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 28

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 28

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REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

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was appointed Collector for the Third District of Indi- ana, a position he held until December 31, 1875, when the Second and Third Districts were consolidated, and he was succeeded by Colonel H. Woodbury. Dur- ing his term of office he collected over $3, 140,000, and when his final reports were sent in, it was found that they balanced to a cent with the books of the depart- ment, and he did not owe the government one farthing, a fact that, considering the times and the crookedness and corruption in office of so many government officials, should be gratifying to him and to every admirer of an honest, upright man. On the Ist of May, 1879, he formed a partnership with J. W. Nichol, of Indianapo- lis (who was associated in practice with the late Judge Samuel H. Buskirk), and June 2, 1879, moved his family to that city. Since his removal to Indianapolis Mr. Hill has been engaged in several important cases, and his success proves beyond a doubt his capacity to cope with the brightest intellects at the bar of Indiana. Mr. Hill is a gentleman of varied and brilliant character- istics. As a lawyer he is grounded in the fundamental principles of legal science, and in the preparation and presentation of his cases he reasons from those principles to reported cases. As a speaker he is clear, analytical, and unimpassioned, making effective use of all favorable points, no matter how insignificant they may appear to others, and skillfully turns or ignores unfavorable ones. With these eminent qualifications as a lawyer added to his well known character for integrity and energy, he can safely be placed among the foremost men of the bar of Indiana. He is the soul of geniality and good fellowship, and makes hosts of friends, not alone in the profession, but among all with whom he comes in contact.

ICHOL, JOSEPH W., attorney-at-law, was born at Lafayette, Indiana, December 21, 1836. His father, George Nichol, was a native of Butler County, Ohio, and was a saddler by trade. His mother, Frances A. McDonald, was also born in Butler County, Ohio. She was the sister of United States Sen- ator, Hon. Joseph E. McDonald. About the year 1828 George Nichol removed to Lafayette, where he engaged in the saddlery and harness-making business. He was married eight years later at the residence of Dr. Canby, in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He had a family of three children, all of whom, together with the mother, are living. Joseph, who was the eldest of three children, in his boyhood days worked part of the time on a farm, and spent a great deal of his time working in the shop with his father, but did not finish the trade. Being of slight build (although always healthy), his father ob- jected to his being confined too closely indoors. He attended for several years the common schools of the

Star City, when he entered the normal department at Wabash College, at Crawfordsville. Before completing the course he was called home by the death of his father, which occurred April 6, 1855; his studies were inter- rupted for six months, when he returned to college, but in the course of another year went back to Lafayette, and commenced to make his own living, entering the post-office of that city as an attaché under postmaster Thomas Wood. Shortly afterward he removed to Attica, Fountain County, where he received the appointment of postmaster. He was honored with this appointment before he had attained his majority, which was a fine tribute to his honest worth and integrity. He was com- missioned to this position by Hon. Aaron V. Brown of Tennessee, at that time Postmaster-general. Mr. Nichol kept this position until August, 1859, when he resigned the office in order to devote his attention to the study of law. He then came to Indianapolis, and entered upon a law course under the instruction of his uncle, Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, and Hon. A. L. Roache, Ex-Judge of Supreme Court. Here he remained until 1861. After completing his law course he returned to Fountain County; but after a few months, in April, 1862, he removed to Lebanon, Boone County, and com- menced the practice of law, building up a lucrative busi- ness, and remaining two years. He then went to Coving- ton, Indiana, and formed a partnership with Hon. Joseph Ristine. He did not practice any in the courts, however, but employed much of his time writing in the clerk's office. In the fall of 1866 Mr. Nichol removed for permanent residence to Indianapolis. Here, in 1868, he was honored with the nomination for state Senator by the Democratic County Convention, but was defeated. In 1869 he was married at Indianapolis to Miss Hannah Bright, daughter of Hon. Michael G. Bright, and sister to HIon. Richard J. Bright, Sergeant-at-Arms of United States Senate. With her companionship his life has passed peaceably and happily. They have one child, a fine and promising boy, now five years of age. Mr. Nichol's mother is still living; his brother James is married, and engaged in the agricultural business in Indianapolis, and his sister Nellie is yet unmarried. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Nichol went into law part- nership with Hon. Lewis Jordan, which business firm was continued for four years. He, in January, 1874, formed a co-partnership with Judge Samuel A. Huff, carrying on a lucrative practice. This firm was dissolved three years later, when Mr. Nichol became associated with Hon. Samuel H. Buskirk, Ex-Judge of Supreme Bench, who remained his partner, the firm doing a large busi- ness. The death of Judge Buskirk, which occurred April 3, 1879, severed this connection. In the same year he entered into partnership with Hon. Ralph Hill, of Columbus, who still remains his associate. In July, 1880, Mr. Nichol was again nominated for state Senator by the

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Marion County Democratic Convention. He has always | been identified with the Democratic party, and has taken an active interest in politics. In 1876 he entered with great zeal into the campaign, making speeches and stirring the young Democracy up to enthusiasm. Mr. Nichol enjoys the confidence and esteem of the great party leaders, and his associates of the legal fraternity. Ile has a fine presence, is tall and slender, intellectual- looking, and dignified. His manner of address is pleas- ing, his reasoning power excellent, while his arguments are logical and convincing. As a political debater he is very successful, while he never resorts to vituperation of the opposite organization, and could never be classed as a demagogue, although devoted to the principles of the party he deems in the right. Naturally retiring in disposition, he is yet kindly and genial, a good citizen and a wise counselor, whose judgment may be relied upon, and whose influence is quietly sent forth rather than self-asserted or loudly proclaimed.

ORTER, ALBERT G. Some forty years ago a Western traveler who passed along the Ohio canal might have noticed a strong, vigorous young man, with a big brow and a frank, open, manly face, driving mules along the tow-path. The same per- son, pursuing his journey along the principally traveled route of Kentucky, might have noticed the light-faced boy, with a sunny smile and pleasing ways, who worked the horse ferry-boat across the Ohio River, opposite Lawrenceburg, Indiana, or who rowed the passengers over the river in a skiff. The canal-boy was James A. Garfield, the Republican nominee for President of the United States; the ferry-boy was the Hon. Albert G. Porter, just elected Governor of Indiana. There can be no better illustration of republican institutions than those found in the ticket which the Republican party presented for the suffrages of the people of Indiana. The heads of the national and state tickets in their own persons bear witness to the simplicity of Amer- ican manners, and to the sovereignty of American citi- zenship. Professor Draper, in his notable philosophical history of our war, attributes the rapid reduction of this continent to civilization to the individualism developed by our institutions, and predicts that this individualism will enable the Republic of the West to play that part on the grander theater of the globe which the old republic played in the narrow confines of the Med- iterranean. The Republican party, which has given the country its President since 1860, has been careful to see to it that its standard-bearers have been chosen from the people. Abraham Lincoln was called from his flat-boat to enter upon the discipline that was to make him the greatest of American Presidents. Gen- 1

eral Grant came from his tannery to be the greatest soldier of his country, to be its ruler for eight years, and to remain the foremost citizen of the republic. The state of Indiana, following the precedent set by the nation, has generally been careful also to select as can- didates for its highest offices men who have come from the people, and who, from personal experience, have understood the needs of the masses to whose wants they were to administer. The Indiana Republicans did not forget this principle this year in selecting as candi- date for Governor a native of their State, who had trod- den all the familiar paths of most American leaders, and worked his way from humble origin to business success and to professional reputation. The father of A. G. Porter was a Pennsylvanian, who, at the age of eighteen, enlisted in Ball's regiment of Pennsylvania Vol- unteers, in the War of 1812 with Great Britain. He was very badly wounded in what was then known as the territory of Indiana, at the engagement of Wissinne- way, and was borne on a litter to Lebanon, Ohio. From that wound he never recovered; and years after- wards, when young Porter was a large boy, his father still remained a sufferer. The elder Porter, at the end of the War of 1812, settled in Indiana, at Lawrence- burg. The Porter family remained there until after the death of the grandfather of young Porter on his moth- er's side, when his father removed to Kentucky, having purchased the old homestead which belonged to his grandfather. Attached to that homestead there was a ferry across the Ohio River, nearly opposite Lawrence- burg. This ferry was on the regular route of travel from Indiana to Kentucky; and the father, who was then in moderate circumstances, left the entire manage- ment of that ferry, which consisted both of a horse-boat and a skiff, to young Porter and his brother. The re- sponsibility which was thus early placed upon Mr. Porter, and the necessity in a great measure of earning his own livelihood by manual labor, developed in him those traces of independence of character for which he became noted in later life. Young Porter rowed many notable persons across the Ohio River in his little skiff, when the travel was not heavy enough for the horse- boat. At the age of fifteen the young man had saved money enough from the allowances which he received for running the ferry, to start for college. At the ear- liest opportunity he left the little skiff and the old horse ferry-boat for Hanover College, Indiana, where he en- tered the preparatory department. There he remained until the scanty means which he had saved were ex- hausted. The days then grew dark for the future Governor of Indiana. His little pittance was gone, his father was unable to assist him, his father's family was equally destitute, and there seemed no recourse for him except to go back to the horse ferry-boat and the little skiff, or to seek some other means to secure the funds

AG. Porter.

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necessary for the education that he was determined to however, Mr. Porter published a card declining service in Congress. General Dumont, then in the army, was nominated in his place, but Porter did most of the can- vassing for him. While in Congress Mr. Porter was a member of the Judiciary Committee for his entire term of service. In this capacity Mr. Porter developed great ability as a lawyer, and assisted in drawing most of the important law reports from that committee during his term of service. He made a report on the liability of railroads which had received land grants to transport United States troops and war material free of charge. This report attracted a good deal of attention, and, upon motion of Elihu B. Washburne, was republished at the next session of Congress, as a very important con- tribution to anti-monopoly literature. That report took the ground that the provision in the land grant acts should be and ought to be enforced. From that time it was. Before that the monopolies had been having their own way, having seemed to control both Congress and the executive ; but, after Porter's report, they were compelled to transport troops and munitions of war free. The consequence has been that the revenues of the gov- ernment have been largely increased from this source. Like most young members, Porter made a speech in favor of the abolition of the franking privilege. He was always on the side of the people. In the notable contest relative to the Isthmus of Chiriqui, which is now again being called to the public attention, Mr. Porter took sides against the scheme, and antagonized Dan Sickles at the time, who was one of its noted advocates. Another of Mr. Porter's most notable speeches was on the general subject of the war, and upon all compromise schemes. Mr. Porter retired from Congressional life be- cause he had a young and growing family, and wisely thought that he ought not to sacrifice his future in political life, but should return to the profession of the law, and endeavor to build up his fortune. This he did, and in his professional career he was eminently success- ful. Four years ago Mr. Porter was put in nomination as a candidate for Governor of Indiana, but he caused a letter to be read declining to allow his name to be used. Nothwithstanding his declaration, however, he received many votes in the convention. From the time he left Congress he devoted himself assiduously to his profes- sion, although he nearly always took some part in state - political campaigns. He continued his practice until he was very unexpectedly invited to come to Washing- ton to accept the appointment of Comptroller of the Treasury. This appointment was tendered him by Sec- retary Sherman, who knew him as an eminent lawyer in Indiana, and who desired a competent person to fill the place. The duties of First Comptroller of the Treasury are not generally understood. They are very important, and are entirely judicial. It is the one have. At this juncture, an uncle, who was in good circumstances, and with whom he was a great favor- ite, wrote to him, telling him that he had heard that his little means were exhausted, that he understood that he was determined to have an education, and that he, the uncle, would help him to get it. In the lan- guage of the letter, he would "see him through." That was the happiest day in young Porter's life. The clouds lifted, the way was clear. He speedily and grate- fully accepted his uncle's proposition, and from that time there were less obstacles in his busy career. But the acceptance of the offer made necessary a change of location. His uncle was a Methodist, and he desired that his young ward should enter upon his studies at Asbury College, at Greencastle, Indiana. To this place, therefore, he went, and he remained there until he graduated in 1843. After graduation young Porter returned to Lawrenceburg, and studied law until 1846, when he removed to Indianapolis, where he entered upon the practice of law, in which profes- sion he has long held a front rank at the Indiana har. In 1853 Porter, who was then a Democrat, was ap- pointed by Governor Wright, then Governor, and sub- sequently minister to Berlin, reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Indiana, to fill a vacancy that had occurred by the death of the former reporter. By this time young Porter had attained a reputation for industry and ability, and he was unanimously recom- mended by the Supreme Court Judges to fill this va- cancy. The following year young Porter was elected to the same office by the people on the general ticket by fourteen thousand majority, a fact and a precedent which Indiana voters will do well to remember. It has not been the custom in Indiana to give any candidate on its state ticket much larger majorities than that. Porter to this time had been a Democrat, but in 1854 he became discontented with the repeal of the Missouri Compro- mise, although he remained in the Democratic party, for the reason that he thought that, under the squatter- sovereignty doctrine, slavery would certainly be excluded from the territories. But in 1856, having discovered that free elections were not to be permitted in the terri- tories, and that the territories were to be carried by fraud and force, Porter, with many others of the best men in his party, abandoned the Democracy and united himself with the Republican party, voting for Fremont. In 1858, although not a candidate for nomination, Por- ter was nominated by the Republican convention, at In- dianapolis, as a candidate for Congress. That district, for two years previously, had gone Democratic by eight hundred majority, yet Porter was elected to Congress by a majority of more than one thousand; and two years afterward he was elected by a like majority. Before the meeting of the convention to nominate a candidate again, , office in the government from whose decisions there

C-17

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is no appeal. The Secretary of the Treasury can not annul decisions of the First Comptroller. No appeal lies from him either to the Attorney-general, to the Pres- ident, or, to the Supreme Court of the United States. The word of the First Comptroller of the Treasury is the final authority on all constructions of law and inter- pretations of statutes relating to the vast disbursements of the treasury. It sometimes happens that the First Comptroller overrules the Attorney-general, as he did last year in relation to the statutes of the District of Columbia, and as to the status of the commissioners , spot where stood the old, and his (Morris Morris's) under them. To this office Mr. Porter was summoned , grandson, Morris M. Defrees, as civil engineer, laid out without notice by the Secretary of the Treasury, and he occupied it with distinguished ability. It is a position which requires great knowledge of the law and unimpeachable integrity. The First Comptroller is the one man whose decisions alone stand between the great army of jobbers and the public crib, and whose word is law. The man who has so successfully withstood the attacks of the raiders upon the national treasury will wisely administer the duties of Governor of Indiana.

ORRIS, MORRIS. In the early settlement of Virginia, three brothers, named James, John, and Morris Morris, came from Wales. The sub- ject of this sketch was the grandson of James Morris. He was born in Monongahela County, Virginia, in 1780. In his young days his parents moved to Fleming County, Kentucky, where he was brought up, and lived until he was forty years old. He received an English education, read law, and for many years practiced it. In 1803 he was married to Rachel Morris,

The history of Indianapolis for the first score of years shows few events of public concern in which he was not prominent. In 1828, he was elected Auditor of State, and was successively re-elected to that office for sixteen years. In 1832, he was one of the three Com- missioners who had in charge the building of the State- house. His son, T. A. Morris, as a civil engineer, laid out the grounds. Nearly a half century later that son, General T. A. Morris, is now a Commissioner in charge of the building of the new State-house, on the same

the grounds. After leaving the office of Auditor of State, Mr. Morris retired to private life. He engaged in no business except the care of his property, which in the growth of the town had become a large estate. In his mature years he had joined the Methodist Church, and up to his later life was a very active member of it. He died in 1864, in his eighty-fourth year. The death of his wife in the previous year, at the age of seventy- six, ended their married life of sixty years. They had eight children, and lived to see their great grand-child- ren. In person, Mr. Morris in his prime was six feet two, robust and active. He was noted for great clear- ness of judgment, and the union of remarkable decision of character with rare gentleness.

ORRIS, THOMAS A., Indianapolis. Thomas Armstrong Morris is the third son of Rachel and Morris Morris. He was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, December 26, 1811. In 1821 his parents moved to Indianapolis, then a settlement of a descendant of the John Morris, one of the three | a few families, and designated as the place where the brothers above mentioned. Unwilling to rear his family amid the influences of slavery, in 1821, he moved to the free state of Indiana. With this removal, or shortly be- fore it, he abandoned the practice of the law, and for a reason sufficiently rare to merit mention. He averred state capital was to be. The journey was overland by horse and wagon through almost literally "trackless forests," and the ten-year-old boy may thus be said to have commenced life as a pioneer ; a character which it may be said followed him through life, for, as will be that for him the practice of the law interfered with the ; seen, he was a pioneer in many enterprises. In 1823 he life which according to his view his profession of Chris- began to learn the printer's trade. He went to work on a newspaper, which, like most of its kind in new settlements, had a length of name in inverse ratio to its importance. It staggered under the appellation of "The Western Censor and Emigrant's Guide." It is now the Indianapolis Journal. The boy continued at his trade for three years, and became an excellent printer, which in those days included the "theory and practice" of hand-press work as well as type setting. At the end of three years he left the office and was sent to a school taught by Ebenezer Sharpe. After four years, being then nineteen years old, he was appointed as a cadet of West Point, and set out on horseback to Cincinnati, whence the route east was by way of the Ohio River. tianity required of him. He did not lay this down for a rule by which he judged others. He believed it was the thing to be done in his case, and he did it. This incident might be taken as a key to his character. He was conscientious to a rare degree. Nothing could move him from his notions of right. At the same time he never arraigned others at the bar of his own judg- ment. His standard was for himself. The future capi- tal of the new state had just been fixed at Indianapolis, and the settlement was only in the second year of its existence when he came to it. He bought land largely, within and without its limits, and was among those who were foremost in the active life of the new settlement.

Zny2 LyHREall &Cons & Purdey St.N.Y.

V. a. morris

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He was graduated in 1834, standing fourth in a class ' time built the road from Lawrenceburg to Cincinnati. of thirty-six. He was then breveted as a second lieu- From 1866 to 1869 he was president and chief engineer tenant of the Ist Artillery in the regular army. After about one year's service at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and Fort King, Florida, he was sent by the War Depart- ment to assist Major Ogden, of the engineer corps, in constructing the national road in Indiana and Illinois, and had charge of the division between Richmond and of the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad, building the road from Terre Haute to Indianapolis. From 1869 to 1872 he was receiver of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette Railroad, and in 1877 he was appointed as one of the commissioners to select plans and superintend the construction of the new state capitol. This position he Indianapolis, Indiana. This was the first turnpike-road in the state. After a year he resigned from the United States service and was resident engineer in the Indiana state service. During that time he had charge of the construction of the Central Canal. From 1841 to 1847 now (ISSo) holds, and it was one his father held nearly half a century ago with reference to the old state capitol, which was torn down to make room for the new. The Madison and Indianapolis Railroad had been under- taken as part of the state system of internal improve- he was chief engineer of the Madison and Indianapolis , ments, built as far as Vernon, and then abandoned. Private corporations had been allowed to take charge of any of the abandoned schemes of internal improve- ments, and General Morris became the chief engineer of the company which assumed the construction of the abandoned railroad. There was no money with which to carry on the enterprise. General Morris conceived the plan of taking land for subscriptions to build the road, and rough-drafted a bill which the famous Jo- seph C. Marshall took in hand and successfully argued through the Legislature, authorizing the procedure. Under the bill lands were received by the road at an appraised value. Upon these lands scrip was issued to the amount of the appraisement. This scrip the company - used to pay for the construction of the road, redeeming the scrip with lands on presentation. This is the first instance, so far as is known, by which land was used as the direct basis of railroad construction. The use made

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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 28

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