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 52

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 52

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young he developed a fondness for study, which, added | sition, restive under restraint, and eager to see with his to a remarkable power of application and facility in the acquisition of knowledge, gave promise of a career of eminent usefulness. In the choice of a profession he decided upon that of medicine, and at the age of nine- teen entered upon its study under the direction of Doctor N. C. Powers, of Syracuse. At the end of two years he began a course of lectures at Geneva, New York, at which place was located the oldest and one of the best colleges of that day. The following year he attended a second course of lectures, at Buffalo, but returned to Geneva to graduate in the summer of 1850. Locating at Oswego as a full-fledged M. D., the young disciple of Galen began working up a practice. It is a notorious and a discouraging fact that most young phy- sicians struggle on for years, perhaps even until middle age overtakes them, before their ability, seconded by never so much perseverance, receives its substantial recognition from a distrustful public. It is by excep- tions, however, that certain rules are proved, and Doctor Powers was the exception in this case. His practice from the beginning was both large and lucrative. Here he resided six years, when failing health compelled him, by seeking a more desirable climate, to abandon the splendid practice he had meanwhile gained. He accordingly started West, stopping at a number of places on the way, until he finally reached Lafayette. He found the climate exactly suited to his infirmity, and in a few months was completely restored to health. He opened an office, identified himself with the place, and has continued ever since to reside there. The result of his labors has been the accumulation of a handsome competency, and the reputation of being one of the best practitioners in Central Indiana. He was married, in June, 1862, to Miss Martha M. Tascott. They have three children-Charles Franklin, Margaret Maud, and Robert E.

EIRCE, MARTIN L., president of the First Na- tional Bank of Lafayette, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in June, 1806. He is a de- scendant of that family of Peirces who located at Kittery, Maine, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago. His father, Doctor Nathaniel S. Peirce, was born in the latter place during the last years of the Revolution. While yet a young man of twenty-three, he edited and published the New Hampshire Gazette, at Portsmouth, for several years. This paper, then in the fiftieth year of its existence, is now the oldest newspaper published in the United States. At the age of fifteen Martin L. Peirce, the immediate subject of this sketch, entered the counting-room of C. & C. W. Peirce, commission mer- chants of Philadelphia, where he remained until 1828. He was now twenty-two years old ; adventurous in dispo-

own eyes that great world of which as yet he knew so little, save through the medium of books. In company with three friends, all young men, he started for the West, intending to take a small boat at Pittsburgh and descend the Ohio to the Wabash, cross over to the head-waters of the Illinois River, down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and thence to Philadelphia by sailing vessel. While on the way Mr. Peirce was taken sick with bilious fever, and, at Montezuma, Indiana, aban- doned the trip. He remained there until the following spring, when he engaged as deck-hand on a flat-boat bound for New Orleans. Returning to Montezuma, after an absence of four months, he remained there until the spring of 1835, when he removed to Coles County, Illinois, with three other families, where they founded a settlement. Here he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, intending to make farming and stock- raising his life work. But man proposes and God dis- poses. Scarce a year had elapsed when the land specu- lators came in and entered, from the United States, all the choice tracts of prairie and timber for some miles on the river. This unlooked for termination broke up the intended settlement, and, selling his land and im- provements for a trifling sum, Mr. Peirce sadly returned to Indiana. He located in Lafayette, and after four years' residence in that place was elected sheriff of Tip- pecanoe County. A re-election followed in 1842; when he refused, subsequently, two nominations of his party, for the offices of county treasurer and county clerk, pre- ferring to enter commercial business, as a more remuner- ative and independent occupation. Under the firm name of Hanna, Barbee & Peirce, a grain and commis- sion business was successfully prosecuted, under Mr. Peirce's direction as acting partner, for the seven years ensuing. In 1854 he embarked in the banking business in the firm of Spears, Peirce & Co., under the name of the Commercial Bank of Lafayette, and continued in that connection until the beginning of the war, when, with others, he took a charter from the United States, and established the First National Bank of Lafayette. He was immediately elected president, which position he still fills. Like all men of broad and comprehensive views, Mr. Peirce considers free schools the bulwark of American civilization. He is an advocate of universal education, and is a zealous adherent of the cause; has served as a trustee of Franklin College, Chicago Uni- versity, and Purdue University, of which latter he is now treasurer. He united with the First Baptist Church of Lafayette in 1843, and has always been active in promoting its spiritual and material welfare. The life of Martin L. Peirce, to which scanty justice can be done in so brief a memoir, shows him the possessor of those elements of character which have been the distinguishing features of our most prominent men. A

Mix Peirec

Willow & Robinson.

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self-made man in all that the term implies, he has lived to see himself honored, wealthy, and respected-a power for good in the community where he resides. He was married, January 7, 1850, to Emma L. Com- stock, of Hartford, Connecticut. Four children were born to them, two of whom survive. Lizzie is the wife of Mr. Fred. W. Ward, of Lafayette; and Charles is a member of the firm of Reynolds & Peirce, publishers, of Lafayette. On the occasion of the thirtieth anniver- sary of their marriage, which occurred on the evening of January 7, 1880, a large number of their friends as- sembled at Mr. Peirce's residence to tender their con- gratulations and partake of the generous hospitality of the host and hostess. Fully two hundred and fifty were present, comprising the very best portion of La- fayette society. A feature of the evening was the reading of a poem written for the occasion by Rev. Mr. Blackburn, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lafay- ette, of which Mr. Peirce has so long been a consistent member. Mr. Peirce was made a Mason in 1840. In 1867 he visited the Paris Exposition, as a representative of the Scottish Rite Masons of the United States, and attended the banquet given by the Grand Orient of Paris, where eleven hundred delegates, representing every civilized country in the world, sat down to din- ner. During his absence he visited Germany, Switzer- land, England, Ireland, Scotland, and France.

OBINSON, COLONEL MILTON S., of Ander- son, member of Congress from the Sixth District, composed of the counties of Delaware, Grant, Hancock, Henry, Johnson, Shelby, and Madison, was born in Versailles, Ripley County, Indiana, April 20, 1832. His grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution. His father, Colonel Joseph Robinson, was a native of Tennessee, and of Scotch descent. He removed to this state about the year 1825, and settled in Ripley County, after which he removed to Greensburg, Decatur County. He was a lawyer by profession, and represented both counties in the Senate and House of Representatives ; was a Whig candidate for Congress; and was a member of the convention to amend and revise the Constitution of Indiana, in 1851. He was a lawyer of acknowledged ability, and a speaker of great power. He died in 1854, in Greensburg, Decatur County. Margaret (Jarvis) Rob- inson, his wife, was born in Kentucky. She was a cul- tivated lady, well educated, an exemplary Christian, and a philanthropist in the true sense of the word. She also died at Greensburg, Decatur County, in 1842. Milton received, in the schools of Ripley and Decatur Counties, thorough instruction in the common English branches, and at the age of seventeen began reading law in the office of his father at Greensburg. His

preparation for the law was not hasty and superficial. He studied diligently three years, passed a very credit- able examination, and was, in June, 1851, licensed and admitted to practice in the Circuit Court. In 1853 he was admitted also to the Supreme Court of the state, and after that in the United States Circuit Court. Without waiting for his majority, he commenced his labors, locating in Anderson in November, 1851, where he has since resided, rapidly building up a large pro- fessional business. In 1861 Mr. Robinson was elected by the Legislature a director of the Northern Indiana State-prison, but after a brief term of service he re- signed to enter the army, in September of that year, as lieutenant-colonel of the 47th Indiana Regiment, having previously declined the commission of colonel offered him by the Governor. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the 47th Regiment for over a year, in the Armies of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee; and in the fall of 1862, while in the field with his command, and without his knowledge or solicitation, he was complimented by promotion to the colonelcy of the 75th Indiana Infantry, being transferred to the Fourteenth Army Corps, under General George H. Thomas, in the Army of the Cumberland, at that time pursuing Bragg in his retreat out of Kentucky. During the first year of his service, the vast left wing of the Rebellion rested on the Mississippi River; its bluffs and islands frowned with hostile cannon; but the Fa- ther of Waters must "roll unvexed to the sea," and Colonel Robinson's regiment was a part of the army to which this mighty task of opening the river was as- signed. Hence he took part with distinguished gallan- try in all the contests by which communication was opened to Vicksburg, including the capture of Island No. 10 and of Memphis. Then, in the Fourteenth Army Corps, in the Army of the Cumberland, he participated in the battles of Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, and other actions in Georgia in which that corps engaged, and for "gallant and meritorious" conduct i was breveted, March 25, 1865, brigadier-general, an un- sought recognition. As his principal service, however, had been with the rank of colonel, he prefers that title, if titles at all should be observed in civil life in this country. Colonel Robinson served through most of the war. At its near close, on account of his failing health, as well as that of his wife, and a sad bereavement at home, he felt it his duty to relinquish his position. He accordingly resigned and returned home, and, after one year devoted to the restoration of his health, he resumed the law; and, although he had been four years out of practice, in a brief time he was again the recipient of a lucrative business. Colonel Robinson was trained to love liberty and hate slavery; and hence, when the Re- publican party was organized in 1856, true to his con- victions, he became an ardent and zealous member of

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it, and remains so to this day. He has taken a prom- inent part in politics, as a public speaker and otherwise, for over twenty years, and at the first presidential elec- tion in the history of the Republican party he was one of the college of electors. From 1866 to 1870 he rep- resented his district in the state Senate, in which posi- tion he took a prominent and active part, serving on the important committees of that body. In 1874 he was elected to Congress from the Sixth District, and was re-elected in 1876, after having been unanimously renominated. He has been a delegate to national con- ventions of the Republican party ; many of its state, congressional, district, and county conventions; has done much effective work as a public speaker; and has served the party in every honorable way that seemed essential to its discipline and success. Colonel Robin- son has contributed considerable time to the interest of public improvements. He was one of the originators of the Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railroad, and was for a time one of its directors. He has given largely toward the building of churches and other public edifices. He was married, July 8, 1856, to Miss Almira F. Ballard, daughter of Gordon Ballard, Esq., an hon- ored and influential citizen of Henry County. She died in March, 1865, and he was again married, June 27, 1866, to Louise A. Branham, of Columbus, Indiana, his present wife, daughter of William Branham, formerly a merchant of that place, and now deceased. Colonel Robinson entered into public life at the early age of twenty-four, and his career, both civil and military, has been one of close application, unceasing activity, and eminent usefulness. He is an able lawyer, both in ad- vocacy and counsel, is a safe and conscientious adviser, and, as a Congressman, faithfully and ably represents his constituents. A man of sobriety, refinement, strict integrity, and general culture, of mental power and acu- men, and possessing, withal, much executive talent, he exerts a marked and worthy influence in all his rela- tions, and is greatly respected throughout the wide extent of his acquaintance.

MITH, REV. JOHN L., D. D., of Thorntown, Boone County, was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, May 24, 1811. Hle is the oldest son of Bowlin and Lovewell (Owens) Smith. His father was a prominent farmer of Greene County, Ohio, and fought in the War of 1812. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. The family are distantly related to that of General Washington. John 1 .. Smith was educated in the public schools and in the grammar school of Mecklenburg, in his native state, up to his sixteenth year. In 1826 his father moved to Ohio and settled on a farm in Greene County,

in clearing which he was assisted by his son. În 1832 John L. determined to strike out into the world for himself, and for some time applied himself to the study of medicine. He had become an active Christian in 1827, and after two years spent in medical studies he became convinced that he was called to preach the gos- pel, and with this end in view he commenced to study theology. In 1837 he began to preach, and from that time to the present he has been actively engaged in ministerial work in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His first labors were in Ohio, but in 1840 he moved to Indiana and became a member of the old Indiana Con- ference. In 1848 he was appointed presiding elder of the Lafayette District, and the same year was elected trustee of Indiana Asbury University, serving in that position for thirty consecutive years. For only eight years was he stationed as a pastor, the rest of the time being taken up with traveling in the district. He served as the agent of the college also for several years. In 1860 he was elected a member of the book committee, and again in 1876. Having served nearly eight years, he is now, and has been for nearly four years, chairman of that committee. He served for four years from 1856 to 1860 as a member of the general missionary committee. He was a member of the General Conference held in Boston in 1852, and has been a member of five General Conferences. Doctor Smith has always been a zealous and active worker in the cause of education. He was prominently identified with the founding and sustenance of the Thorntown Academy, the Stockwell Collegiate Institute, and the Valparaiso Male and Female College, all of which met with much success, and still exist under the new titles. He has been a highly efficient worker in raising money for the building and sustaining of Churches, and his name will long be remembered by many now prosperous societies in connection with their early struggles. In 1860 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Indiana State University. In 1862 he was appointed United States collector of internal revenue for the Eighth District of Indiana by President Lincoln, holding this position until 1866, when he resigned. In 1879 he was appointed postmaster of Thorntown. In addition to his labors in the Church, Doctor Smith has always been actively identified with the promotion of the interests of the town in which he has resided, and on account of his popularity has fre- quently been mentioned for political honors. He was a Whig until the inception of the Republican party, since which time he has acted with the latter. In 1852 he was tendered the nomination to Congress by the Whig party, but declined. In 1855 he was nominated super- intendent of public instruction, but refused to make the canvass. In 1878 he was a candidate for Congress be- fore the Republican convention, and lacked only a few votes of receiving the nomination. In May, 1832, Mr.

E. G. Staley

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Smith married Miss Elizabeth L. Wright, who died February 9, 1870. In December, 1840, he married Louisa J. Kline, by whom he had two sons, now living, and three daughters. She died October 24, 1874, and in November, 1875, he married Eleanor L., widow of Rev. William F. Wheeler. She still survives. Mr. Smith's oldest son, Garland A., is interested in the mines in Colorado. His son James W. is a farmer and school-teacher in Norton County, Kansas. Elizabeth L. is now Mrs. Ira F. Dollarhide, wife of a Kansas farmer. Laura L. is the wife of Rev. Isaac Dale, of Indiana. Flora A. is now Mrs. W. R. Oglebay, her husband being a prominent merchant of Stockwell, In- diana, and a former member of the Legislature. Mr. Smith is in every sense of the word one of the fathers of Methodism in Indiana. There are few men in the state who have been actively identified with the Church and its interests for a greater number of years. His labors in the cause of Christianity have been with him truly "labors of love." He has won for himself the respect and esteem of all who know him, and is a power for good in the community. He combines the earnest and devoted Christian, the useful citizen, the cherished member of society, and his name shall live in the annals of the Church and state for many generations. He is still hale and vigorous, and seems destined to see many years of usefulness.

TALEY, ERASTUS H., editor and proprietor of the Frankfort Crescent, Frankfort, was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, February 6, 1830, and is the oldest child of Aaron and Catherine (Parsons) Staley. His mother died when he was but thirteen years of age. The subsequent ill-health of his father made him the virtual support of the family. De- voting his leisure moments to study, he qualified him- self to teach in the public schools, working on the farm in summer and teaching in the winter till the spring of 1853, when he entered Indiana Asbury Uni- versity with but fifty dollars. By working or teaching during his vacations, doing chores and acting as janitor during term time, and by the exercise of the most rigid economy, he graduated in 1858, with the first honors of his class. For the next four years he was the principal of the Battle Collegiate Institute. In 1862 he was made president of the male and female college at Valparaiso, where he remained nearly three years. In the mean time he had been admitted as a member of the North- west Indiana Methodist Episcopal Conference. The fall of 1864 was spent working in the United States Christian Commission, in Sherman's army, from Chat- tanooga to Atlanta. Returning home he spent one year in the regular work of an itinerant minister at Frankfort Station, but, finding himself not adapted to .

the work, he relinquished the pastorate, and after teaching one year in the seminary at Dayton, Indiana, he returned to Frankfort and accepted the position of . superintendent of the town public schools, and acted as principal of the high school, teaching from 7 A. M. to 5 P. M., and having under his own immediate instruc- tion from seventy-five to one hundred young men and women, gathered in from Clinton and surrounding coun- ties. Commencing his career as a teacher in the year 1849, there are now more men and women living in North-western Indiana who have been under Mr. Sta- ley's instruction than under that of any other teacher. After teaching in and managing the Frankfort schools for six years, on June 14, 1872, he closed his career as a teacher, and the next day assumed the editorial con- trol and management of the Frankfort Crescent, the stock of which he gradually bought up till now he owns the entire office, the ground upon which it stands, and the two-story brick building especially erected for the purpose, in which the office, presses, etc., now run by steam, are situated. He yet retains his ministerial relation of local elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, officiating at funerals and weddings, having solemnized more marriages than any other clergyman in Frankfort or Clinton County. He was married, No- vember 15, 1862, to Miss Salome Barr, daughter of Abram and Catharine Rush Barr, of Tippecanoe County. Two children, Katie Belle and James Herman, are the result of this marriage. In politics, Mr. Staley is a Dem- ocrat, and his paper is the organ of the party in Clin- ton County. He is an earnest friend of education, an influential and enterprising citizen, ever ready to pro- mote public interests, and build up the young and thriving city in which he lives.

TOCKTON, LAWRENCE B., of Lafayette, Indi- ana. Among the names indissolubly connected with the early settlement and growth of Lafayette none occupy a higher or more honorable place than that of Mr. Stockton. He is a man respected and beloved equally for his successful business career and his private worth. He was born June 3, 1803, in Bed- ford County, Virginia, and in his youth worked on his father's farm. His early education was obtained and paid for from his earnings, in such occupations as mak- ing rails at fifty cents per hundred, and working on a farm. His reward for six years of hard labor enabled him to pay for seventeen months of tuition. This, with a course of instruction in civil engineering, which he received in Wayne County, Indiana, while residing there with his father in 1819, constituted his early training. His desire for knowledge, united to a practical and ob- serving mind, enabled him to gain much information

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from the every-day occurrences and experiences of life, which served him well in his subsequent career. At the land sales in Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1824, his father purchased for him eighty acres of wild land, which is now in the very heart of the city of Lafayette. The same year he removed to Lafayette with his father's family, and located about one mile south of the present city limits. In 1831 Mr. Stockton took up his residence on the tract of land which his father had given him, where he lived and labored for nearly half a century. With a judgment that seldom erred, and a faith in the future greatness of his new home that never faltered, Mr. Stockton purchased eighty acres adjoining the above-named tract, at five dollars per acre. The fact that he afterwards sold a part of this land for seven hundred dollars per acre, and another portion for one thousand dollars, proved the correctness of his judg- ment and the reasonableness of his faith. He retained the homestead and a small portion of his original pur- chase, on which he lived until his death. In 1826 Governor Ray appointed him the first surveyor of Tip- pecanoe County, an office he held for ten years. He was frugal, temperate, and of undeviating integrity, ac- cumulating an ample fortune by patient industry. His entire life was an admirable example for every young man to emulate. In 1831 he was married to Miss Maria Emer- sen, who died the following year. In 1835 he married Miss Rachel Steely, and the same year he replaced his humble dwelling by a beautiful residence, regarded for many years as the most palatial house of the city and county. By his second wife he had four children, but two of whom, George N. and Lawrence B., junior, survive. The former is a prominent merchant of Lafay- ette. After acquiring a competency and retiring from active business life, he indulged his taste for travel by visiting the seaboard, Canada, the World's Fair at New York City, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Quebec, and other points. In 1857, in hopes of restoring his wife's health, he visited Cuba and the South. He was an active and influential politician, not for gain, or as an office-seeker, but from patriotic and conscientious motives. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1860. His voice and in- fluence were always used in opposition to the schemes of secession and disunion. June 5, 1868, Mr. Stockton was again bereft, by the death of his wife, caused by a lingering and painful cancer. This bereavement shad- owed his remaining years, and he never ceased to mourn his loss as irreparable. Mrs. Stockton was a woman admired and loved for her beauty of mind and person ; she was a noble and true Christian wife and mother. Mr. Stockton was a most worthy and active Mason and Odd-fellow. He obtained high positions in both bodies, and exemplified in his life and character their best moral teachings. He was not a professor of

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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 52

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