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 35

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 35

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).

School, at New Haven, Connecticut. General Carring- ton's second wife was the third daughter of Robert Courtney and Eliza Jane Haynes, of Tennessee; Mr. Courtney having removed from Richmond, Virginia, in 1825. Although a slave-holder he was sure that the system was wrong, and that the nation would never re- alize its highest prosperity until freedom became general. Of peculiar gentleness, combined with firmness in his moral and religious views, he taught and transmitted the precepts which marked his children, when, shortly after his death, the war began. His widow and daugh- ters were thoroughly enlisted in the Union cause. When the first Federal troops, consisting of the first battalion of the 15th United States Infantry, Major John H. King commanding, entered Franklin, Tennes- see, March 16, 1862, it was greeted with an outspoken " Hurrah for the banner whose loveliness hallows the air," by one daughter, Florence Octie, afterwards Mrs. Cochnower. With her sister Fannie she kept up com- munication with the Federal authorities, and after the bat- tle of Franklin, which raged near their house, the mother, two daughters, a young brother, John-now a lawyer at Crawfordsville, Indiana-relieved the Federal wounded, about two hundred in number, who had been removed to the Presbyterian Church; dressed their wounds and took the sole care of them during seventeen days, until the return of the Federal army from Nashville. Gen- eral Thomas made official notice of the unselfish devo- tion of this family, and says of the important intelli- gence communicated by the sister Fannie of the movements of the enemy, " Her information was on all occasions given from patriotic motives, as she has inva- riably refused any pecuniary reward." The Sanitary Commission published her detailed report of the battle of Franklin, and the trying hospital experience; but an emphatic request limits the writer's desire to give full details of an experience which was that of conscien- tious duty, avoiding public display. She married Col- onel G. W. Grummond after the war. Being subse- quently appointed a lieutenant in the 18th United States Infantry, he was a victim of the Phil. Kearney massacre of December 21, 1866. A single extract from Mrs. Carrington's "Experience on the Plains" is not to be omitted. "To a woman whose house and heart received the widow as a sister, and whose office it was to advise her of the facts, the recital of the scenes of that day, even at this late period, is full of pain ; but at that time the Christian fortitude and holy calmness ' with which Mrs. Grummond looked up to her Heavenly Father for wisdom and strength inspired all with something of her own patience to know the worst and meet its issues." The tender association of these two women during such an ordeal, and during a winter's march, when the mercury was sometimes forty degrees below zero, was never in- terrupted. While one accompanied her husband's re-

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[8th Dist.

mains to Tennessee, Mrs. Carrington underwent nearly three more years of frontier exposure, and survived that exposure but a few months after her husband reached Wabash College. In April, 1871, General Carrington married the former companion of his wife's experience on the plains. Their children are : Robert Chase, born January 28, 1872; Henrietta, born April 28, 1874; Eliza Jennie, born April 27, 1875; and Willie Wands, by Mrs. Carrington's first husband, born April 14, 1867, and adopted by General Carrington upon his second marriage. General Carrington retained his voluntary detail at Wabash College until June, 1878; was called to deliver the historical oration at Monmouth, New Jer- sey, when the corner-stone was laid to the Battle Monu- ment, June 28, and since that time has devoted himself to the completion of his other works, already referred to. Thus far he has declined positions tendered as rail- road engineer and professor of history, but has accepted an invitation to complete his paper upon American and European Railway Systems for future delivery in Great Britain.

ARTER, WILLIAM W., attorney-at-law, Brazil, Indiana, was born in Warren County, Ohio, Sep- tember 10, 1836. He is a son of John and Jemima (Patton) Carter, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of Maryland, and of English and Welsh descent. His paternal grandfather was a Revolutionary hero, fighting under General Washington, and his father was for a time engaged as teamster in the second con- test with Great Britain. In October, 1837, his parents moved to Clay County, Indiana, and settled on a farm in Posey Township. The locality at that time was little else than a vast expanse of unoccupied territory. Here, amidst the surroundings of a rural home, began the ca- reer of young Carter, and here he was taught the use of the ax, mattock, and hoe. The only means of scho- lastic training was that afforded by the rude pioneer school-house, wherein the patient pedagogue gave in- struction in the rudiments of the three R's, and wielded the birch with the air of an autocrat. But good use was made of these meager facilities, so that at the age of seventeen Mr. Carter entered the literary department of Asbury University, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he applied himself assiduously to his studies for two years. Hle had now made up his mind that he would qualify himself for the profession of law, and in pursuance of this idea he entered the office of IIon. Harvey D. Scott and R. W. Thompson, of Terre Haute, Indiana-the latter now Secretary of War-and began reading the text- books. This, however, continued but a short time, for, feeling the necessity of better facilities than could be found in an office with active practitioners, whose time was entirely consumed with weighty legal matters, he | New Albany, Indiana, and during the following Sep-

repaired again to the farm for the purpose of augment- ing his exchequer, to enable him to take a course of study in a law school. This he accomplished, and in 1857 entered the Law Department of Asbury Uni- versity, where, in the spring of 1859, he graduated with praiseworthy honors. Immediately after graduation he located in Bowling Green, then the county seat of Clay County, and entered regularly upon the practice of law, and a few months subsequently became associated with D. E. Williamson, of Greencastle, Indiana. From the very outset Mr. Carter demonstrated that his profession was well chosen, for so readily did he adapt himself to its requirements that soon after commencing the practice he had quite a lucrative business, for a young attorney in a community already well stocked with law- yers of older and graver heads, some of whom ranked with the very ablest in the state. He had just become fairly initiated into the intricacies of his chosen pro- fession, when, in his view of the nation's situation, it demanded that he should quit the quiet pursuit of a professional life to take his place among the Union hosts against secession. Nor did he wait to secure an officer's commission as an extra incentive, though worthy of such a distinction. He enlisted as a private in Com- pany D, 7Ist Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and went immediately to the front. The first engagement in which he participated was at Richmond, Kentucky, where the Federal forces were defeated by General E. Kirby Smith, and the 7Ist was captured. It was in this desperate encounter that the brave Major William Conkling was killed. Thus an important va- cancy was to be filled, and a combination of circum- stances pointed to Mr. Carter as the man for the place. After the regiment was paroled they remained in Camp Dick Thompson, at Terre Haute, for some time. In September a satisfactory exchange was effected with the Confederacy, and the regiment was again ready for active service in the field; but a major was lacking for the regiment, and in this connection, on the thirteenth day of December, occurred one of the most remarkable instances of promotion of the whole war-the commis- sioning of Mr. Carter as major, over the heads of all the commissioned and non-commissioned officers of his regi- ment, from private up to the rank of major, some of whom were avowed aspirants for the position. Com- mencing with the January following his promotion to the position as major, his regiment was stationed at In- dianapolis, and chiefly employed in guarding rebel pris- oners until July 1, 1863, and shortly after the 7Ist was recruited, and changed to the 6th Indiana Cavalry. Soon after this it will be remembered that General John Morgan began his daring raid into Indiana and Ohio. The 7Ist went to the state line to intercept his move- ments, and spent some time in guarding property at

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

8th Dist.]

{ember and October the battalion was stationed at Mount Sterling, Kentucky. In November following, it was ordered to Somerset, Kentucky, and in December went to East Tennessee, where it was engaged in some hotly contested skirmishes. About this time the regi- ment suffered great privations and hardships on account of insufficient food and clothing. Its next order was to return to Mount Sterling, Kentucky. From Mount Sterling it was ordered to Camp Nelson, and afterward it constituted a part of General Sherman's command, and soon after crossed over the mountains and joined the main body of the army, near Dalton, Georgia. Major Carter's command remained with General Sherman until his forces reached Atlanta, and then it returned to Dal- ton, and from there to Nashville, Tennessee, where it took part in the battle which occurred soon after reach- ing that city, between the gallant General George H. Thomas and the Confederate General Hood. After this battle it went into camp at Nashville, where it re- mained till March, 1865, and then marched to Pulaski, Tennessee. Soon after-the war being over-all that remained of the old 7Ist Indiana returned to Indiana, giving joy to many weary and anxious ones who had long waited for them, and the men mustered out of the service as veterans. History teems with the conflicts, difficulties, and ever diversified career of the 17th Regi- ment, and of the hardships and privations it passed through, and yet no one has ever said that it shrank from duty or played the coward. The course of Major Carter was ever praiseworthy and commendable. He was courageous, brave, and resolute, and demonstrated great regard for the welfare of his men, by whom he was highly respected and esteemed. After the close of the war Major Carter returned to Bowling Green, and resumed the practice of law. In 1868 he was the choice of the Republican party of his district for Con- gress, making the race against Senator Voorhees, and was only defeated by one hundred and twenty-eight votes in a district which was generally Democratic by some five thousand majority, and which Mr. Voorhees carried in the succeeding campaign, against Moses F. Dunn, by over fourteen hundred majority. In 1868 Major Carter formed a law partnership with Silas D. Coffey, Esq., which still continues in a harmonious and satisfactory manner. In May, 1876, the firm of Carter & Coffey removed to Brazil, now the county seat of Clay, and here they have since resided. In politics Mr. Carter is a uniform and zealous Republican, but never permits his political predilections to be a barrier to personal friendship. In 1878 he was placed at the head of the Republican county ticket for Representative to the state Legislature against his expressed desire, but his county being largely Democratic he was of course defeated. On the sixteenth day of June, 1869, he was married to Miss Lucy E. Campbell, an interesting and |

amiable lady, daughter of John S. and Julia A. Camp- bell, of Bowling Green, Indiana. He is the father of two children, Olive and Howard. As an attorney Major Carter takes rank with the most eminent lawyers in the state. As an advocate he stands at the head of the Brazil bar, and has few, if any, superiors anywhere, and is no less distinguished on the stump. He is a gentleman of high personal honor and integrity, and as a result has the confidence and esteem of all who know him.

OFFEY, SILAS D., of Brazil, Clay County, was born on a farm in Owen County, Indiana, on the 23d of February, 1839. He is a son of Hodge R. and Hannah Coffey-the former a native of Ten- nessee, of Irish descent, and the latter from North Car- olina, and of English extraction. His early education was received at a district school, but in 1860 he entered the State University at Bloomington, where he remained until the beginning of the Rebellion. When that oc- curred he enlisted in the Union service for three months at first, and afterwards for a year. When President Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five thousand soldiers for three years or during the war, his regiment, the 14th Indiana Volunteers, responded, and was so mustered in. He remained on active duty until June, 1863, when he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, serving with it until the time of his enlistment expired the next year. The 14th Indiana won an enviable reputation in the field, and of its members none were more deserving than Mr. Coffey. When he reached home he deter- mined to begin the practice of law, making a partnership for that purpose with Allen T. Rose, then one of the most prominent and influential members of the bar in Bowling Green. After a number of years of arduous exertion, this connection was dissolved by mutual con- sent, in the autumn of 1868, and another one formed by Mr. Coffey, with Major W. W. Carter, which still con- tinues. Two years before this he had been the candi- date for prosecuting attorney for the district composed of the counties of Owen, Greene, Clay, and Putnam, making the race against Hon. John C. Robinson, but the district being largely Democratic he was of course defeated. In 1873 he was a candidate for Circuit Judge in Clay and Putnam Counties, but the same reason operated to prevent his election, although running far in advance of his ticket. His opponent was Judge Solon Turman, of Greencastle. Mr. Coffey is an hon- ored member of the Masons, having joined that fra- ternity years ago. Politically, he is an unflinching Re- publican. He was married, on the Ist of November, 1864, to Miss Caroline L. Byles, daughter of William and Sarah Byles, of Baltimore County, Maryland, his present accomplished lady. He is the father of four

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[8th Dist.

children, one son and three daughters. As an attorney he has attained a high reputation, his knowledge of law and his success in pleading probably placing him above any other member of the Brazil bar. He is a gentleman of fine social qualities, though quiet and unobtrusive, and of the most undoubted integrity. Studious and at- tentive to details, his business is continually growing. His reputation is entirely self-made, as he began life without patrimony or influence. His achievements have been the result of untiring industry and economy, and he is therefore what we frequently read about but seldom see-the "architect of his own fortune."

OMPTON, ISAAC M., of Brazil, Clay County, Indiana, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, March 30, 1832. His parents, Nathan and Jane (Hawkins) Compton, were natives of New Jersey- his father being of English and German ancestry, and his mother of English descent. His father followed the occupation of farming; and when the subject of this sketch was five years of age he moved to Indiana, set- tling in Clay County. Here he remained with his fa- ther, working on the farm through spring-time and har- vest, and attending the common district schools during the winter months, until he attained his eighteenth year, when he engaged in carpentering, his father pur- chasing a set of tools for this purpose. After five years' employment at this occupation Mr. Compton entered the store of D. C. Stunkard, in Brazil, as clerk, re- mained there three years, and then for two years was engaged in the employment of Olds & Brackney. In 1861 Mr. Compton opened a grocery store, which he continued for two years, then selling out to Mr. Stunk- ard. Ile served as township assessor from 1855 to 1857. Having been in 1857 elected a Justice of the Peace of Van Buren Township, he held that office, fulfilling its duties to the entire satisfaction of the community, for eight years. In August, 1862, he volunteered in the service, and was elected by his comrades first lieutenant. The regiment was sent to Kentucky, and was in the battle of Mumfordsville on the 14th of September, 1862. Mr. Compton was taken prisoner, and was released and sent home. He soon after decided upon the study of law as a profession. Devoting several years to prepara- tion, he was admitted to the practice in Clay County in 1866, and entered into partnership with Hon. Milton A. Osborn, of Greencastle. This partnership was dis- solved in 1871. He then continued his profession with Samuel W. Curtis, and from 1874 to 1877 was in part- nership with Charles E. Matson. In 1879 the law firm was composed of himself and Samuel M. McGregor, his present partner. In 1872 the Democracy of his county gave Mr. Compton the nomination for Representative,

without opposition. That, however, being the year of" the Greeley movement, he was defeated. In 1876 he was again nominated for the same position, and was elected to the state Legislature by a majority of three hundred votes. Serving in this capacity to the great benefit of his constituents, he was in 1878 re-elected by three hundred and twenty majority. During the session of 1877 he served on the Committees on Organization of Courts, Rights and Privileges of the Inhabitants of the State, and Railroads, and on Special Committee on Mines and Mining, looking with great zeal after the min- eral interests of his county. He was the author of Comp- ton's Ventilation Bill, No. 66, which, through his ear- nest effort, passed the House without a dissenting vote, but was defeated in the Senate. Mr. Compton then succeeded in inserting a plank in the platform of the Democratic State Convention, in 1878, calling for a ventilation bill. At the session of the Legislature in 1879 he was on the Committees on the Judiciary, Rail- roads and Mileage, and Accounts, and was chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining, acting also on the Joint Committee on Public Buildings. His chief aim during the session of 1879 was to get a mining law passed for the protection of the great interests of the state of Indiana, and in particular of Clay County, and for that purpose he introduced House Bill No. 7, to which he devoted that untiring energy and watchfulness characteristic of the man, until by his efforts it passed the House without a dissenting voice, and in the Senate was passed after great opposition on the part of friends of capitalists and operators. This bill was, without doubt, one of the most useful ones brought before either House, and is calculated to protect not only the mining interests, but the lives and health of the men who go down into the depths of the earth and bring its treasures to light. In 1859 Mr. Compton became a charter mem- ber of Brazil Lodge, No. 264, in the Order of Free and Accepted Masons, and in 1860 of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, being a charter member of Brazil Lodge, No. 215, and he has held high positions in both orders. He has always been a Democrat, though never a bitter partisan. November 3, 1853, he married Miss Mary A. Elkin, daughter of Benjamin F. Elkin, Esq., of Bowling Green, Indiana. With her he lived happily until her death, May 24, 1879. He has two children, now grown-a daughter, Lizzie, and a son, Charlie. The latter is a bright lad of fourteen. The daughter is married to John B. Smead, proprietor of a marble-yard in Brazil. Mr. Compton is esteemed most highly by those who know him best, as an honest and upright citizen, hospi- table, and always interested in charitable enterprises, and who attends carefully to business, both for himself and those who intrust their interests in his hands. For the invaluable service rendered, not only to his own section, but to the state, he is now favorably spoken of

Isaac M. Compton

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

Sth Dist.]

for Congress, and will no doubt be returned to the state Senate if he so desire. Such men as Mr. Compton are those who give a healthy impetus to the wheels of leg- islation, and the men who are demanded by the people as legislators.

OWAN, JOHN M., the subject of this sketch, was born in Indianapolis, December 6, 1821. His parents were John Cowan and Anna ( Maxwell) Cowan, of Scotch-Irish lineage. His father was a native of Virginia, and at an early age accompanied the family to the state of Tennessee, where he spent the first twenty years of his life; afterward removing to Kentucky, and thence to Charlestown, in the then terri- tory of Indiana. Upon the breaking out of the Indian troubles, he volunteered under General William Henry Harrison, accompanying him through the entire cam- paign, and taking part in the battle of Tippecanoe, and serving two years thereafter as a dragoon scout, until the final settlement of hostilities between the Wabash tribes . and the whites. From Charlestown he removed to In- dianapolis, of which city he was among the earliest settlers. In the autumn of 1822 he finally removed to a point two and a half miles south-west of Crawfordsville, and engaged in farming. Young John was early reared to habits of industry and frugality. His father dying when he was about eleven years old, the family estate was dissipated by the unfortunate speculations of an ad- ministrator, leaving the boy and his mother to struggle with adversity as best they were able. He tock a man's burdens while thus yet a child, and uncomplainingly and with more than ordinary fortitude endured the labor, until in course of time fortune yielded the reward of his efforts. He entered the grammar school of Wabash College in 1836, and was graduated from the classical course in 1842, when he received the appointment of a deputy clerk of Clinton County, and removed to Frankfort. There he began the study of law, and in a few years was enabled to attend the Law School of the Indiana University, where he completed his preparatory legal studies, and graduated under the tutorage of Hon. David McDonald, afterward Judge of the District Court of the United States for the state of Indiana. Return- ing to Frankfort, he engaged in the practice of his pro- ULBERTSON, ROBERT H., physician and sur- geon, Brazil, Clay County, Indiana, was born in Bedford, Lawrence County, Indiana, on the twenty- fifth day of October, 1830. He is a son of Joseph and Eliza (Lowrey) Culbertson, natives of Pennsylvania, his father being of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his mother of English descent. At an early day his parents removed from Pennsylvania to Indiana, and located at the present site of the town of Bedford, which then showed little fession, and in 1845 was married to Harriet D. Janney, a descendant of a prominent Virginia family. His law practice, in partnership with Hon. James F. Suit, at Frankfort, became lucrative and absorbing; and his early habits of industry, wedded to an intense love of study, soon gave him an extensive and favorable rep- utation as a lawyer in North-western Indiana, so that in 1858, when he was nominated for the judgeship in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, although his competitor , evidences of civilized life. After a settlement was

was an experienced and able jurist, and the political complexion of the circuit was adverse, he was elected by a large majority. His duties for the six years ensu- ing were most laborious and exacting, and a proper criterion of the merit he earned by a faithful, intelli- gent, and honest discharge of the judicial functions is found in the fact that, at the expiration of the term for which he was elected, he was unanimously renominated by the party with which he affiliated, and was re-elected, without any real opposition from the other party, for another term of six years. Having completed his la- bors upon the bench in 1870, he returned to the prac- tice of law at Crawfordsville, where he had removed with his family in 1864. Here he formed a partnership with Hon. Thomas M. Patterson, now member of Con- gress from Colorado, and at the end of a prosperous connection of two years he became a partner in the firm of Cowan, White & Cowan, composed of Hon. M. D. White, now member of Congress from the Eighth Con- gressional District of Indiana, and his second son, James E. Cowan. After nearly three years' labor in this latter firm, he permanently retired from the active practice of his well-loved profession, and became connected with the First National Bank of Crawfordsville as legal director, where he yet remains engaged, displaying that constant zeal, peculiar business tact, and unswerving in- tegrity that have so especially characterized his long and busy life. Like his ancestry, he and his family are adherents of the Presbyterian faith. Three sons and one daughter have been born to them, all living and grown to manhood and womanhood. In person Judge Cowan is of slight build, nervous, active, with a modestly dig- nified air and a frank, open countenance, that displays the leading qualities of the man. He is not a politi- cian, yet holds strong convictions as to true political duties, and upon all those questions of morality which more or less enter into politics. He is invariably on the right side, while at the same time native modesty and a kind of diffidence prevent his becoming a champion, in the popular sense of the word. Hle is a man who strongly attracts the best elements in a community, and when he makes friends they are for a life-time.

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

A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume II, Part 35

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