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 31
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120
270
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
[7th Dist.
Mr. New was nominated for, and elected to, the state Senate from the Indianapolis District, and served with ability, although he was distinguished as the youngest member of that body. Three years later, in 1865, Mr. New purchased a large interest in the First National . Bank of Indianapolis, and became its cashier, and served as such officer and vice-president, and subsequently as president, during the ten years of his connection with this enterprise. This bank was the most successful moneyed institution of the state, and was managed with great financial ability. In April, 1875, Mr. New was, without his solicitation or desire, made the recipient of great public favor by his appointment, at the hands of President Grant, to the responsible position of Treas- urer of the United States, the most important position in the nation. During his official term the affairs of that office were so prudently and carefully administered, that notwithstanding its transactions and business liabil- ities involved the handling and disbursement of thou- sands of millions of dollars, yet when he voluntarily resigned the place, his accounts balanced to a cent, which is something marvelous, considering the immense business of the office. In July, 1876, Mr. New resigned his position as custodian of the money of the United States to give attention to his personal affairs. Since leaving the Treasury he has devoted himself to the management of his business. During the spring of 1880 Mr. New purchased the Indianapolis daily Journal, one of the most firmly established and best newspapers of the country, which under his management is eminently suc- cessful. In addition to the time and attention bestowed upon the Journal by Mr. New, he, as chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, is conducting the campaign for the state contest with great energy and skill; while as a member for the state of the national committee, he is helping to shape the future political destiny of the republic. Mr. New has been twice mar- ried. His first wife, Miss Melissa Beeler, was the daugh- ter of a well-known pioneer and wealthy citizen of Marion County. By this estimable lady Mr. New has one son, Harry S. New, who is now a young man of about twenty-three, and is associated with his father in editing the Journal. Some time after the death of his first wife Mr. New was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth R. McRae, of Virginia. She is one of the most beautiful and cultured ladies in the land, and was noted while at the capital of the nation for her statuesque beauty, her charming qualities as a leader in society, and the elegance that characterized her entertainments. The offspring of her marriage with Mr. New is two lovely little girls. Mr. New is yet young, not having attained the age of fifty years, is very prepossessing in appearance and genial in manner, yet of dignified bear- ing and self-poise, and the future undoubtedly has in store for him yet greater distinction.
cSHEEHY, THOMAS, editor of the Western Citizen, was born in Ireland, September 29, 1849, and was educated at the Christian Brothers' School in Dingle, Kerry County, where he attended until 1865, when he, at the age of sixteen, came, like many another young Irishman, to America to seek his fortune. He settled at Lafayette, Indiana. Being in very poor circumstances, he at once went to work selling papers for a living. He soon won the confidence of the pro- prietors of the Lafayette Journal, and was given a situa- tion in that office as an apprenticed bookbinder, wages three dollars per week, half of which he paid for board, and the other half he saved each week until he had a sufficient amount to send for his mother, three brothers, and two sisters. It must be remembered that Mr. McSheehy's father and grandfather were both Irish American citizens, but died prior to his coming to this country, hence the care of the family was thrown on the shoulders of this young man; in fact, while yet a boy he had this responsibility. By close application and strict attention he soon won for himself friends, and succeeded in accumulating some property. He came to Indianapolis in 1874. and was an employe of the Journal for two years, under the Ruckle adminis- tration. He at length concluded to start a newspaper in the interest of his people, the Irish element, and in 1876 the Western Citizen was launched upon the sea of journalism. Being a close observer of events, and wish- ing not to be recreant in his duties or calling, he de- nounced the action of the Democracy toward the Irish people in strong language. The result was that several hundred Democrats stopped taking the Citizen, but this did not swerve him from the line he had marked out. He organized the first Irish Republican club in the state, and the result was that several others were organ- ized in 1878, and these clubs did and are doing excel- lent service. The Irish-Republican club of Marion County now numbers three hundred members, and is constantly receiving new recruits. To Mr. McSheehy is due much of the credit for this work. September 29, 1875, Mr. McSheehy was married to Miss Maggie Ryan, daughter of Thomas and Nora Ryan, in Lafayette, In- diana, at St. Mary's Catholic Church, by Rev. Dr. Hal- linan, one of the members of the faculty of Notre Dame University, both himself and wife being devoted adherents to the Roman Catholic faith. June 6, 1879, the young editor was nominated by the Republican convention for the Legislature to represent Marion County. On account of his Republicanism he received a decided opposition from his own people, and was bitterly antagonized by the Democratic press, but by his energy, fluency of speech, and earnestness, he won for himself the approval of the people, and was triumph- ant in the October election, and will no doubt be an influential factor in state legislation.
271
7th Dist.]
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
LETCHER, CALVIN, was born in Ludlow, Ver- left their native state, and, at the request of Calvin, his father "gave him his time," and he went from home. He made an effort at Boston to ship as a sailor before the mast, but did not succeed in the attempt. We next find him in Pennsylvania, where he engaged himself for a short time as a laborer in a brickyard. To show that his literary tastes were not impaired by his new and humble employment, it may be mentioned that he always carried with him a small edition of Pope's poems, which he read at each moment of leisure. But his brick-making came to an end in two weeks. His intelligence soon attracted the attention of a gen- tleman named Foot, by whom he was induced to go to the state of Ohio. There he first taught school at Urbana, county of Champaign ; was subsequently pri- vate tutor in the family of a Mr. Gwin, whose fine li- brary gave him a capital opportunity for reading ; and he finally studied law at Urbana with Hon. James Cooley, afterwards United States chargé d'affaires in Peru. In 1819 he went to Lynchburg, Virginia, and was licensed to practice by the Supreme Court of the Old Dominion. At one time he thought of settling in Virginia, but even then his strong love of freedom and the rights of man made him renounce his intention, and caused him to return to Urbana, where he became the law partner of Mr. Cooley. Indianapolis was set apart for the capital of Indiana by the Legislature of that state January 6, 1821, and in October of the same year Mr. Fletcher, who had been married a few months previously, removed to Indiana's future seat of govern- ment. He was the first lawyer in the city, and no one certainly was more successful. Poor at the time of his location, his business, carefully attended to, became lucrative. For several years he was prosecuting attor- ney. Amongst his partners at different times were B. F. Morris, Henry Gregg, Andrew Ingram, Ovid Butler, and lastly Simon Yandes. Says a contributor to the Indiana weekly Herald of June 2, 1866, to which paper we have been indebted for much of the materials for this portion of our sketch: "We had the gratification of hearing Mr. Fletcher argue one case, and but one, to a jury, that of J. B. Otey, who was tried in the United States court in 1841, for robbing the mail. The case was prosecuted by district attorney Cushing, of Madi- son, and Hon. John Pettit, of Lafayette. Associated with Mr. Fletcher in the defense was Hon. Tilghman A. Howard. Mr. Fletcher's effort was able and suc- cessful. We remember also of one case being argued in the supreme court by the firm of Fletcher, Butler, & Yandes, while we were on the bench; there may have been others. On making the city his home, Mr. Fletcher actively interested himself in its prosperity. He was a member of the first fire company organized in it-the Old Marion. He won the confidence and re- mont, February 4, 1798. He was a descendant, probably, of Robert Fletcher, who was of Con- cord, Massachusetts, in 1635; died April 3, 1677, aged eighty-five; had sons, Francis, Luke, William, and Samuel. His father, Jesse Fletcher, a son of Tim- othy Fletcher, of Westford, Massachusetts, was born in that town, November 9, 1763. He had fair advan- tages for an education, and was preparing for college under his elder brother, the Rev. Elijah Fletcher, of Hopkinton, New Hampshire, when the difficulties of the Revolution arrested his progress. He served in two campaigns of six or eight months near the close of the war. His brother Elijah was the pastor of the Church in Hopkinton from January 23, 1773, until his death, April 8, 1786, and his daughter Grace, a most accom- plished woman, was the first wife of Daniel Web- ster. Webster's eldest son, who was killed at the head of his regiment at the second battle of Bull Run, in 1862, was christened Fletcher Webster. When- ever Calvin Fletcher and Daniel Webster met their conversation was generally on the accomplishments of Mrs. Webster. Jesse Fletcher, in the year 1781, at the age of about eighteen, married Lucy Keyes, of West- ford, who was born in that town, November 15, 1765. They emigrated from Westford to Ludlow, Vermont, about the year 1784, and were among the first settlers of the place. From that time till the day of his death, in February, 1831, he resided on the same farm. He was the first town clerk there; was a justice of the peace, and the second representative to the general court from Ludlow, in which town all his fifteen chil- dren, excepting the oldest, were born. His widow died in 1846. Calvin, the subject of this sketch, was the eleventh of these fifteen children, most of whom, it is remarkable, lived to receive an education and go out into the world. Under the teachings of an excellent father and a mother of more than ordinary ability, young Calvin early learned those habits of industry and self-reliance which, coupled with upright principles, uniformly characterized his manhood-life. While per- forming all the duties exacted from a boy on a New Eng- land farm, he very soon manifested a great desire for a classical education. This desire was stimulated by the concurring advice of his mother and the witnessed suc- cess of his brother Elijah, who had, a few years before, completed his college course. Depending on his own earnings for the means of obtaining an education, he set about preparing himself for college through the in- strumentalities afforded him by brief periods of instruc- tion in the academies of Randolph and Royalton in Vermont. He had proceeded in his studies as far as Virgil, when pecuniary troubles and discouragements weighed upon his spirits. The father became finan- cially embarrassed. The older sons and daughters had . spect of the people. In 1826 he was elected first state
272
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
[7th Dist.
Senator from Marion, Hamilton, and Hancock Counties, in which office he was continued till 1832, when he abandoned politics, though a successful career was open to him in that path had he chosen to follow it. In IS36, after the lamented death of Colonel Kinnaird, he replied to those soliciting him to become a candidate for Congress, that he preferred to adhere to his profes- sion, and educate his children." Mr. Fletcher was married to Sarah Hill by Rev. Samuel Hitt, May I, IS21, in the county of Champaign, Ohio, about four miles from Urbana, the county seat. She was born in the county of Fleming, Kentucky, to which state her parents removed from Virginia nearly a century ago, or about the time of the Daniel Boone immigration. The maternal grandmother of Miss Hill was an own cousin of John Randolph, of Roanoke. The children of Calvin and Sarah (Hill) Fletcher were, James Cooley, born' April 15, 1823; Elijah Timothy, born August 21, 1824; Calvin, born September 30, 1826; Miles Johnson, born June 19, 1828, died May 10, 1862; Stoughton Alphonso, born October 25, 1831 ; Maria Antoinette Crawford, born October 29, 1833, died April, 1860; Ingram, born June 22, 1835; William Baldwin, born August 18, 1837; Stephen Keyes, born May 30, 1840; Lucy Keyes, born September 4, 1842; Albert Eliot, born October 19, 1846. Mrs. Fletcher died in the autumn of 1854. On the 5th of November, 1855, he married Mrs. Keziah Price Lister, who survives him. He became a corresponding member of the New Eng- land Historic-genealogical Society in 1860, and made himself a life member in 1861. In a letter dated March 25, 1861, to Mr. John Ward Dean, then the corresponding secretary of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, he writes thus concerning himself:
" At that period [1815], I had only had the advan- tages of two months each year at the school in the district where my father lived. For two years I labored for others, at wages a portion of the time, and the resi- due I spent at the academies of Randolph and Royal- ton, in my native state. In 1817, I determined on a seaman's life, and in April of the same year went to Boston, a total stranger, and tried my best to obtain a berth on board an East-Indiaman, but failed. I then turned my face toward the country west of the Allegha- nies. In two months I worked my way, mostly on foot, to the western part of Ohio, and stopped at Urbana, then the frontier settlement of the north-western part of that state. I knew not an individual in the state-had no letter of introduction. I obtained labor as a hired hand for a short time, and then a school. In the fall of 1817 I obtained a situation in the law office of the Hon. James Cooley, a gentleman of talents and fine education- one of a large class which graduated at Yale under Dr. Dwight. He was sent to Peru under John Quincy Adams's administration, and died there. In the fall of 1820 I was admitted to the bar, and became the law part- ner of my worthy friend and patron, Mr. Cooley. In the summer of 1821 the Delaware Indians left the central
part of Indiana, then a total wilderness; and the new state selected and laid off Indianapolis as its future capital, but did not make it such for four or five years thereafter. I had married, and on my request my worthy partner permitted me to leave him, to take up my residence at the place designated as the seat of gov- ernment of Indiana. In September of that year (1821) I left Urbana with a wagon, entered the wilderness, and after traveling fourteen days, and camping out the same number of nights, reached Indianapolis, where there were a few newly erected cabins. No counties had been laid off in the newly acquired territory ; but in a few years civil divisions were made. I commenced the practice of law, and for about twenty-two years traveled over, twice annually, nearly one-third of the north- western part of the state ; at first without roads, bridges, or ferries. In 1825 I was appointed state's attorney for the fifth judicial circuit, embracing some twelve or fif- teen counties. This office I held about one year, when I was elected to the state Senate-served seven years ; resigned, and gave up official positions, as I then sup- posed, for life. But in 1834 I was appointed by the Legislature one of four to organize a state bank, and to act as sinking fund commissioner. I held this place also seven years. From 1843 to 1859 I acted as president of the branch of the State Bank at Indianap- olis, until the charter expired. During the forty years I have resided in Indiana I have devoted much of my time to agriculture and to societies for its promotion, and served seven years as trustee of our city schools. I have been favored with a large family-nine sons and two daughters. Three of the former have taken a reg- ular course and graduated at Brown University, Provi- dence, Rhode Island, and three a partial course at the same institution. I have written no books, but have assisted in compiling a law-book. I have kept a journal of daily events, confined mainly to my own routine of business."
Mr. Fletcher died in Indianapolis, May 26, 1866, aged sixty-eight. His death was occasioned by a fall from his horse a few weeks previous. Mr. Fletcher was a strong man, physically, morally, and intellectually. In the early stages of his pioneer life he had to with- stand to the face, and at times with bodily force resist, those who attempted to deprive him of his rights. There were no courts there, at first, in the infant settlement, to take cognizance of breaches of the peace and of ill be- havior; but each man had to be, as it were, "a law unto himself"-his own judge and executor. He was equal to the emergency, and when the trial of strength came could do justice to himself. In the same spirit he stood ready also to befriend those who might otherwise have been injured. He was a great lover of nature. He took much interest in the study of ornithology, and made himself familiar with the habits of birds, their in- stincts and characteristics. The domestic animals found in him a sympathizing friend. He was kind to them; ever ready to learn in regard to their particular dispo- sitions and qualities, using such knowledge, when ob- tained, to their advantage. He was fond of the science of astronomy, and, in fact, of almost every thing that was elevating and ennobling. In his well-selected li-
273
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
7th Dist.]
brary of general literature, in addition to law-books, ! Indiana, the reliance placed in the judgment, integrity, might be seen in close proximity, local histories, peri- odicals, the works of Audubon, school journals, and miscellaneous works. He availed himself of the oppor- tunities afforded him, as one of the pioneers, and a con- tinued resident of Indianapolis, to collect and preserve local newspapers, books, and magazines. These ac- cumulated volumes of Western literature are now the property of the Indianapolis Library. He was a man of method. Usually he would rise at four o'clock in the morning, and attend to his correspondence till breakfast ; then be off to give directions in regard to his farm of one thousand six hundred acres, situated about two miles from his residence. On his return he would en- gage in his duties at the bank or other employments- always on the move, ever active, ever accomplishing important results. On his death the bankers of the city held a meeting at which resolutions of sorrow and re- spect were passed. An old and valued friend of Mr. 1 Fletcher, who was prevented from being present at the funeral obsequies, wrote to the Gazette as follows:
" The record on earth of a most useful and valued pioneer of the city of Indianapolis is closed in the de- cease of Calvin Fletcher, on Saturday, the 26th of May, instant. How exceedingly trying and painful this sad breaking up is, of the companionship of those who have been tenderly endeared in the trials and joys, the fears and hopes of the earliest forest days of this then pro- spective seat of state government, none can feel as do those few who yet survive. This sadness is only alle- viated by the humble but undying assurance that the links of these attachments of nearly fifty years are only being opened that they may be eternally rebound by the kind hand which has mercifully kept us in all the past. The multitudes, in this community and in the West, who have for many years felt it to be their highest honor to be known as the friends of Calvin Fletcher, will only need to be assured by his early associates that the bright and mature development of his character is only what might have been expected in the ripened shock in the ear, from its promise in the grain-seed. His benevolence and kind regard for the needy were always effectual but quiet-his fidelity to every trust marked and reliable- his efficiency and decision in standing for the right at all hazards always sure. When a young lawyer, and with his gentle wife from Ohio, in the first week of October, of 1821, he unloaded his wagon of householdings and books at a cabin he had rented, sit- uated at the corner of Washington and Missouri Streets, near the state-house, in this city, how little was anticipated by the passing settlers the influence the new-comer would exert on the future of our prospective city and the region surrounding! Mr. Fletcher was so untiring in his energy, both in his legal study and practice, so faithful to his undertakings and reliable in his counsels, that the confidence early placed in him by the commu- nity and the citizens of the adjoining counties, con- tinued unabated to the end. Although unassuming as to seeking official position, and reluctant to be prominent in public leading, yet when yielding to the urgency of friends, as in the discharge of senatorial duties in our state Legislature, and in giving valuable direction in the establishment and conducting of the State Bank of C-18
and efficiency of Mr. Fletcher ever proved to have been well founded. In one leading trait his course was marked and earnest. No poor man ever applied to Calvin Fletcher in his need, either for counsel or assist- ance, and was sent empty away, and when the friends of the colored man, fleeing from bondage, were few and unpopular in this community, his sympathy and assist- ance were never withheld. Since its organization, for thirty years, Mr. Fletcher has been the faithful secre- tary of the Indianapolis Benevolent Society, loving and working in it, as a channel of reaching the wants of the truly needy of our city. By his being called from this and other kindred labors, his early associates are left, as the crippled soldiers around us are, with a lost arm, for which, for a brief remaining time, a limb in form may be substituted; but the warm hand of vigor is never again to be grasped, nor our broken cherished intercourse renewed until we all gather again in the eternal city. The prudent, excellent judgment, and un- i wearied industry of Mr. Fletcher were crowned with abundant success in his constantly increasing wealth, from his legal pursuits in his early days, which were succeeded by extensive agricultural investments in later times, and with large banking engagements in connec- tion with his efficient and judicious copartner, Thomas H. Sharpe, Esq. In the year 1829 Mr. Fletcher made a profession of Christian faith, uniting with the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, in which he remained a prom- inent, valued, and liberal member during life. His hand, however, was open for the assistance of other evangelical Churches of the growing city, in none of which, it is believed, were his contributions wanting to- ward the erection of their houses of worship and the support of their ministers. This large-heartedness was manifested in his cordial acquiescence in his children uniting with no less than four different evangelical bodies. And of his large family, reared by example and faithful counsel, in earnest diligence and integrity, our lamented friend might justly have repeated the response of the Roman matron to the inquiry for her treasures, when she presented her sons as her jewels."
The Indiana weekly Herald in continuation says :
" As a citizen, he gave his liberal and great influence in behalf of our noble public charities, and as one of the commissioners he assisted in organizing our asylums. His liberal hand contributed to every moral undertak- ing. On retiring from the practice of law, he became a banker, which business he continued till his decease, though all the time extensively engaged in farming. He was president of the Indianapolis branch of the old State Bank. At his death he was the leading member of the wealthy banking-house known as the Indianapolis Banking Company, and sometimes as that of Fletcher & Sharpe."
The character of Mr. Fletcher is thus portrayed by Hon. Oliver H. Smith in his "Early Indiana Trials and Sketches," page 582 :
" He was a remarkable man. He combined all the elements of an effective pioneer in a new country-an iron constitution, clear and vigorous common sense mind, an energy that never slumbered, integrity never questioned, a high conception of morality and religion, social qualities of the first order, a devoted friend to the cause of education, a good lawyer, and a forcible speaker. It was not strange that he should have occu-
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.