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 78

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 78

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Vermilyea, one of the prominent men of Fort Wayne. His wife possessed rare talents, and always manifested the most gentle sympathy and practical charity toward the poor and afflicted. Her death occurred October 13, 1877, but a few months previous to that of her husband. In the spring of 1837 Mr. Sweetser removed to Marion, and entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, in the sale of general merchandise, under the name of Ver- milyea & Sweetser. At the end of one year his brother William bought Mr. Vermilyea's interest, and the busi- ness was conducted by " William Sweetser & Brother" until 1847, when William retired from the firm, leaving James the sole proprietor. In 1854 he associated with J. N. Turner and George N. Winchell, as James Sweet- ser & Co., and in 1861 his two sons, D. B. and George, assumed the management of the concern, uniting with it the grain and pork-packing business, which they con- ducted until 1868. They then retired from this busi- ness and established a private bank. Sweetser's Bank withstood the panic that followed in 1873, and the burn- ing of its building in 1875. A new structure was erected by Mr. James Sweetser in 1876, which is at present occupied by two of his sons, who are now the propri- etors. Mr. Sweetser was a zealous Democrat, and though he never sought political favors his services were demanded, and he was required to fill the posi- tions of county commissioner, member of the Democratic State Central Committee for ten years, and Represent- ative in the Legislature. Mr. Sweetser was naturally a leader. His counsel was often sought after in matters of grave moment. He not only gave advice, but fur- nished pecuniary assistance for the material and educa- tional advancement of the people. He was upright and generous in all his dealings, and had few equals in busi- ness ability. He held decided views in politics, and was independent in his religious opinions. Socially he was hospitable, and in conversation entertaining and instructive. The high esteem with which he was re- garded is expressed in the following resolutions, adopted at a public meeting of his fellow-citizens:

" Whereas, In the mysterious and inscrutable dispen- sation of an overruling Providence, our fellow-citizen, James Sweetser, has been suddenly, and without premo- nition, called from the scenes of an active, valuable, and honorable life; and, whereas, his death has left in the social and business circles of this community a void deeply felt and scarcely to be filled ; therefore,

" Resolved, That in the death of James Sweetser the business interests of this community have lost an inval- uable friend and supporter, his friends a wise and safe counselor, his business firm a leader and head in whom was cherished a profound confidence, his sons a father whose words of counsel and wisdom will be sought in vain in the years as they come and go.

" Resolved, That as a citizen he was upright and lib- eral, as a business man he was without reproach. Pos- sessing a commendable public spirit, he gave of his large means to such enterprises as in his judgment would

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John P& Shawls

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redound to the general welfare. He was kind to the poor, but not ostentatious in his charity, dispensing with a liberal hand to the needy of the generous store with which Providence had intrusted him.

" Resolved, That in his business life and character young men may see a model, safe to pattern, safe to follow.

" Resolved, That the profound sympathy of this meet- ing is hereby tendered to the family of the deceased in this their great bereavement."

WEETSER, WILLIAM, retired merchant, Wabash, was born in Dummerston, Windham County, Ver- mont, April 6, 1806, and was the second son of William and Delight (Pierce) Sweetser. In 1815 his parents removed to Delaware Township, Ohio. The country was then an unbroken wilderness, but most of the savages had gone, and all had been compelled, by the victories of the recent war, to desist from hostilities. His father was an industrious and able farmer, and at once employed all his energies in clearing and improv-

· ing the farm. In this the assistance of his sons was needed; and therefore Mr. Sweetser's early education was confined to the course pursued in the common schools of that day. The years of his boyhood were unevent- ful; but he had many brilliant dreams of a successful business career. He remained at home until he had reached the years of manhood. He then engaged in farming in Ohio until 1838, when he went West and established himself in the mercantile business in Ma- rion, Indiana, in partnership with his brother James. The firm was William Sweetser & Brother; and it ex- isted until 1847, when the senior member sold out and removed to Wabash, the capital of the county of that name. There he engaged in the same business in part- nership with William B. Mckay, a relative. At the end of one year, Mr. Sweetser assumed entire control, and conducted the business alone until 1877. In that year he retired from active life, leaving the manage- ment of the establishment entirely to his sons, Robert, Oscar, and John Quincy, who constitute the firm of "The Sweetsers." Mr. Sweetser is not connected with any Church, nor with any secret society. In politics he is a Republican. He married, February, 1833, Miss Sarah K. Brown, a native of Ohio. They have had nine children. Four sons and one daughter are living : the three sons above named, one other, and Emma Amelia, wife of Frank Hall, of Marion. The secret of Mr. Sweetser's prosperity lies in his steadiness of pur- pose. For forty years, despite all panics, depressions in trade, and enticing schemes of speculation, he has unswervingly pursued the object of his early ambition- mercantile success. This he has attained, and has estab- lished his sons in a position which he himself gained only by long years of patient endeavor. Energy, capac-

ity, and fair dealing have made him first in the business circles of Wabash County, and, together with other commendable qualities, have exalted him in the estima- tion of all his fellow-citizens.

HANKS, GENERAL JOHN P. C., was born in Martinsburg, county seat of Berkeley County, (now) West Virginia, June 17, 1826. His father, Michael Shanks, was a native of Hampshire County, Vir- ginia, and was of Irish descent, his parents having em- igrated from County Down, Ireland, to Pennsylvania about the year 1765, and from that colony to Virginia after the Revolutionary War. Joseph Shanks, the Gen- eral's grandfather, entered the Continental army from Pennsylvania, immediately after the battle of Lexing- ton, and remained in the field until the close of the war, taking part in the battle of Yorktown, Virginia. Though badly wounded while in the service of his adopted country, he recovered, and was eighty-seven years old at the time of his death. He was a Scotch Presbyterian. General Shanks's father was by trade a mill-wright, and worked at this business for a long time in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. In 1816 he invented and put into operation the first toothed ma- chines, either in cylinder or concave, that threshed grain. The original model of this valuable improve- ment was selected, by the commissioner of patents, as one of such general importance and great utility as to merit a place in the list of those most deserving special exhibition at the late Centennial. Michael Shanks was married, at the town of Martinsburg, Virginia, on the 20th of September, 1821, to Martha B. Cleaver, a mem- ber of the society of Friends. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters, the subject of this sketch being the third child. The eldest son lost his life in the army, as a soldier in the War with Mexico, and a younger brother served through the late Rebellion. Michael Shanks, the father of the General, was self- educated. Ile was a man of strictly moral habits, char- itable to a fault, well informed in history, versed in mathematics, and thoroughly read in the Scriptures and a firm believer in them. He was a general student, of a philosophical turn of mind, a kind husband and father, a good neighbor, and an honest man. He served in the War of 1812. Opposed to bondage and oppression, he left the state of Virginia in 1839 on account of the exist- ence of slavery there-believing that it debased the char- acter of man, and that the laborer, whether white or black, could not rise above his avocation where human servitude existed-and removed with his family to the free state of Indiana. He said: "I can not abolish slavery in Virginia or prevent its baneful influences on those who remain, but I can take my family to a free

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state, where they may prosper and be happy, if they are virtuous; and I shall discharge that duty to them." There being at the time no railroad west of Point of Rocks in Maryland, a slow and toilsome journey by wagon was the only method of traveling. Arriving at Richmond, Indiana, and making a brief halt at that place, in early April, 1840, he finally settled in Jay County. This region was wholly covered with forest, and was unimproved. He soon cleared the farm, residing there till his death, and as a matter of course he experienced the usual hardships incident to frontier life in a densely wooded and sparsely settled region. On the day, in June, 1839, on which he left his old Virginia home for the West, while walking with the subject of this notice, then a lad of thirteen, near where poorly clad slave women were working in a field, while a well dressed white man with whip in hand directed their labors, he called his son's attention to the repulsive scene. These slaves were of that class of stout, robust slave women who were specially selected by farmers, in the more northern and healthier slave states, from which to raise a supply for the regions further south; as farmers in the North chose the finest specimens of breeding animals from which to improve the stock by which the market de- mand for cattle, horses, hogs, mules, etc., was sup- plied. The General's father, addressing him, said : " My son, do you see those slave women toiling in yonder field for a heartless master and without reward ? They are kept for the product of their bodies, like cattle, and made to labor for the support of themselves and their unhappy children, whom they are compelled to raise for market ; their persons and those of their offspring being subject to sale on the auction block, as you have often seen, or secretly sold to the heartless task-master for gain to their legal owner. The relations of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, are ruthlessly sev- ered for sordid gain to the owners of slaves; and, with other crimes that enter into the general degradation accompanying human slavery, we are thus presented with a view of this foul blot on our age and in a land of Bibles, of churches, and among professed Christians, who build their altars of worship with the price of the bodies and souls of their neighbors and fellow Church members. That this state of things should exist in this boasted age of civilization, and under the teachings and privileges of a professedly free government, is not encouraging. My son, I believe, and I desire that you should believe, in the justice of God as taught in the Holy Scriptures. I am now fleeing with my family from this moral Sodom before it is too late. You will live to see these fields drenched in human blood over this great crime. It may not come in my day, and yet it may." It did come in his time. Twenty-two years from that period, July 21, 1861, at the first battle of Bull Run, in which General Shanks was engaged, there fell

on the rebel side many of the schoolmates from whom he parted in June, 1839. The General says that these words 'of his father, uttered when leaving their early home on account of slavery to go among strangers, burned into his brain and have been ever present with him since, controlling him to an abhorrence of slavery and every form of oppression, and have made him the friend of the negro, the Indian, and the poor and wronged of all lands and races. Michael Shanks died, April 21, 1867, at the ripe age of eighty-five. His last words were, "My God, protect my family. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He is believed not to have had a personal enemy. Martha B. Shanks, the mother of the General, had been brought up as a member of the society of Friends, and was of German and French descent. She was born December 22, 1800, and was well educated, but had lost much interest in her studies through her devotion to her family, the manifestation of which on any real or fancied danger was notably apparent. Her anxious personal solicitude for her chil- dren, and her anxiety for their personal welfare and instruction were as continued as her waking hours. From her the General has inherited that energy and self-reliance which have enabled him to meet success- fully the obstacles and embarrassments that have crossed him in his checkered life. She died February, 1879, aged seventy-nine. General Shanks's opportunities for obtaining an education were limited to Virginia sub- scription schools, and even this means ceased at the age of thirteen, after which time he studied under the instruction of his father. He was cheerful and mis- chievous at school, but received correction as justly merited. He was a diligent reader of all subjects that came within his reach. From necessity he was com- pelled to encounter the severest toil in clearing land, farming, and other similar drudgery of early frontier life, but his desire for information was such that he carried his books along as he drove his team, when plowing, making rails, in camp, chopping wood, or when the family slept. In season and out of season he had his volumes of study, and, as occasion afforded, received instruction from his father and recited to him. He did most of his reading by fire-light, oil not being common in those days. His father was at one time in good cir- cumstances, but a too generous liberality often made him the victim of designing men. He was frequently compelled to pay notes which he had indorsed through kindness. From a similar disposition his son has also suffered grievous wrong. The General's early life was one of the severest hardship, but one also well fitted to develop and fix habits of industry, self-reliance, and self- denial. From the obvious necessities consequent on the settlement of a forest home, the able-bodied members of the family were often compelled to labor for others, to obtain the means of livelihood, and at the same time im-

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prove their own clearing. The trials and deprivations of such a life can better be imagined than described, but they have their compensating benefits, in begetting self-confidence and self-dependence, in arousing latent energies, and in forming a useful character. Much time in his early life was spent hauling logs with an ox team, he often sleeping in the woods. When a boy he broke cattle to the yoke for the use of them while breaking. In teaming from his home to Fort Wayne, though the distance is less than fifty miles, the ordinary time occu- pied in going and coming was from five to seven days of the severest toil. In making the trip, if overtaken by night, he camped in the woods, his cattle feeding in the forest, while he studied his books and manufactured baskets by the camp fire, for sale in the market to which he was driving. Nothing living was in his neighborhood but his oxen and the wolves, which were abundant and noisy. His cattle frequently wandered too far from camp, and had to be driven back. It was not an un- common occurrence for his young and untamed animals to break from the yoke, and the task of recapturing them was a labor of no small effort, as he had no one to aid him. He would lasso one and tie it to a sapling that stood near another small tree, putting the yoke on this ox, and then set out in pursuit of the other animal, which would sometimes be found two miles distant. Having headed him toward the first, he ran with him through the brush wood, over fallen timber and through the water, until obliged to halt for the purpose of changing direction. This could only be effected by throwing the lasso around a tree and looking out for con- sequences. When ready for another run the driver pro- ceeded until the yoke was reached. Whenever his team stalled, he carried the loading to a log or other safe rest- ing place in advance, and then drove the empty wagon to it and reloaded. He took jobs of clearing land, and to save time camped in the center of the tract, to be near his work. His mother said of him that he was encouraged by opposition and strengthened by misfor- tune. He early adopted a rule for guidance in life, never to succumb to difficulties or misfortunes, believ- ing them necessary and proper to his education. He was very fond of horses, and soon became an expert in handling them. In his long and frequent journeys with the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, and other uncivil- ized Indian tribes, he was as wild and reckless a rider as they are. They often tested his nerve, skill, and endurance in hunting and over mountains, across plains, and through deep and rapid rivers, and no white man was ever more popular with them or enjoyed more fully their confidence. It was his custom after gathering his father's grain, to go to North-west Indiana and labor there through the larger and longer harvests. These trips were made on foot, stopping at night under the trees, and returning the proceeds of his labor to his

mother for the family use. During one of these jour- neys he took up a farm in Lake County, under the government pre-emption laws, intending to remove the family there, but was frustrated by a failure of crops. The result of this hard labor and careless exposure was rheumatism, and sometimes for months he was unable to walk. At such times, not to be idle while he had the use of his hands, he made and sold baskets. In the year 1847 he worked at the mill-wright trade in the state of Michigan, and as a carpenter in the construction of bridges on the Michigan Central Railroad, earning money with which to pay his father's debts. He began the reading of law in November, 1847, teaching school during the winter months to enable him to prosecute his studies, and while doing this exercised the strictest economy, indulging in neither spirituous liquors nor tobacco. While he was thus engaged he gave to his father one-third of his time, in manual labor on the farm, and once a year paid his father's debts, until the decease of the latter. He studied closely and improved rapidly ; his will was strong, and he had a good memory. He forms opinions quickly, and requires good reasons for changing them. He is a good judge of human nature, though his kindness and sympathy often lead him away from the dictates of his better judgment. He concen- trates his thoughts and actions well, and has the power of condensing the matter of a long speech into a few : entences. In earlier life he was timid in appearing be- fore an audience, often becoming confused, and was fre- quently compelled to stop speaking, and sometimes to dis- miss his audience. He is now a bold and strong speaker, and, as he always utters his well-matured and honest convictions, he holds his hearers without difficulty. He l'egan and completed his law studies with Hon. N. B. Hawkins, of Portland, Jay County, near where he now resides. In 1848 and 1849 he was deputy county clerk, and in 1850, after an examination by a committee of the bar, he was admitted to practice in his profession. In the same year he was appointed deputy auditor of the county and postmaster at Portland, and in the fall of the same year he was elected, by the votes of both political parties, prosecuting attorney of the Circuit Court. On the 11th of August of that year he was mar- ried to his first wife, Miss Deborah Wilson, a member of the society of Friends. By this lady he had one child, a daughter, who is now living. From severe ex- posure during his absence from home, in her endeavor to save their home from destruction by fire, she took a violent cold terminating in a bronchial affection, of which she died March 2, 1852. In the years 1850 and 1851 he owned and conducted a hotel in Portland, and in the latter year, in company with James Bromagen, printed and published the first newspaper in the county of Jay. His wife, a woman of energy and capacity, dur- ing her brief married life gave him material assistance

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in the discharge of the duties of the offices he was fill- ing. He engaged in the practice of law in partnership with James N. Templer, an able and successful attorney, with whom he remained for many years. He was admit- ted to the bar of the Supreme Court of his state and the United States Circuit Court for Indiana, and on the Ioth of March, 1863, was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1854 he was elected, over a strong opposition, to the Lower House of the Indiana Legislature for two years, where he served on the Judiciary Committee with much credit. He urged the injustice of taxing the property of the colored people of the state for school purposes, with no provis- ion for giving instruction to their children, and was active in support of a prohibitory liquor law. His advocacy of these measures caused his defeat, by a small majority, for the same office in 1856. From 1855 to 1860 he had a successful law practice. In 1856 he engaged vigorously in the political canvass for General John C. Fremont, with whom he subsequently formed a warm personal friendship. In 1860 he was elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress, as a Republican, from the then Eleventh District of Indiana. His term of office com- menced March 4, 1861, his first service being in the special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, called by President Lincoln, which met on the 4th of July, 1861, to provide means for protecting the integrity of the Union against rebellion, then organized. He warmly supported all measures necessary to supply men and means to carry on the war against armed rebels. IIis first experience in active service was at the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, while he was a member of Congress. During the battle he fought under the com- mand of Colonel Corcoran, in the ranks of the 69th New York Regiment, in General Sherman's brigade. He was with Colonel Corcoran when the latter was wounded, and, after the retreat began, succeeded in rallying a number of straggling troops, and made a stand near Cub's Run, covering the retreat. He did not reach Washington until the following day at noon, and was supposed to have been captured. The President asked him how many men we had lost during the battle. His reply was, "Five hundred killed and one thousand wounded." To the President's rejoinder, "The esti- mate is much greater," Mr. Shanks answered that the "rebel loss is as great as ours, and a thousand dead men on a field might seem to be more than they really were, but my estimate is near the truth." The true report made our loss in killed five hundred and sixty-one and about eleven hundred wounded. For his services volunteered on the battle-field the President appointed him brigadier-general, a position declined by him, with the remark to Mr. Lincoln, "No man should be pro- moted in the army till he earns the promotion by effi- cient services in the field. Human life and a great

cause are at stake, and Bull Run battle demonstrates that promotions should be withheld until men prove themselves competent to command." After this, how- ever, at the President's urgent request, he accepted an appointment on the staff of General Fremont, and served with him through his Missouri campaign, rendering val- uable service in organizing the forces there. He was with Fremont at the time when he issued the procla- mation of August 30, 1861, emancipating the slaves of those in active rebellion, and General Shanks cordially indorsed and sustained the justice and the policy of that announcement. The following is a copy of the first manumission paper issued under this proclamation. It was drafted by General Shanks, and is the form of all those thus issued, They were printed for use as occa- sion required, but the President's revocation of the proc- Iamation, September 11, 1861, rendered them useless :

"DEED OF MANUMISSION.

" Whereas Thomas L. Sneed, of the city and county of St. Louis, state of Missouri, has been taking active part with the enemies of the United States in the pres- ent insurrectionary movements against the government of the United States; now, therefore, I, John C. Fre- mont, major-general commanding the Western Depart- ment of the army of the United States, by authority of law and the power vested in me as such commanding general, declare Frank Lewis, heretofore held to 'serv- ice or labor' by said Thomas L. Sneed, to be free, and forever discharged from the bonds of servitude, giving him full right and authority to have, use, and control his own labor or service as to him may seem proper, without any accountability whatever to said Thomas L. Sneed, or any one, to claim by, through, or under him. And this Deed of Manumission shall be respected by all persons and in all courts of justice as the full and com- plete evidence of the freedom of said Frank Lewis. In testimony whereof, this act is done at the headquarters of the Western Department of the army of the United States, in the city of St. Louis and state of Missouri, on the 12th day of September, 1861, as is evidenced by the Department seal hereto attached by my order

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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 78

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