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 98

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 98

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ANDALL, FRANKLIN P., of Fort Wayne, was born in Madison County, New York, in June, 1812, and was the son of Roswell and Priscilla (Morgan) Randall. He belongs to the seventh generation since John Randall, who emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1637, and was the founder of the family in America. After having passed through the classical departments in Hamilton College, F. P. Ran- dlall removed, in 1835, to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he read law in the office of Ellis Lewis, after- wards Chief Justice of the state for many years. In January, 1838, he was admitted to the bar. In April of the same year he removed to Fort Wayne, where he commenced practice. The next year he was appointed master in chancery by the Circuit Court. In 1840 he was elected school commissioner, the office at that time having control of all the schools and school lands of the county. Mr. Randall wrote the original charter of the city of Fort Wayne, which passed the Legislature with- out amendment. By direction of the city council, he has, at different times, prepared and published all of the ordinance books of the city from that time to the present. In 1847 he was elected to the state Senate from the district composed of the counties of Adams, Allen, Huntington, and Wells. Among the bills which he prepared and introduced was one authorizing the convention which formed the present state constitution. In 1856 he was appointed, by Governor Hammond, gen- eral of the Tenth Division of State Infantry. He was chosen presidential elector for that year, and voted for James Buchanan. In 1858 he was appointed, by Gov- ernor Willard, director of State-prison South, serving two years. In 1859 he was elected mayor of Fort Wayne. He has since been four times re-elected, and has served as mayor ten years. In politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Randall was married, in 1849, to Mary Jane Read, of Jef- fersonville, Indiana. Her grandfather was a patriot sol- dier in the Revolution.

AWLES, WILLIAMSON, a merchant and prominent citizen of Lima, Lagrange County, Indiana, was born December 29, 1829, in Marion County, Ohio, and is the fourth of a family of sixteen children, thirteen of whom are sons of James and Maria (Williamson) Rawles. They were farmers by occupation and natives of Ross County, Ohio, but of English descent. James Rawles was a man of more than ordinary ability and acquirements. In 1839 he moved with his family from Ohio to Lagrange County, Indiana, where he soon took a leading position. In 1843 he was elected sheriff of the county, which office he held until 1847. In the discharge of these duties he was industrious, energetic, and honest, winning for him- self the respect and confidence alike of his political

friends and opponents. He died in 1853, in the fifty- sixth year of his age. Williamson Rawles had but limited educational advantages. His only opportunities of edu- cation were those of the common district schools of those days. At the age of eighteen years he closed his school-going, but hard study and close application en- abled him to gain enough instruction for business. After this he engaged as clerk with his uncle at Spring- field, where he remained four years; in 1852 he en- tered the store at Lima as clerk for S. P. Williams, with whom he remained for three years, when he pur- chased the stock in trade, and commenced business on his own account, which he has continued uninterrupt- edly for twenty-five years, with increasing popularity as a citizen and business man. Few merchants are as ex- tensively, or more favorably known in the commercial world than Mr. Rawles. He has been longer in the trade than any one else in Lagrange County, and he has won not only a financial success, but secured an envia- ble position in business. In all the transactions of life he is noted for the exact justice he shows in his intercourse with men. In his business matters he is prompt, ener- getic, and watchful, never engaging in any chimerical or speculative projects, preferring gradual and sure gains to taking uncertain chances for large ones. He is a man of sound judgment, seldom erring in matters of business. Mr. Rawles was once a Whig, and ad- hered to that party until 1854, when it lost its identity and was merged into the Republican organization. To that body he has since been allied. He is firm and uncompromising in the support of his political convictions. Mr. Rawles was elected by the Republican party in 1870 as the people's Representative in the state Legislature, serving for two years, and in the discharge of his duties was industrious and con- scientious. He was one of the thirty-four members who resigned near the close of the session of 1871, leaving the House without a quorum, thus preventing the oppo- sition from re-districting the state for corrupt party pur- poses. Mr. Rawles is an honored and consistent mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, of Lima, and has for many years officiated as one of its trustees. He is active in the Sabbath-schools and all other work of the Church, generous to its needs, and by his life's example contributing much to its advancement. He is a strong temperance man. April 26, 1855, Mr. Rawles was united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Oakes, then of Noble County, Indiana, but a native of Albion, New York. She is a lady of ability and acquirements, and is a valued member of the Presbyterian Church, a de- vout Christian, and an earnest worker in all the calls of the Church. She is of pleasing presence. To her the duties of wife and mother are sacred. They have had four children, two sons and two daughters. Frank W. was born October 30, 1856. He completed his school-

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ing at Wabash College, from which he graduated with distinguished honors, June, 1879. Ilis thesis, deliv- ered in the college May 4th, at the Baldwin Prize Exhibition -subject, " War and National Charac- ter"-was received with marked favor. Ile was awarded the second honors of the graduating class. He is now successfully filling the position of principal of the Lima schools, and from past and present success we bespeak for him a brilliant future. Lulu was born September 13, 1859. She is now an advanced student of the junior class in Clinton College, New York. Herbert W. was born January 22, 1862, and died Feb- ruary 18, 1864. Mary was born September 14, 1865; and Williamson, junior, November 18, 1869.

ERICK, MAJOR JOHN II., the editor and pro- prietor of the Lagrange Standard, was born Feb- ruary 4, 1830, near Dayton, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Lamb) Rerick, farmers by occupation, and natives, re- spectively, of the states of New York and Indiana. The mother was of English descent, and the father of Ger- man extraction. John, grandfather of Major Rerick, was a soldier, and fought and died in the service of his country, in the War of 1812 with England. His son Henry was a man of local prominence and acknowledged worth in the community, and an exemplary citizen and neighbor. He died in 1876, in the seventy-second year of his age. Major John II. Rerick in boyhood and early youth acquired his education in the common schools and at the academy at South Bend, Indiana. At the early age of fifteen he began teaching school winters, giving the rest of his time to farm labor and school attendance, until at the age of twenty he began life on his own account. Ile then spent a year in read- ing medicine, and lecturing on the outline method of instruction in geography. In 1851 he entered the Med- ical Department of the Michigan University, at Ann Arbor, from which he graduated, March 1, 1853, when he went to Sumption Prairie, St. Joseph County, Indi- ana, where his father's family had previously removed. Here he commenced the practice of his profession, con- tinuing there until the spring of 1854. December 2, 1853, he married Miss Elizabeth Green, of Sumption Prairie. The following spring he removed to Fort Wayne, and, during the cholera plague of the follow- ing season, was most active and efficient in the treat- ment of those stricken with the disease. Although a young physician, and in a new field of practice, he se- cured a favorable position, having met with gratifying success in the treatment of the epidemic and other cases coming under his care. His wife died, January 20, 1855, leaving an infant son, Louis, who was born the

6th of January. The following spring he removed to South Bend, where, on July 27, he lost his child. In the fall he went to Elkhart, and, in 1859, to Lagrange, where he continued until the opening of the War of the Rebellion. The Doctor was one of the first to engage in the recruiting service. He wrote the first enrollment paper, and enlisted, with the aid of others, the first soldiers in Lagrange. In Au- gust, 1861, he volunteered as a private in the 30th Reg- iment Indiana Infantry, but before its organization he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 44th Indiana Infantry. He proceeded with it to Calhoun, Kentucky, where, upon the forward movement of the army, the Doctor was left in charge of the sick at that post. He had three hundred and fifty invalid soldiers there without hospital accommodations, and was compelled to use bar- rooms, saloons, barns, and out-buildings, as shelter for his men. On the Ist of March, 1862, having sent such of the sick as had not sufficiently recovered for field duty to the United States Hospital, at Evansville, Indiana, he, with the convalescent, joined his command near Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, prior to the bat- tle of Pittsburgh Landing, in which he was engaged during the entire two days' conflict, notwithstanding a wound he received on the first day. For his gallantry and efficient services he was highly complimented by his superior officer. We subjoin an extract from the official report of the commander of the regiment dur- ing the engagement, Colonel H. B. Reed :

"Nor ought I to forget the bravery and devotion of Doctors Martin and Rerick-who were with their regiments at all times during the fight, caring for the wounded, exposed to the enemy's shot, and were both hit with balls-as illustrating the heated part of the action in which the regiment participated."

Colonel Reed says :

" During the fight of Sunday and Monday my reg- iment fired over one hundred and sixty rounds of car- tridges at the enemy, and too high praise can not be given them."

The Doctor accompanied his regiment to Corinth ; thence to Booneville; and then to Iuka, Mississippi, where he was taken sick and subsequently granted a furlough. After about one month spent at home he joined his command, at Battle Creek, Tennessee, after which the movements of the army were to Nashville and Louisville, Perryville, Eastern Kentucky, Nash- ville, Tennessee, and Stone River, where he partic- ipated in the three days' fight, serving in the field. For two weeks thereafter he was on active duty in the general field hospital, where his health again gave way, and he was sent home February, 1863, as hope- lessly ill. By the first of April he had so far recov- ered his health as to enable him to return. In Oc- tober, 1863, he was made surgeon of his regiment, which was engaged in the battle of Chickamauga ; and

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to the Doctor's energy and judicious management is due the credit of the successful removal of his wounded from the field hospital, which all knew would soon be captured by the enemy. We extract the fol- lowing personal notices from the official report of the engagement of Colonel S. A. Aldrich. He says :

"The ever-faithful Doctor Rerick followed his regi- ment from point to point, assisted by Doctor Carr, and I am pleased to say that no regiment has had better care for their wounded than the 44th Indiana in the army. He succeeded also in getting all our wounded men from the hospital, Sunday evening, before it was captured by the enemy."

He served at Chattanooga until the close of the war, and was continued on post duty there until September, 1865, when he was mustered out of service. In his professional life in the army he was marked for the at- tentive and conscientious discharge of his duties. Doctor Rerick is among the very few surgeons-if not the only surgeon in the state-who entered the war with their regiments, and with them, after four years of continued service, were mustered out. After his release from army life he returned to Lagrange, and, in company with Doc- tor E. G. White, resumed the practice of medicine, re- maining until 1867, when he purchased the Standard press and business. Discontinuing his medical practice, he engaged in the publication of the Standard as editor. As a physician and surgeon he was skillful, successful, and popular with the people. He was active in the or- ganization of the party in the district in 1856. While he has held positions of public honor and trust, it has been more through the desire of his friends than from his own wish. In 1868 he was elected by his party as clerk of the Circuit Court, a position he held by re-election for eight years. ITis administration as clerk was characterized by promptness, courtesy, and correctness. In 1869 he sold the Standard office, re-pur- chasing it in 1872, and conducting it in connection with his clerkship until 1877, since which he has devoted his undivided time and energies to the interest of his paper and printing business, and by his ability and judicious management has made his publication an able and pop- ular newspaper, well worthy the name it bears. As a writer he is ready, candid, forcible, and comprehensive, and as a public speaker he is earnest, logical, and con- vincing. The Major is one of the board of school trustees. He is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Lagrange, of which he is a trus- tee, and is active and earnest in advocating temperance and other reforms. He is a member of the Order of Odd-fellows. May 1, 1856, he married Miss Marianette Devor, of Elkhart, a lady of marked appearance and high personal attractions and endowments. She is a trusting Christian and a worthy member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. They have three sons: Row- land H., born February 5, 1857; John D., born July 1,

1860; and Carl, born July 4, 1868. The Major is ever foremost with those engaged in the work of promoting the best temporal, moral, and educational growth of society, and is regarded by all as one of the substantial and leading men of Lagrange County. He is one of the founders of the Island Park Assembly, located at Rome City, Indiana, a society organized for the pur- pose of social, literary, and religious culture, of which the Major is president and an active and influential member. He is a true type of the successful self-made men of Indiana, indebted to self-effort for his education and position in life.

OBERTSON, COLONEL ROBERT S., lawyer, of Fort Wayne, was born April 16, 1839, in North Argyle, Washington County, New York, where his father, Nicholas Robertson, was born, and still re- sides. He was educated at Argyle Academy, in the midst of home influences and that strict Scotch Presby- terian element which was introduced into that section of the country in 1764 by the Duke of Argyle. In 1859 he commenced the study of law with Hon. James Gib- son at Salem, New York, and continued his studies dur- ing 1860 in New York City under Hon. Charles Crary, the author of a work on "Special Proceedings." He was admitted to the bar in November, 1860, his exam- ination being conducted in open court by Hons. J. W. Edmonds, E. S. Benedict, and M. S. Bidwell, Judges Josiah Sutherland, Henry Hogeboom, and B. W. Bon- ney presiding. He then located at Whitehall, New York, where he practiced law until the spring of 1861, when, feeling it his duty to aid the government in sup- pressing the Rebellion, he undertook to raise a company for the army. The recruits, as fast as enlisted, were placed in barracks at Albany, where an order was re- ceived to consolidate all parts of companies and regi- ments and forward them at once to Washington. Un- der this order his men were assigned to Company I, 93d New York Volunteers. They, however, refused to go unless Robertson went with them. Rather than desert the men he had enlisted, he at once entered the service as a private, but was made orderly sergeant of his com- pany, and in that capacity went to the front. In April, 1861, he was made second lieutenant. His regiment being on duty as guard for army headquarters, he soon grew tired of the inactivity, and accepted the po- sition that was tendered him as aide on the staff of General N. A. Miles, who was commanding one of the fighting brigades in the First Division, Second Corps. While on this duty he was twice wounded in battle : once in the charge at Spottsylvania, May 12, 1864, when a musket ball was flattened on his knee; and, again, on the 30th of May, 1864, at Tolopotomy Creek, where he

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was shot from his horse in a charge, the ball passing through his abdomen from the front of the right hip to the back of the left, at which time he was reported among the mortally wounded. Possessing a strong con- stitution and temperate habits, he recovered sufficiently to go to the front, before Petersburg, in the fall of 1864. His wound breaking out afresh, he was dis- charged September 3, 1864, " for disability from wounds received in action." For these services he was the re- cipient of two brevet commissions: one was from the President of the United States, conferring the rank of captain ; the other being that of colonel, conferred by the Governor of New York, "for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Spottsylvania and Tolopotomy Creek." During the two years following his retirement from the army, Colonel Robertson was located in Wash- ington, where he practiced law. He was married, July 19, 1865, at Whitehall, New York, to Elizabeth H. Miller. In 1866 he located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he and his family now reside. In 1867 he was elected city attorney of that place, a position which he held two years. In 1868 he was Republican candidate for state Senator for Allen and Adams Counties. In 1871 he was appointed register in bankruptcy and also United States commissioner. He resigned the position of register in 1875, and has never since held office. At the Republican State Convention which assembled at Indianapolis on February 22, 1876, Colonel Robertson was nominated by acclamation for the office of Lieutenant- governor. This nomination was entirely unsought for on his part, he having no intimation that his name was to be used for any office before the convention until a few days previous. The Republican ticket was, how- ever, defeated. Colonel Robertson is a good speaker, and possesses excellent legal attainments. He is a mem- ber of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a delegate member of " Le Congrès Interna- tional des Américanistes," and also member of the Indi- ana State Archæological Association. His family con- sists of a wife and five children. The Colonel is a man somewhat above the medium size, of commanding ap- pearance, and is well calculated to make friends where- ever he goes.

OBINSON, HENRY HARRISON, LL. B., of Fort Wayne, second son of the late Hon. James H. Robinson, was born February 2, 1841, in Newark, New Jersey. He passed three years at Princeton College, leaving in 1861, at the commence- ment of the senior year, to enter the service with the 55th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. He graduated from the Law Department of the University of Chicago with the class of 1865, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Illinois the same year. He first

practiced his profession in Wisconsin, where he passed two years. Upon his return to Fort Wayne in 1867, he engaged in the boot and shoe business with his father on the present site of the Robinson House. On the 4th of July, 1868, he delivered an oration of striking merit, which was published, at the request of his comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic; and the following fall he was one of the two Republican nominees for state Representative, braving the majority of over two thousand in the " banner Democratic county" of the state. He made an active canvass and uncommonly strong speeches. In 1869 he was reading clerk of the House, at Indianapolis, being considered the best it ever had, and over the nom de plume of " Harri- son " wrote popular letters to the Fort Wayne Ga- zette. He was so acceptable as to have received the indorsement of the state officers and Republican mem- bers of the Senate and House for the secretaryship of one of the territories. He was discouraged, however, by the host of applicants under Grant's first administra- tion, and withheld the presentation of his papers. From 1870 to 1872 he published the Wabash Republican, one of the largest and ablest weeklies in Indiana. At the November term of the Federal Court for the District of Indiana, Mr. Robinson was appointed a United States commissioner, and served in that honorable capacity until his return to Fort Wayne. In the fall of the latter year he was the Liberal nominee for the House of Representatives. He made an admirable campaign in Wabash County, working against a heavy majority for what he deemed the better cause. In 1873 he re- turned from Wabash to Fort .Wayne, and engaged in the practice of law and literary pursuits, being at one time editor of the Fort Wayne Gazette. On the 22d of February, 1874, he addressed an open letter to Hon. James M. Tyner, member of Congress, afterwards Post- master-general, on the unconstitutional increase of the President's pay under the notorious " salary-grab" act. He afterwards embodied the substance of it in a petition to Congress, which was presented in the House of Rep- resentatives by Judge Holman and in the Senate by Hon. Carl Schurz. The argument had a very wide circulation, and won high praise. Its estimate by lead- ing men in Congress, where it produced a decided im- pression, may be seen by the following extract from a private letter from Mr. Tyner :

" General Garfield spoke of it as an interesting letter, and Speaker Blaine says it is exceedingly ingenious and able. It will be gratifying to you to know that so able gentlemen as these have read the letter so carefully as to be interested in it, a result that rarely comes out of volunteer opinions."

Judge Holman, in a private letter to Mr. Robin- son, said :

"It is the only compact and conclusive argument upon the subject ; and, for one, I thank you for pre-

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senting the question so clearly and forcibly to the | enough to esteem myself equal to what a member of country."

The fact that the petition was allowed to sleep in the pigeon-holes of Congress does not impair the validity of its conclusions nor detract from the patriotic courage which prompted it. On the 16th of March, 1874, the day of the funeral of Senator Charles Sumner, Mr. Robinson supported a motion of respect to his memory before the Hon. Robert Lowry, of the Allen County Circuit Court, which accomplished the object sought, and added much to his reputation as an orator. The eloquent tribute was as follows :

" May it please your Honor : In view of the nation's loss of Charles Sumner, and of the hour when his re- mains are consigned to the hallowed soil of Massachu- setts, would it not be eminently proper for the court to adjourn ? The illustrious pupil of Story and Greenleaf, who traced jurisprudence to its sources, distant, dim, and deep; who lectured at Harvard with the grace and power of the scholarly athlete, and the rare culture that flowered from foreign research and association ; who, as a distinguished guest, was invited to sit upon the benches of Westminster Hall, and upon the platforms of the Sor- bonne and the College of France; who edited the Amer- ican Jurist, and reported the decisions of the United States Circuit Court, first in district as in fame; who published an edition of Vesey's voluminous 'Chancery Reports,' with conspicuous ability, and took a high rank at the exacting bar of Boston-an American law- yer with such a career before the age of thirty-five, and with an orbit so brilliant since, deserves at least such a mark of our respect. Let it not be said, that in Indiana, where adult male citizenship and certified moral character admit one to a learned profession, there was not a court to recognize that the basis of his grand achievements was the science of the law. He became a Senator at the age of forty, and he has more than succeeded Mr. Webster. The tender and universal grief of the land-akin to that which freighted the hier of Lincoln, of Greeley, and of Chase-attests the twenty-three years of matchless service that have fol- lowed. Ill can the Congress and the country spare Charles Sumner. He loomed a pyramid in the broad waste of statesmanship, and he has left no peer with such heroic figure to grace the first centenary of our national freedom. He was the most accomplished American in public life, and the foremost champion of human rights. To pay meet tribute to the memory of such a man, lawyer, orator, patriot, statesman, philanthropist, pure, earnest, and great, I move, your Honor, the adjournment of the court."

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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 98

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