people of the entire state. That Mr. Schmuck has the confidence of the business community where he has been best known is shown in the fact that in the fall of 1873 he was solicited by the most influential citizens of Tell City, Perry County, to take charge of the Tell City Bank, which had been stricken by the panic of that year, and shared the danger that threatened other organizations of the kind all over the country. He felt it his duty to accept the responsibility, difficult as the duties were, and he had the satisfaction of carrying the business of the bank successfully through the crisis. About that time the pub- lic schools of Tell City, from a variety of causes, were lacking in efficiency, and Mr. Schmuck, on account of his executive ability, was urged to accept a position on the board of school trustees. Appreciating the great value of free schools to any community, he devoted his best efforts to remodeling them upon a higher basis. To accomplish this end required tact, as well as energy and intelligence, and it soon became evident that he and his associates of the board had succeeded in giving to the schools of that flourishing town a reputation that they had never before enjoyed. They are now among the best in the state, an ornament to the town, and the just pride of its citizens. After a year's resi- dence in Tell City, Mr. Schmuck resigned his position as cashier of the bank, and returned to Cannelton, in order to give closer attention to his individual interests. His reputation having now extended beyond the limits of his county, and his ability and character being so

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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 12

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