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 37
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
LSTON, COLONEL ISAAC C., banker, Craw- fordsville, Indiana, second son of Major Isaac C. Elston, was born in Crawfordsville February 5, & 1836. He was educated in the village schools and at Wabash College, and in 1852 was employed for some time in a store, when a spirit of adventure seized him, and, in company with others, he went across the plains to the Eldorado of the Pacific, with ox and mule teams, a journey which occupied four months, from the time of leaving the settlements on the Missouri River until the party reached California. Ill-health compelled his re- turn in a few months, coming back by the Isthmus route. In 1855-56 he attended the University at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and studied the modern languages un- der the celebrated teacher Professor Fasquelle. Return- ing home, he became one of the firm of Lee, Gilkey & Co., in the grain trade. In 1860, on the election of Hon. Henry S. Lane as Governor and United States Senator, Mr. Elston took his place in the Elston Bank, from that time until now conducted under the style of Elston & Son. But the Rebellion came, and Mr. Elston responded to the first call for troops by enlisting a com- pany after organization known as Company I, 11th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Elston was elected second lieutenant, and Lew Wallace, afterwards major- general, was chosen captain. The latter was appointed colonel, and Lieutenant Elston succeeded to his place as captain. The regiment spent the three months of its enlistment principally in guarding the Baltimore and several skirmishes, and returned home only to re-enlist in the three years' service. Captain Elston's company was made up of excellent material, and during the war furnished a major-general, besides a number of regi- mental and company officers. Thirty-seven students of Wabash College left their books to enlist with him. The regiment, now reorganized, was ordered to Paducah, where Captain Elston was promoted to major. Then followed that brilliant series of engagements at Forts Donelson and Henry, and at Shiloh, in all of which his command participated. Major Elston was now appointed | day was considered a large fortune. With wealth far in
6. Gilbert
15
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
8th Dist.]
excess of that possessed by any of his fellow-citizens, he used it for the development of the material interests of his county and state. He erected the Rock River Mills, afterwards purchased by Messrs. Collins & Sperry, and now owned by the latter. He was the first president of the Crawfordsville and Wabash Railroad, since merged into and consolidated with the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad. The first-named thoroughfare was emphatically his work, due to his energetic and persistent efforts. He remained one of the directors of the consolidated road as long as he chose to retain the position. Major Elston was a prominent member of and liberal contributor to the Methodist Church for forty years. Diligent in business, prompt to meet engage- ments, he was no miser of his time, but devoted much of it to relaxation, and lived to enjoy a genial and hearty old age, surrounded by children who loved and neigh- bors who respected him. Colonel Isaac C. Elston, the immediate subject of this sketch, is now the president of the bank of which his father was the founder, and for years the principal manager. Of medium height, and what is termed trim built, he has the bearing of a gentleman and a man of business combined. A stranger would think him reserved and reticent, but he is easily approached, and is genial in conversation. He is pop- ular with the masses, takes an abiding interest in all matters of local importance, is a useful citizen, and fully deserving of the respect in which he is held. He and his family attend religious service at the Presbyterian Church, and enter heartily into whatever pertains to the moral advancement of the community in which they have made their home.
his home. In 1830, less than two years after becoming a resident, he was appointed assessor for the county, and made the last assessment under the old law, township officers afterwards performing that duty. Mr. Ensmin- ger while assessing visited and inspected in person every section of land in the county. He next served as treasurer of Montgomery County for one year. In 1833 he was appointed deputy sheriff, after which service he again resumed his usual business pursuits. In 1877 Mr. Ensminger retired from active life, and now, at fourscore, appears twenty years younger than he really is. Too old to take part in the late war, his own military record is confined to a lieutenant-colonel's and adjutant's duty in the militia. Mr. Ensminger lost his first wife No- vember 5, 1839. She left three sons and two daughters. September 17, 1840, he married Mrs. Jane K. Canine, who died in 1873, leaving two sons and two daughters. William Ensminger, the oldest son, is a celebrated teacher ; Horace P. is the present city marshal of Craw- fordsville; Benjamin B. enlisted in the 120th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was killed near Petersburg, Virginia. Doctor S. L. Ensminger, who was also in the service and wounded at the battle of Cedar Creek, now resides in Crawfordsville. The eldest daughter, Eliza- beth M., married James HI. Crane, now a farmer in Cass County, Indiana; Sophronia Ann married Jones Rountree, son of a pioneer farmer of the county ; Ellen Jane married Richard Canine, descended from one of the most honored and respected families in the state; and Catherine Frances, the youngest of the daughters, married Abner Hetfield, of Fountain County. Mr. Ensminger has been a consistent Christian for nearly threescore years, and is at present a member of the Second Presbyterian (Center) Church. He attributes his present health and strength, at such an advanced age, to the fact that he has never contaminated his blood with strong drink and tobacco, that he has paid strict attention to the laws of health, worked hard, lived on plain but wholesome food, and has striven to keep a conscience void of offense toward God and man. He has been an affectionate husband and a kind parent, and has lived to see his children's children rise up and call him honored. He has won and deserves the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens.
NSMINGER, JOSEPH, of Crawfordsville, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Septem- ber 14, 1798. His grandfather came from Ger- many in middle life. He was the son of Michael and Elizabeth (Soyer) Ensminger. While Joseph was yet an infant his father removed to Harrisburg, Pennsyl- vania, and died there some twenty years after. With a life of toil before him, having but a limited education, he learned the trade of brick-layer and plasterer. In 18IS he married Miss Jane Frazier, the daughter of a Penn- sylvania farmer, a lady of more than ordinary intelligence. After working at his trade in Harrisburg for two years he removed to Butler County, Ohio, and engaged in ILBERT, CURTIS, late of Terre Haute, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, June 8, 1795, and died at Manatee, Florida, October 28, 1877, in his eighty-third year. He was a member of a family noted for longevity : his grandfather, Ebenezer Gilbert, reached the age of eighty-one ; Hannah, sister of Ebenezer, died at eighty-five; his father, Benjamin, died May 11, farming for seven years. Thence he removed to Mont- gomery County, Indiana, November 29, 1828, and opened up a timbered farm six miles from Crawfordsville, on which he remained for the next quarter of a century; rearing and educating his children, and adding to the clevelopment and prosperity of his county and state. Removing to Crawfordsville, he has since made the place | 1846, aged eighty-six; an uncle, Ebenezer, was in his
16
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
[8th Dist.
seventy-eighth year at his death, January 16, 1833; two aunts, Hannah Deming, mother of Judge Demas Dem- ing, and Sarah Gilbert, reached the ages of cighty-one and eighty, respectively. Of his immediate family, two brothers, Timothy and Orrin, lived to the respective ages of eighty and seventy-three, and a sister, Mary, died at the age of seventy-five. His early education was ac- quired in his native town, where he was a diligent stu- dent in the high school. At the early age of seventeen he was examined and approved as a teacher, and taught school at Middletown for one term. But the Western fever was even then prevalent, and on the 31st of Oc- tober, 1813, he left home, to seek his fortune towards the setting sun. Railroads were an unknown luxury in those days, and, after several stages by river and land, he arrived at Philadelphia, whence a stage ran to Pittsburgh. The condition of his purse forbade him the luxury of a ride. So he shipped his trunk to that point by stage, and set out to make the journey on foot, accomplishing it in eleven days, and arriving nine days ahead of his trunk. After various adventures and hard- ships of travel incident to that time, when only two steamboats, the "Walk-in-the-Water " and the "Ætna," plied upon Western waters, he arrived at Springfield, Ohio, where he found Colonel William Wells. To him he handed a letter of introduction from an old friend at Middletown, which secured him a firm friend and coun- selor. On his advice, Mr. Gilbert sought employment at Newark and Granville, but, failing to secure it, re- turned to Springfield and taught school for a short time, when, through Colonel Wells, he obtained a position in the store of the Brothers Walpole, at Zanesville, remain- ing in their employ until July, 1814. Leaving Zanes- ville in a pirogue, he landed at Marietta, where he ac- cepted an offer to convey a Mr. Robinson's horse to Cincinnati, then a city of only twenty-five hundred in- habitants. The horse delivered, he found business dull, and started "down the river" on a flat-boat to New Orleans, where he remained with an uncle about two months. At that time a panic was induced by the threatening approach of the British, and he went to Louisville by boat, thence on foot to Cincinnati, where he obtained a position in the store of Bailey, Green & Bailey. The firm soon decided on establishing a branch store at Post Vincennes, and Mr. Gilbert was selected to take charge there. Soon afterwards a branch at Fort Harrison was determined on, and Mr. Gilbert, with one of the firm, James B. McCall, arrived there December 20, 1815. July 5, 1816, he formed a copart- nership with Mr. N. B. Bailey, of Vincennes,, Mr. Gil- bert taking charge at Fort Harrison. During that sum- mer he established a trading post near the mouth of Vermilion River, receiving his license to trade from Governor Posey. An outbreak among the Indians caused him to return to Fort Harrison ; and, on the ex-
piration of his partnership with Mr. Bailey, January 14, 1817, he engaged in business with Andrew Brooks, this partnership lasting until he was elected clerk and re- corder of Vigo County. Mr. Gilbert was appointed postmaster at Fort Harrison December 4, 1817, and con- tinued in that office until it was discontinued, October 26, 1818, and the post-office transferred to Terre Haute. In 1818 he erected the first frame building in Terre Haute, then only a collection of a few log-cabins, and this building was used for a post-office. The same year he was elected first clerk and recorder of Vigo County. February 12, 1819, he was appointed judge-advocate of the odd battalion in the first brigade of Indiana militia, by Major Robert Sturges. In 1821 he lost his wife and only child, and two years later he paid a visit to his native town. In 1824 he was re-elected clerk and re- corder for the term of seven years, and elected for the third time in 1832. He was chosen a member of the board of trustees of the public library of Vigo County, September 6, 1824. In 1834 he took an active part in the organization of the Branch Bank, and was elected one of the directors. He also took a prominent part in procuring an act of the Legislature for the drainage of Lost Creek, which passed January 21, 1837, and was an act of incalculable benefit to the sanitary condition of the vicinity. Terre Haute was incorporated into a town in 1838; and at the first election for members of the common council Mr. Gilbert was chosen to the council, and soon after was appointed president pro tem. The following year the office of mayor was abolished, and the board of common council was empowered to elect a president, upon whom should devolve all the duties of mayor. To this position he was elected April 4, 1839, and was thus the first mayor of Terre Haute, although, on account of ill-health, he resigned the fol- lowing September. In 1839 he declined a re-election to the office of clerk, and turned his attention to agricul- tural pursuits, on a farm which he lived to see laid out into town lots, now part of the beautiful " Prairie City." During his twenty-one years of clerkship he served the people faithfully, and received universal commendation. In 1845 he was elected president of the Terre Haute Branch of the State Bank. When he assumed its management its financial credit was at a very low ebb; but by the most astonishing energy and perseverance, combined with re- markable financial skill, he succeeded in reviving its business. He resigned his position, December 4, 1849, and was re-elected November 5, 1850, serving until June 22, 1853. At the expiration of the charter he was elected president to wind up its affairs, which he did with rare ability and success, receiving the grateful acknowledgments of all interested. A new branch of the Bank of the State was organized, of which he was elected director, and this ended his official life. For six years preceding his death, Mr. Gilbert spent the
J. Blooking
17
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
8th Dist.]
winter months in Florida, where he died, as stated at OOKINS, SAMUEL BARNES, of Terre Haute. The New England Genealogical Register traces the genealogy of the Gookins family from the C days of King John, and the American branch of it from the original emigrant, who was contemporary with Captain Smith. Daniel Gookin (as the name was then written) came to Newport News in the year 1620. He brought with him fifty men, and established a colonial settlement at that point. Captain Smith seems to have thought that this settler had a will of his own. During the Indian troubles which resulted in the captain's capture, and his release through the intervention of Pocahontas, an order was issued requiring the settlers to abandon their settlement and retire to Jamestown. Cap- tain Smith says that " Gookin, at Newport News, having fifty men of his own, refused that order, and made good his standing against the savages." Newport News had been almost forgotten until its fame as a military point was revived during the late war. In the days of the con- monwealth under Cromwell, the Puritans of New England sent their missionaries to the chivalry of Virginia, and a son of the original emigrant, bearing his name, became a convert to the Puritan faith. On the restoration of Charles II, the General Assembly of Virginia passed a law expelling all nonconformists from the province. The Puritan convert left, and went to Boston, of which he became a permanent resident, and there remained during his life, in the course of which he rendered im- portant public services as speaker of the General Court the beginning of this sketch. Such is the brief, unsatis- factory record of a man identified during his life-time with all the best interests of his city and county, and wielding an influence for good still felt in the commu- nity in which he lived. Every duty was performed with fidelity and integrity. No stain or blemish ever rested upon his private or official character. To use the words of one who knew him well, " He was equal to all emergencies of life, even to parting with it." No prouder epitaph could adorn his tomb. No one can question his title to a high rank among Indiana's rep- resentative men. There are no surviving children of his first wife, Catherine Allen. They were married Sep- tember 5, 1819, and she died February 6, 1821. His second wife, Mary C. King, to whom he was married November 26, 1834, was a native of Canandaigua, New York, and at the time of her union was residing in the city of Terre Haute, with her brother, A. C. King, Esq. She died, October 20, 1858, surrounded by a loving family. There are surviving seven children, all of whom, with one exception, are still residents of Vigo County, whose names are well known in the commu- nity. The eldest son, Joseph Gilbert, resides near the city of Terre Haute, and devotes his attention to horti- culture and farming. He has been for several years a member of the state board of horticulture, and twice its president. He for several years took an active interest in the politics of his county, having been for some time chairman of the Democratic county committee. He or Assembly, commander of the army, and as assistant was elected to the Indiana state Legislature from 1874 of Eliot in his labors for the civilization and christian- to 1876. In the latter year he retired from active pol- izing of the Indians. He was the father of the New itics, but takes a deep interest in all public matters re- lating to the welfare of the county and city, being a moving spirit in all enterprises for the general good. He is now a trustee of the state normal school, and is a citizen that the county may well be proud of. The oldest daughter of Mr. Gilbert is the wife of Mr. John S. Beach, of Terre Haute, president and owner of the Prairie City Bank, of that city. Another daughter is Mrs. Joseph H. Blake, also a resident of Vigo County ; and a third is Mrs. W. S. Warner, who lives with her husband and family at Manatee, Florida. It was at her residence that Mr. Gilbert died. The remaining daugh- ter is Miss Martha Gilbert, a young lady who resides in Terre Haute with her oldest sister, Mrs. John S. Beach. Edward and Henry C. Gilbert are the youngest sons ! and remaining members of Mr. Gilbert's family. They live on the site of the old homestead, in Terre Haute, and are associated in business as officers of the large establishment known as the " Phoenix Foundry and Ma- chine-works." They are well-known as active, enter- prising, and industrious young business men. Besides the above children of Mr. Gilbert, at the present time (1880) there are fourteen grandchildren. England branch of the family. Among his descendants was William Gookins, father of the subject of this sketch. Samuel Barnes Gookins was born at Rupert, Bennington County, Vermont, May 30, 1809. He was the youngest of ten children of William and Rhoda Gookins. In 1812 the family, excepting the two oldest children - daughters, who had married and settled in Vermont-emigrated to New York and took up their abode in the town of Rodman, Jefferson County. The father died two years after, leaving the mother and her eight children dependent solely upon a good and merciful Providence and their own exertions to make their way in the world. May 5, 1823, the i mother, an elder brother of twenty-three, and Samuel B. set out for the West. Prior to that time the route of westward emigration had been by wagon across New York and Pennsylvania to the tributaries of the Ohio, thence by boat down that river, and sometimes up the Wabash. By the treaty of 1821 between the United States and the Miamis, Kickapoos, and Potawat- tomies occupying the northern portion of Indiana, the Indian title to most of that territory was ceded to the general government. Immediately after this cession at-
D-2
-
18
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.
[ 8th Dist.
tention was directed to what had been called the north- [ ful effort was made to convince the young man that he ern route. This course was taken by the party in ques- tion. They took passage at Sackett's Harbor on the "On- tario," the second steamboat that navigated the waters of Lake Ontario, and landed at Lewiston; thence around Niagara Falls by wagon; thence to Buffalo by open boat, to Detroit by schooner; to Fort Meigs, at the head of Maumee Bay, by another schooner; to Fort Wayne by canoe, across the Portage, drawing their canoe by oxen to Little River; down that river to the Wabash, and down the Wabash to Fort Harrison and Terre Haute; making the trip in the remarkably short space, for those times, of six weeks and two days, a great improvement upon the old route by way of the Ohio River, by which, if the emigrant made his way within three months, he was fortunate. Northern Indiana was then still occupied by the Indians, but they were friendly and gave the emigrants no trouble, visiting their camps at every opportunity to exchange their wild game for bread, or any thing the emigrants had to spare. The emigrants located on Fort Harrison Prairie, about two miles from Terre Haute, whither other members of the family had three years before preceded them. In January, 1825, the mother died and the family was broken up. Samuel B. lived for a time in the family of Captain Daniel Stringham, father of the late Commodore Horton Stringham, of the United States navy; after- wards in the families of a married sister and elder brother. In July, 1826, he apprenticed himself to the late John W. Osborn, editor and publisher of the Western Register, the first newspaper that was published at Terre Haute. At the end of four years, having fin- ished his apprenticeship, he went to Vincennes and, assisted by the late John B. Dillon, brought out the Vincennes Gazette, under the proprietorship of Samuel Hill. One year later he returned to Terre Haute, took the position of editor of the Western Register, and con- tinued in that occupation until June, 1832, when the Register office was purchased by Thomas Dowling, who established the Wabash Courier as its successor. Having in view the profession of journalist, Mr. Gookins made arrangements for pursuing his avocation in Washington City, and had gone so far as to pack his trunk, and was ready to depart for his new field of labor. He had for several years been on very intimate terms with Hon. Amory Kinney, a lawyer of high standing, then Judge of the Circuit Court. He had often endeavored to con- vince the young printer and journalist that he was fitted for the legal profession, but hitherto without success. Returning home from his circuit on a Saturday evening, and learning of the preparations made for the departure for Washington on the following Monday, and aware also of another fact, viz., that a matrimonial engage- ment existed between him and his present wife, daugh- ter of John W. Osborn, another and this time a success-
was predestinated to be a lawyer; the consequence of which was that on the next Monday, instead of depart- ing for Washington, he entered the office of Judge Kinney and sat down to the study of Blackstone's Com- mentaries. Regretting the lack of a classical education, which he had had neither the means nor the opportu- nity of acquiring, he consoled himself with the fact, which he learned from his instructor, that a Cady had from the shoemaker's bench attained eminence in the legal profession, with other similar examples-to which, had they sooner occurred, might have been added those of Lincoln from the farm, and Johnson from the. tailor's bench. He remembered too the opinion of the model of his life in his former occupation, Doctor Franklin, upon the inexpediency of wasting so large a portion of one's life in the acquisition of a multiplicity of languages, when one, he thought, would serve for all practical pur- poses ; and, upon these considerations, in which the en- gagement already mentioned cut no small figure, he decided to make the venture, upon the capital invested in an English education considerably above the average, acquired in the country schools, which had been very materially improved and developed by his work at the printer's case and the editor's table, than which, if rightly improved, there is no better school. But, young man, do not take this as an example. If you have the opportunity for a collegiate course, avail yourself of it by all means. Admitted to the bar of the Vigo Circuit Court in 1834, and to that of the Supreme Court in 1836, when he gained his first case in that court (4 Black- ford, 260), he pursued his chosen avocation until 1850. Residing at Terre Haute, his practice included a large circuit of courts in Indiana and Illinois. In 1850 the Hon. John Law, then Judge of the circuit including Vincennes and Terre Haute, retired from the bench, and Mr. Gookins was appointed by Governor Joseph A. Wright, of opposite politics, to fill the vacancy. Just twenty years after he went to Vineennes to aid in estab- lishing the Vincennes Gazette, he went to the same place to hold his first term as Judge of the Circuit Court. The Legislature at the next session did not approve of the course of Governor Wright, and chose one of their own political sentiments instead. In 1851, a new Con- stitution having been adopted, making very radical changes in our judicial system, and requiring the enact- ing of a civil code, Mr. Gookins was induced to repre- sent Vigo County in the Legislature, the chief object of which was to aid in that work. It was the "long ses- sion," extending from December, 1851 (with forty days' recess for committee work), to June, 1852, during which time a code was enacted which has formed the basis of our judicial system from that time to the present. . Mr. Gookins served on several committees, the most impor- tant of which was that for the Organizations of Courts.
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.