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 83

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 83

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S. Smith was ordered to join him from Memphis with about seven thousand cavalry. Shanks's regiment was then at Hickman, Kentucky, where he had been placed in command. Under orders he at once marched to join General Smith at Collierville, crossing the Obion River, then very high, with much difficulty. He bridged the Elk River, and succeeded in crossing the Holston with rude boats constructed of railroad ties and doors and boards taken from the railroad stations; and from the latter point he reported to General Smith through a trusty officer, Joseph Skelton, who literally fought his way (eighty miles) to Memphis. Shanks's command moved on to Collierville, from which place he moved forward, under General Grierson commanding the forces, seven thousand strong, to Egypt Station, Mississippi. From this place, on the 20th of February, General Smith ordered a retreat before the threatening forces of Forrest, largely outnumbering ours. The distance to Memphis was one hundred and fifty miles, and, the supplies along the route having been exhausted or de- stroyed, the retreat was attended not only with danger, as events proved, but with short rations both for men and horses. In this emergency, General Shanks dis- played the skill and bravery of a veteran. On the 4th of July, 1864, General Shanks was sent with a cavalry force from Memphis to Vicksburg, and thence across the state of Mississippi, and afterward to Macon, and there ordered to destroy the railroad bridges to prevent the rebel General Adams from joining his forces with those of Forrest, then in march against General A. J. Smith at Tupelo. He did not reach Macon, but meet- ing General Slocum at Big Black River, where the latter had arrived from Jackson, Mississippi, with their joint commands, a successful attack was made on Adams, who was driven back and his junction with Forrest pre- vented. General Shanks, now in the department of General Slocum, wished to take fifty picked men and execute the order previously received, by a march of two hundred miles across the state of Mississippi to Ma- con, and when General Slocum denied the request, on the ground that the country was full of the enemy, thus rendering the march dangerous if not impossible, the former replied : " I came to do that work ; General Smith will expect his order executed; I will be in the line of my duty." But being a true soldier he cheerfully obeyed the command of his superior. In February, 1865, General Shanks was sent from Memphis down the Mississippi with a cavalry force to Gaines's Landing, and reached the Washita, in Louisiana, only to find that the rebels had crossed that river and fled. He returned, barely escaping by a few hours the rise in the Mississippi, the overflow of which placed the entire country, for twenty miles, under water. On this expe- dition he destroyed a large amount of rebel cotton, which was, after the war, under the treaty of Washing-

ton, claimed by British subjects, and for the destruction of which by General Shanks three million dollars was demanded. The General made answer to the commis- sion and submitted the proof that the cotton belonged to the rebel (so called) government, and the claim was not allowed. He never seized and appropriated cotton; he always burned it, thus preventing any charges or suspicion of fraud or speculation. In the fall of 1865, after the close of armed rebellion, General Shanks was sent to Texas to enforce the proclamation of emancipa- tion, by taking military control of all that state, inas- much as prior to the fall of Richmond the sea-coast only was under military rule. On the consolidation of reg- iments, by order of the Secretary of War, and as armed resistance to the authority of the government had ceased, the General was mustered out of the service at Hemp- stead, Texas. With the exception of about sixty days, during which the General was prostrated by sickness, brought on by exposure and active service, he was never absent from his command. He was always on duty in the field, and respectfully declined detail honors, preferring to serve his country by battling at the front, wherever duty called. Such, in brief, is a sketch of the life and public services of a man whose career is a type of the frontiersman, whose education and training consist rather in action and in converse with things than with schools. No one who knows the General will question his unsullied integrity, his ardent patriotism, his unselfish devotion to human rights with- out distinction of race, color or nationality. Religious observance of truth, unselfish public spirit, warm advo- cacy of whatever he believes to be for the best interests of mankind ; righteous hatred of oppression ; intense sym- pathy with wrongs of all men, wherever located; and love of his native country, tempered with regard for the equal rights of humanity in all nations, are his leading characteristics. He is engaged in the practice of law, but gives much attention to his farming inter- ests. His library, in number and variety of books on almost all subjects, and his cabinet of valuable minerals and curiosities, all collected by himself and family, are perhaps not excelled by those of any other private indi- vidual in the state. The General's religious creed is brief, comprehensive, and practical, in close coincidence with the sentiment of the poet ---

" For modes of faith let zealous bigots fight ; He can't be wrong whose life is in the right."

He believes that the only road to future happiness leads by the doors of our neighbors, and he who of mature judgment does not travel in his heavenward journey in the course indicated, will most likely not reach the desired port at all. He is of opinion that no repentance is real which does not include as full and free restitution as is possible to the offender; that our sins of omission as well as of commission are chiefly of

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our own make, no more and no less; that Adam of his own volition committed his trespasses and we ours; that the real merit and redeeming virtue of the atonement of Jesus Christ are in our close and honest imitation of the life and lessons he sets before us; that the practical value of Christianity lies in the constant application of its plain teachings in all the relations of life. We can not wrong God. We may and do wrong ourselves and our neighbors by violation of the laws of nature-

" Nature, another name for an effect Whose cause is God."

Every truth agrees with every other truth, but not with falsehood or error. General Shanks is six feet two inches in height, perfectly erect, of light complexion, and has brown hair and gray eyes. He is liberal, kind hearted, and public spirited. He is warm and unsus- pecting in his friendship.

ODD, JACOB JEFFERSON, attorney - at - law, Bluffton, Wells County, was born, March 12, 1843, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, being the son of Jacob (and Jane) Todd, a farmer, who removed to Indiana and settled in Wells County in 1851. He was brought up on his father's farm. He received his edu- cation first in the common schools of Wells County, and afterwards at the seminary at Roanoke, and at Fort Wayne College. On leaving college, in 1864, he enlisted in the 137th Indiana Infantry, in the one hundred days' enlistment, afterwards returning to his home in Wells County. During his one hundred days' service he was stationed with his regiment at Tulla- homa and Duck River Bridge, under command of Gen- eral Milroy, who had at the time charge of the railroad defenses. In the winters from 1861 to 1865 he taught school in the public schools of Wells County. He com- menced, in the summer of 1865, reading law at Bluffton, and was admitted to the bar in May of the following year, entering upon the practice of his profession at Bluffton in 1868, where he has been ever since, doing a large and lucrative business both in law and collections, being acknowledged as one of the leading legal lights in the county. He has been for several years attorney for John Studabaker & Co.'s " Exchange Bank of Bluff- ton." As a boy he was always of a studious nature, and is now a man of high moral standing, well versed in the law, who has been successful in his business ca- reer, and is honored and respected by his fellow-citizens and beloved by his family. He is one who has gained an education and the position he at present occupies by his own industry, study, and perseverance. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the age of seventeen, and has been Church trustee for some ten years, and Sunday-school superintendent at different E-9

periods for several years past. He has always taken an active part in both the Church and Sunday-school, and has also been connected with the "Indiana Sunday- school Union," as vice-president, or as a member of the executive committee from his Congressional District, for some five years. In 1867 he was deputy collector of internal revenue for Wells County, in the Eleventh Indiana District. Mr. Todd became a member of the Masonic Order in April, 1864, and has been wor- shipful master of Bluffton Lodge, No. 145, for four years, and is a Knight Templar of Fort Wayne Com- mandery, No. 4. He is a member of the Knights of Honor, and deputy grand dictator of Bluffton Lodge, and has also been a Good Templar for several years, being for two years past a State Deputy. He was also one of the incorporators of Fair View Ceme- tery, at Bluffton, and is treasurer of that association. In politics, he is a Republican, and was a delegate from the Eleventh District to the Republican National Con- vention at Chicago, June 2, 1880. Mr. Todd's first wife, whom he married April 17, 1866, was the daughter of Nelson Kellogg, a prominent man of Bluffton, by whom he has one son, who is now a bright boy of thirteen. Mr. Todd's second marriage was, August 22, 1876, to Mrs. Mary Jane Klinck, a most estimable widow lady of Bluffton, daughter of John Studabaker, Esq., whose former husband, Dwight Klinck, of Chicago, was lost on the ill - fated steamer "Schiller," on her voyage to Europe. They have one little girl, now eighteen months of age, who is the pride of the family. Mrs. Todd is also the mother of four interesting and accom- plished young daughters by her first husband. Mr. Todd is a man of fine personal appearance, agreeable in conversation, pleasing in manner, and in every way a " representative man."

YNER, JAMES NOBLE, of Peru, First Assistant Postmaster-general of the United States, was born at Brookville, Indiana, January 17, 1826. He is the eldest of the eleven children of Richard and Martha S. W. S. (Noble) Tyner. His father, a native of South Carolina, was a pioneer of Indiana, and for forty years a leading merchant of the south-eastern por- tion of the state. His mother's brothers were men of ability and prominence. Noah Noble was Governor of Indiana; James Noble was elected to the United States Senate about the time Indiana was admitted to the Union, serving fourteen years, and was a member of that body at the time of his death; Lazarus Noble was at one time register of the land office at Indianapo- lis; and George T. Noble for a number of years held various local positions in Wayne County. James N. Tyner, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the

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Brookville Academy, and in IS46 removed to Cambridge City, where for five years he was engaged in selling goods and in carrying on an extensive grain and pro- vision trade. In June, 1851, he established himself permanently in Peru, and there continued for some time in the same business. Subsequently he entered upon the practice of the law in the firm of Brown & Tyner -- a partnership which, with occasional intermissions, was maintained until quite recently. Mr. Tyner was at first a Whig, and since the organization of the Republican party has been one of its most faithful supporters. In 1856 he was the Republican candi- date for Representative to the Indiana Legislature, but was defeated by a small majority, on a strictly party vote. He served four sessions, from 1856 to 1862, as one of the secretaries of the state Senate. In 1861 he was appointed Special Agent of the Post-office Department, having charge of the postal service of Indiana and Illinois, and during part of the time of the entire country. In 1866 he was removed by an order from President Johnson. In 1869 Mr. Tyner was elected Representative to Congress from the Eighth Indiana District, and by re-election served in this position three terms, during two of which he was one of the Committee on Post-offices and Post- roads. He was considered the best-informed member of Congress on postal affairs. The increased mail facil- ities secured by him for his district, with every portion of which he was personally familiar, were highly appre- ciated by his intelligent constituents. He was also act- ing chairman of the Committee on Public Grounds and Public Buildings during his second term; and many im- portant repairs in the Capitol building and furniture were made under his supervision. During his third term he served on the Committee of Appropriations, the most important and powerful of the House committees. At the expiration of his term as Congressman, on the urgent solicitation of President Grant and Governor Jewell, Postmaster-general, Mr. Tyner accepted the position of Second Assistant Postmaster- general, and for sixteen months had full charge of all the mail contracts of the United States. Upon the retirement of Governor Jewell, Mr. Tyner was appointed Postmaster-general, and served as such from July, 1876, to March, 1877, the expiration of President Grant's administration. Upon the inaugu- ration of President Hayes, and the appointment of David M. Key as Postmaster-general, by the continuous solicitation of these gentlemen Mr. Tyner was induced to return to the Post-office Department, as First Assist- ant Postmaster - general, to take entire charge of the general business of the Department, and of the appoint_ ments in the postal service of the Northern and border states. This position he filled to the entire satisfaction of his superior in office and of the country at large; his long experience and excellent executive ability especially qualifying him for the office. Postmaster-general Blair's

expressed opinion, that an energetic and efficient special agent could do the public greater service by expediting the transportation and delivery of the military mails than by serving either as a private or a commissioned officer in the volunteer army, prevented Mr. Tyner from resigning his position in the postal service and entering the army during the late Civil War. Mr. Tyner was brought up in the Methodist Episcopal Church, but is not now connected with any religious denomination. He married his first wife, Dema L. Humiston, daughter of Lewis Humiston, of Cambridge City, November 8, 1848. This estimable lady died in 1870, leaving one son, Albert H. Tyner-now of Chicago, Illinois-and one daughter. December 24, 1872, Mr. Tyner was married to Christine Hinds, daughter of John P. Hinds, late of Washington, District of Columbia. His business duties are very laborious and confining; hence he is seldom permitted to visit his home, and then only for a day or two at a time. He is a conscientious, systematic public officer; no Representative ever served a constitu- ency more promptly and faithfully. His high personal character has secured the esteem of the community in which he has lived more than twenty years. He is tall, erect, and slender, and enjoys vigorous health.

AN DEVANTER, ISAAC, attorney-at-law, Ma- rion, was born in Delaware County, Ohio, May 28, 1821. He is the sixth in a family of eight chil- dren, whose parents were Jacob and Lydia (Fee) Van Devanter, both natives of Pennsylvania. Through his father he is descended from the toiling, liberty-loving Hollanders, and through his mother from the Scotch- Irish. The ancestors of both parents were remarkable for longevity. Peter Van Devanter, his grandfather, ren- dered important aid in the Revolution by manufacturing gunpowder for the American army, and his father was a captain in the War of 1812. While Mr. Van Devanter was a child, the family emigrated to Indiana, and settled in Lagrange County, where, in the common schools, he received his elementary education. At the age of sixteen he entered Lagrange Collegiate Institute, and remained about three years; he then attended, for one year, the White Pigeon branch of the Michigan Uni- versity. In these schools he was distinguished for dili- gence and proficiency, standing high in all his classes. Soon after leaving the last-named institution he entered the office of Joseph Lomax, of Valparaiso, as a student of law, and subsequently read under the direction of Judge Nathaniel Bacon, of Niles, Michigan. Having thus completed his preliminary studies, he attended lec- tures at the Cincinnati Law School, from which he grad- dated in the spring of 1848. Being in poor health he did not commence practice until 1850, when, having

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been admitted to the bar in the early part of that year, he formed a partnership with Andrew J. Harlan, since a member of Congress from the Eighth District. The firm practiced law in Marion about three years. In 1855 Mr. Van Devanter entered into a similar relation with Hon. James F. McDowell, which lasted until 1875. The following year Mr. John W. Lacey, then a student in his office and a young man of much promise, became and still remains his partner. Endowed with fine nat- ural abilities and thoroughly prepared for his work, Mr. Van Devanter encountered fewer difficulties than most young lawyers, and entered at once upon a successful career. Pursuing a course that won the good will of associates and the confidence of clients, he rose rapidly in the profession. Political honors, such as men seldom attain so early in life, were bestowed upon him. In 1852 he was elected state Senator from the counties of Grant, Delaware, and Blackford, and served four years, during which he was a member of the Judiciary Com- mittee, the Organization of Courts and Elections. In the Civil War he was provost-marshal of what was then the Eleventh Congressional District. Devoting all his powers to the legal profession, Mr. Van Devanter's acquirements became extensive and his reputation envi- able. He was retained in the most important cases, and the duties of attorney for what is known as the Pan Handle Railroad were added to his business. At length, in 1871, he had the honor of being admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1869, severe labor having impaired his health, he spent a winter in Florida, whence he returned with renewed strength. Mr. Van Devanter is a firm Republican, hav- ing formerly belonged to the Whig party, which elected him to the Senate. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married, September 20, 1858, Miss Violetta M., daughter of Jacob W. Spencer, of Marion, a prominent man in his day. Of the seven children born of this marriage, five are living : Willis, a student at college ; Lizzie, wife of his partner, Mr. John W. Lacey ; Isaac, Mary, and Louise. Mr. Isaac Van Devanter stands at the head of the bar of Grant County in both legal and classical learning, and is an able and reliable counselor. In cases requiring profound knowl- edge of law and great ability in preparation and man- agement, he has few superiors. He manifests a pecul- iar reticence concerning his work, often preparing a case without making any part of it known to his brother attorneys. He is a gentleman of fine address and appear- ance, conversant with literary and scientific topics, and his moral character is without reproach. He has practiced law in Marion twenty-eight years, and in that community and throughout Eastern Indiana he is greatly esteemed. He is truly one of the representa- tive men of the state, and is well known throughout the Union.

YALKER, LYMAN, Judge of the Twenty-seventh Judicial Circuit, Peru, was born at Peacham, Ver- mont, January 26, 1837. He was the son of Lyman and Elmira G. Walker. Soon after young Lyman's birth, the family removed to Thetford, Vermont, where the father engaged in mercantile life. Here he laid the foundations of his education in the dis- trict schools, and fitted for college at the Thetford Acad- emy. He was early thrown upon his own resources, and, in order to obtain the means for a more complete education, engaged in teaching. He entered Dartmouth College in 1854, and, after remaining there two years, entered Middlebury College, from which he graduated in 1858. Thus did he, in early life, manifest a spirit of determination to succeed in whatever he undertook, and by his own efforts succeeded in gaining a good educa- tion. The years 1859 and 1860 were occupied in teach- ing, and in studying law in the office of Messrs. Cross & Topliff, Manchester, New Hampshire. Early in 1861 Mr. Walker took charge of the public schools at Peru, Indiana, and to him belongs the honor of establishing the first graded school there. After remaining about one year in that position he began the practice of law in connection with Harvey Shirk. This partnership was continued for two years, after which Mr. Walker went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where for the next four years he was in practice with Hon. R. M. Corwine. He then returned to Peru, where he has since enjoyed a lucra- tive business in the State and the United States Courts. Mr. Walker is an honored member of the Masonic Fra- ternity and a Knight Templar. In politics he is a Re- publican, and takes an active interest in all public meas- ures brought before the people for their consideration. He has usually preferred the quietude of private life, but, such talents as he possesses being needed and demanded by the public, he was elected, in October, 1878, Judge of the Twenty-seventh Judicial Circuit, taking his seat in September, 1879. His high qualifications will en- able him to perform the duties of this office faithfully and efficiently. He is a member in good standing of the Presbyterian Church. In personal appearance he is rather above the average in height and build. Although still a young man, by integrity and persistent industry he has won in an eminent degree the respect and con- fidence of the community.

ILSON, ROBERT Q., M. D., of Kokomo, was born November 23, 1822, in Concord, Pennsyl- vania. His father, James Wilson, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary A. Wallace, both came over from North Ireland about the close of the eighteenth century. They were Scotch-Irish Presbyte- rians, industrious, economical, and thrifty. Their family

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of seven sons and one daughter were trained in habits of industry and self-reliance; all accepted and held the peculiar religious faith of their parents, and inherited their frugality and industry. Robert Wilson received in early life a common school education, such as was then available among the mountains in Pennsylvania. Hav- ing a fondness for study, and longing for more extended knowledge, he determined to seek better opportunities in the West. In this he was obliged to depend entirely upon himself, as the size of his father's family prevented him from obtaining assistance. Accordingly he went, in 1843, to Lafayette, Indiana, where he had an uncle and a brother, and there attended school until the fall of the next year. His health then failed, and he left Lafayette and went to Wooster, Ohio. After regaining strength he turned again to his books, and commenced the study of medicine under Doctor Bissell. In 1846 he returned to Indiana and studied in Rossville, under the instruction of his brother, Doctor James W. Wilson, now of Lafayette. At length he graduated at Rush Medical College; he immediately commenced practice at Ross- ville, and continued there until 1866, when he removed to Kokomo. Doctor Wilson's success as a physician has been marked, and during his stay in Rossville he accu- mulated a competence. Having a good constitution he worked incessantly, fully understanding that " the hand of the diligent maketh rich." In religion he is a Pres- byterian ; in politics, a strong Republican, having been connected with that party ever since its organization. He is a Royal Arch Mason. Doctor Wilson married, in the fall of 1848, Miss Isabella Robeson, of Wooster, Ohio. Of their five children but one survives; he is now a druggist in Kokomo. Though not an office- seeker, Doctor Wilson has been twice elected to the city council without an opposing candidate, a fact that in some degree attests the public estimate of his charac- ter. In addition to his skill as a physician he possesses considerable ability as a writer and lecturer. He has written for local papers and medical journals, and has delivered a number of lectures before the Kokomo Academy of Medicine, several of which have been published.

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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 83

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