USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > Evansville > A history of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, Indiana : a complete and concise account from the earliest times to the present, embracing reminiscences of the pioneers and biographical sketches of the men who have been leaders in commercial and other enterprises > Part 44
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In 1853 his wife died in New Albany of the cholera, when that fatal disease was raging as an epidemic throughout the country. Four children were born to them, whose names are as here given: Evoline, William Merchant, Francis Marion and Mary. The latter is dead, having lived to a good age before the translation from life to eternity came. Ransom W. Akin remarried, his second wife being a Miss Sarah Sedgwick, a descendant of the Maryland family of that name. They are a long lived family. Five sisters are now living at the ad- vanced age of ninety or thereabouts. The children of this second marriage were John, Margaret, Sarah, (wife of Dr. Cloud), Louise, Charles, (who has been a senator in the Indiana legislature), Edward and Josiah, (both of whom are now in business at Carlisle, Indiana- merchandising, banking and farming.) Margaret and Ransom Wallace are dead.
In 1837 Ransom Wallace Akin took his family and removed to Carlisle, Indiana, where he spent the chief part of the remainder of his life in merchandising. When his family had grown up and needed
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the benefits of a higher education, he removed to Bloomington to place them in the Bloomington University. This was in 1851. While there he could not remain idle. He, with others, organized a bank and he became its president. Like so many of the banks of that day, this bank was caught in the panic of 1857 and broke. In 1858 or 1859 he changed his residence again, and this time it was to go back to the old home at Carlisle. He was sent to the State senate one term, this being the only public office he ever held. In his latter days he di- gressed slightly from his life-long precept to follow but one thing, and purchased a farm near Carlisle, where he took some delight in improv- ing it and feeding the soil with those elements of which it had been robbed by long and unwise cultivation. He never entirely gave up his business of merchandising, and died in the active field of 1880. He was a man whose honest business principles had made everybody his friend and whose irreproachable life had become a monument of great honor to him.
His son, William Merchant Akin, was born in a cabin on his fath- er's farm, about five miles from New Albany, on November 18, 1828. Log cabins in those days were the only princely palaces of which pio- neers could boast. Indeed, as to that, it is not so far back in the his- tory of England itself when the luxury of leaves as a carpet on the dirt floors was a matter of open comment and wonder. It was when the subject of this sketch was an infant that his father removed from the farm to the town of New Albany, and he was only nine years old when his father removed to Carlisle. He secured what education the common schools afforded. When he was eighteen years old, in 1846, he went to Greencastle to college, where he spent two years. It was his intention to finish the college curriculum, but his father, needing the services of his son, sent for him. So he began a business life when he was twenty years old, and his career as a business man has known no interruptions since that date. He married at the age of twenty, and his father at once set him up in the same business in the same town. The country merchant in those days ventured down the river with flatboats loaded with corn and other products, much of it being taken on accounts which customers had made at the store. He himself, in his early life, steered at different times two flatboats down the Wabash into the Ohio and thence down the Mississippi river to New Orleans. Having received a splendid training as a country merchant, he entered a larger field in 1865, in which to continue his mercantile affairs, and came to Evansville at a time when common domestics invoiced at 70 cents per yard, such as can now be bought now for 5 or 6 cents per
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yard. In 1848 his father began the pork-packing business. It grew naturally out of his general merchandising, and from that day to this William M. has been continuously in that line of business, and he is regarded as having been the longest in that business, withont varia- tion, of any man now living in America. In 1864 he paid $100 for a single hog that was almost equal in size to a cow. When he came to Evansville, therefore, he became the successor of Samnel Orr, and shortly afterward he built for himself a house on First street, between Division and Ingle streets, also a slaughter house on Pigeon creek. When the building on First street burned in 1872, he immediately rebuilt and leased it to Ragon Brothers, who still occupy it. Not- withstanding all his pushing, uucompromising activity, he has not always sailed along smoothly. He has lost and made, suffered the joys and pains of business, had his ups and downs, but through it all, it is good to say he has never failed in business, nor did his father. No man ever lost a dollar through him. He has made business a success, and in his declining days has the satisfaction of knowing that he has accumulated a competency. However, he is still active in commercial affairs. Through the panic of 1873 to 1878 he lost abont $75,000. His is, indeed, a proud record. He owns a farm now, and is some- thing of a horse fancier, taking great delight in thoroughbred horses. His record of credit is one to be proud of. All aloug his life it has been a cardinal point with him to live up to all his engagements, how- ever slight or unimportant they might be. All promises on his part were important. The very year his father-in-law went to China as commissioner from the United States, Miss Mary S. Davis and Mr. W. M. Akin were married. The date of the marriage was December 8, 1848. To them were born seven children, whose names are as follows: Ransom Lee, William M., Jr., Henry Jackson, Carrie, (Mrs. N. T. DePauw) Bonnie, (Mrs. Wilbur Erskine). Two of the children died in infancy.
In his early life Mr. Akin belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife, trained in Methodism, allied herself with the Epis- copal church. Late in life she joined the Methodists, and is now a member of Trinity M. E. church. Mr. Akin is an honest man, socia- ble, reliable in all his statements, and one whom it is a delight to meet. His business career is sufficient to stamp him a man of force and sin- gleness of purpose. His success in life is a mark of distinguishing ability ; his high sense of social and business honor point him out as an example for others to emulate ; his generosity and respect for oth-
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ers show him to be instinctively a man of high motives and clear pur- pose.
The Davises originally came to America in the year 1650, from Bretango, and settled in Maryland. The great-grandfather of Mrs. W. M. Akin (nee Davis) was in the French and Indian war in 1755, in the command of General Forbes. In the course of the war the meagre knowledge of him reveals only the fact that he lost his life in the con- test-was killed in some fight. His eldest son, only ten years of age at the time of his father's death, was scarcely old enough to engage in the Revolutionary war that followed shortly afterward ; but, young as he was he took quite an active part in the struggle for liberty. After the battle of Trenton it became necessary to place a guard over the mercenary Hessians whom General Washington surprised in the midst of their holiday carousal and captured. This young patriot, grand- father of Mrs. Akin, was one of the guards. Even traditions relative to these Revolutionary patriots are so meagre and vague that the few facts which we do know of their lives only add fuel to the burning desire to know more. But the veil of silence over the past is as im- penetrable as the great mystery of the future. After peace had been restored to the torn and devastated land, the young patriot went to work in the vineyard of the Master, and entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church. For sixty years he was a faithful preacher of the word of God. He was born September 1, 1762, in the town of Shippensburg. He was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature for four years, having been first elected in 1816. His family consisted of six sons and one daughter.
His son, John W. Davis was born on the 16th of April, 1799, in New Holland, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was married October 19, 1820, and in April, 1823, moved to Carlisle, Indiana. Of the lady whom he married, Commodore John Lee Davis many years afterward wrote as follows: "Mother was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, on March 6, 1801. I know but little about the ancestors on mother's side. All I have is from hearsay, and I can only give it from memory. Our great-grandmother's maiden name was Lee, and we are descendants from the historical Lee family. I have talked with Aunt Jane Hoover about the Hoover side and she could give me no information further than that I already had. I started to gather to- gether all the facts pertaining to our ancestors on both sides several years ago, but did not have the means at hand to carry it out."
John W. Davis was in congress at intervals from 1835 to 1847, and was Speaker of the House in 1846. He was the second representa-
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tive or commissioner to China under President Pierce, in 1848-50, being the successor of Edward Everett, the first commissioner. After- ward he was appointed Governor of the territory of Oregon, 1853-4. While serving as chairman of the Baltimore political convention of 1852, he lacked but one vote of being nominated for president over Franklin Pierce. In that convention Pennsylvania and Virginia, one having but one more delegate vote than the other, retired to consider how they should vote, and when they returned the one having the greater number of votes went for Pierce, thus nominating him for president on the democratic ticket. John W. Davis had a classical education. He died August 22, 1859.
Commodore John Lee Davis was in charge of the vessel that carried his father to China, and later his ship carried Minister Denby to China. Dr. Charles Davis, brother of the Commodore and of Mrs. Akin, lives at Robinson, Illinois. Henry Davis, another brother, is in New Mexico, his twin brother William died two or three years ago at Carlisle, Indiana.
Judge Denny married the sister of Caroline, both are dead. Mary S., the only other child of Hon. John W. Davis, is the wife of Wil- liam M. Akin, of this city. She is an estimable lady and with the devotion of a true mother has trained up her children to right living.
John Lee Davis was born at Carlisle, Sullivan county, Indiana, on the 3d of September, 1825, and died in Washington only a few years ago. He was in the naval service from boyhood, as his father who was in congress at the time secured his entrance into the Annapolis Naval School. He.entered the U. S. service as a midshipman in 1841. In many naval engagements during the war for the Union he took a gallant part. . He was promoted Commodore on the 4th of February, 1882, and on the 30th of October, 1885, received his commission as rear admiral. In 1886 he was placed on the retired list.
CAPTAIN LEE HOWELL.
One of the most active and necessary business men of the city, at this time, is Captain Lee Howell. His energy, assiduity and business talent are crowning his life with success. His unflagging enterprise his admirable push, and his skillful application to his work prove his superior worth and mark him a prominent figure in the present history of the business industries of the city. Such a man's life is eminently worthy of note, not simply for what it accomplished, but for the ex-
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ample it exhibits to younger men, showing how success attends and crowns constant, well-directed, zealous efforts. From a farm lad with meagre school facilities, he has forged his way upward and forward, until to-day he is the general freight agent of the Evansville and St. Louis and Evansville, Henderson and Nashville divisions of the L. & N. railroad system.
He is a native of Lauderdale county, having been born near Florence, Alabama, where his parents from the Carolinas had settled in au early day. His existence began in the forties. When fifteen years old he quitted the old farm and began business in a large country store as clerk by day and bookkeeper by night, which occupation he followed till the breaking out of the civil conflict. In 1862 he entered the cavalry service of the Confederate army and served till the end of the war, enduring many hardships, engaging in many contests, and pass- ing through many narrow escapes. After the close of the fratricidal struggle he steamboated on the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, first as chief clerk and later as master of the various steamboats running be- tween Upper Tennessee river points and Evansville. It was here that his business talent was manifested. On April 1, 1872, he became con- tracting agent for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, a position he held for eight years. His promotion and appointment to the position of general agent of the company dates from 1880, after which promotions followed in rapid succession. On June 1, 1882, he was appointed division freight agent of the Evansville, Henderson and Nashville division, and on November 1, general freight agent of the Evansville and St. Louis, and Evansville, Henderson and Nashville divisions, with headquarters in Evansville.
He is deeply interested in the progress of the city, the development of its natural resources, and the advancement of its general prosperity. He was one of the originators of the Evansville, Newburgh and Suburban railway, and is always found a leading figure in public en- terprises of value to Evansville. Captain Howell was the originator and prime factor of the Evansville Cross Tie Company, organized in 1888, for the purpose of manufacturing cross ties and further develop- ing the lumber business on Green river. This company afterwards merged into the T. J. Moss Tie Company, which is now manufactur- ing 600,000 ties per annum in Green river territory. We are also in- debted to him for the Evansville, Ohio and Green River Transporta- tion Company, organized in 1889, the two concerns together expending annually along Green river and at Evansville for timber, labor, trans- portation, supplies, etc., over $200,000, which is being increased
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yearly, and which is a direet benefit to the commercial interests of Evansville. The latter is his favorite enterprise. It has grown from one towboat and a small fleet of barges when the company was first organ- ized to its present flourishing eondition, including the towboats Long- fellow and Little Tom Moss and a large fleet of barges engaged ex- clusively in towing eross ties and lumber from landings on Green, Barren, Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers to Evansville. This company also owns and operates the steam packets Evansville and Gayoso, which also makes two trips each per week, between Evansville and Bowling Green, Ky. In the operation of this vast business enterprise every energy is directed toward developing and increasing the business of Green river territory, making it tributary to Evans- ville. It is Captain Howell's earnest desire to aid in the development of the resources of Green river territory to such an extent as to justify a daily line of steamers between Evansville and Bowling Green.
Miss Emma Ottaway, of Tuscumbia, Alabama, became his wife in 1867, and to them were born four children, two of whom are dead. Lee, Jr., is now abont twenty-three years old and is settling into a career that will eventually mark his life with honor. Emma, aged abont sixteen, is the joy and solace of her parents.
BYRON PARSONS.
The subject of this sketch was born in Rodman, Jefferson county, N. Y., December 15, 1835, and is of Scoteh-English descent. Just when the traditional three Parsons brothers came to New England is not known, but a deed now in his possession, bearing date of October 30, 1718, clearly proves that his ancestors were early settlers there. This deed is signed by Samuel Parsons, and conveys land located upon the east bank of the Connecticut river, in Hampshire county, to his son, Samuel Parsons, Jr. This aneient document has been handed down to him through the oldest sons of succeeding generations. (This unique doenment is appended at the end of this sketeh). His father, Elam Parsons, was born in Connecticut in 1809, and moved with his father, Samuel Parsons, to Jefferson county, N. Y., about the end of the first quarter of this century. His mother was the daughter of Captain Samuel McNitt, who served this country in the war of 1812, and dis- tinguished himself in the battle of Sackett's Harbor in May, 1813.
Byron Parsons was the only son born to Elam Parsons by the first wife. Soon after his birth his father moved to Ellisburg, Jefferson
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county, (N. Y.) where he grew to manhood. His early life was spent ou a farm, and his education was obtained in the country schools and Belleville Union academy. In the spring of 1856, and prior to his twenty-first birthday, he caught the Kansas fever, and left the parental roof to seek his fortune in the far west. At this time the Kansas- Nebraska act, which became a law in 1854, began to bear fruit, and Kansas became the battle ground for the settlement of the great slave question. Settlers in great numbers were pouring into the territory from both north and south ; those from the north for the purpose of organizing a free state, and those from the south for the purpose of organizing a slave state.
About this time Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, from his pulpit in Brooklyn, N. Y., declared that settlers to Kansas should go armed with a Bible and a Colt's revolver. Mr. Parsons took his advice. He journeyed by rail to St. Louis, and from thence to Kansas City by river, on a steamboat loaded to her guards with emigrants and sup- plies destined for the " New Eldorado." The staterooms did not hold half of the passengers, and Mr. Parsons was obliged to sleep on a cot in the cabin with many others, who were no more fortunate than him- self. On landing at Kansas City he put up at the Free State hotel. He soon learned that the feeling between the pro-slavery and anti- slavery faetions was already at fever heat. Late in the day he was advised that he had better seek lodging elsewhere, as the pro-slavery mob from the other side of the river, that two days before had gone to Lawrence to pillage and burn that town, were expected baek that night, and the hotel would probably be destroyed, as it was owned by a free state man. The mob returned as expected, armed with all sorts of firearms and bearing banners with various pro-slavery mottoes, but they did not molest anything. They went on board a ferryboat, and with three cheers for Lawrence, pulled out into the stream and left for their homes in Missouri, on the other side of the river. On the follow- ing day, he joined a party of ten in the purchase of two ox teams and a "prairie sehooner" with which to transport baggage and supplies.
With these they set out for the uninhabited prairies of southeast Kan- sas, which were fast being settled. At Osawotamie a halt was made and a quarter section of land pre-empted. He at onee went to work, cutting down trees with which to build a house, in order to hold his claim, but had searcely more than got the logs up, before rumors were current that a Missouri mob might be expected at any time. A vigi- lance committee was organized and Mr. Parsons was called upon to do his first duty in defense of right and free institutions, under the direc-
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tion of Captain John Brown, later of Harper's Ferry notoriety. The mob came as expected, and Captain Brown, with his unorganized force, did what he could in defense of the town and postoffice, just estab- lished, but was overwhelmed by superior numbers, and the town was taken and pillaged and the postoffice robbed. Captain Brown lost one son, killed in the fight, and several others of his unorganized force were wounded. From that time on he was known as Ossawatomie Brown. At this time Mr. Parsons was sick at the home of a Quaker, two miles away, but distinctly remembers hearing the fusilade, which lasted for about half an hour. Opened letters for him were found in the streets of the town after the mob had finished their pillaging and left.
Owing to continued illness he returned to his father's home in Jeffer- son county, N. Y., in the winter of 1856-57. In the spring of 1857 lie accepted a position as clerk in a general merchandise store in Ellis- burg, at a salary of $75 a year, and was so employed until the early fall of 1859, when he accepted a position as traveling salesman for a wholesale boot and shoe house in New York City. The firm failed in the early part of 1860, and he accepted a similar position with Lewis Brothers, of Utica, where he remained until October, 1861, when he returned to his native town, iu Jefferson county, to assist in raising a company of volunteers for the 94th regiment, then being organized at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y. He enlisted as a private October 16, and on the organization of company C, was elected second lieutenant, and mustered into the United States service February 14, 1862. March 15 the regiment was ordered to Washington, and was immediately assigned to duty as provost guard at Alexandria, Va. It did duty there during the embarkation of Mcclellan's army for Fortress Monroe, but soon after joined McDowell's army on the Rappahannock, opposite Fred- ericksburg. It was with McDowell's corps in its fruitless march to the Shenandoah valley, after Stonewall Jackson, from May 25 to June 18. The regiment was first under fire at Cedar Mountain, August 9, and almost daily thereatter until the great battle of Bull Run, in which it participated August 30. First Lieutenant B. D. Searles, then commanding the company, was wounded in that engagement, and the command devolved upon Lieutenant Parsons. He remained in com- mand until Lieutenant Searles' return, about October 1.
He participated with his command in the battles of Chantilly on September 1, South Mountain September 14 and Antietam September 17. He was promoted to first lieutenant September 17, and was with his command during the march of the army down through northern
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Virginia and participated in the battle of Fredricksburg, December 13. He was promoted to captain January 6, 1863; participated in Burnside's "mud march" January 20 to 24, and in Hooker's chancellors campaign April 27 to May 6; also in the Pennsylvania campaign, and was wounded in the first day's battle at Gettysburg, July 1. He was granted leave of absence for thirty days, and at its expiration was de- tailed on special duty at Elmira, New York, and subsequently at Rikers Island, New York harbor, until November 25, when he was detailed on general conrt martial, which convened at Fort Hamilton and adjourned to New York City. He served on that court until January 16, 1864. January 22d he was detailed as second iu com- mand of a cargo of conscripts to Fortress Monroe and Alexandria, Va., and subsequently went with another cargo in the same capacity. He rejoined his command then doing duty at Camp Parole, near Annapolis, Maryland, February 12, and on the 19th of May left with his command to join the army of the Potomac, then fighting the battles of the Wilderness under Grant. His command reached the front then operating on the line of the Tolopotomy May 30, and was assigned to the first brigade, second division fifth army corps. Thus organized his command participated in the general movement towards Petersburg, and was hotły engaged in the swamps of the Chicka- hominy on the 13th holding the enemy in check while the main army was crossing the James river. He reached the front before Peters- burg on the 17th and participated in the advance and final unsuccess- ful assanlt upon the enemy's works on the 18th. He was continually with his command during the investment of that city; participated in the movement for the possession of the Petersburg and Weldon rail- road that began August 18, and was taken prisoner in the battle that gave us permanent possession on the afternoon of the 19th. He was a prisioner of war at Belle Isle, Libby, Salisbury, North Carolina, and Danville, Virginia, and was parolled from Libby prison February 22, 1865. He was discharged on application, by reason of expiration of term of service, March 10; but being appointed major rejoined his command April 13, and served in the field until mustered out with his regiment July 18.
While in Libby prison he formed the acquaintance of Captain Jesse Armstrong, of this city, who became one of his messmates in that noted hostelry. Captain Armstrong was enthusiastic in his praise of Evansville, and the acquaintance thus begun resulted at the close of the war in a correspondence with Coolidge Bros., who were formerly of Watertown, Jefferson county, New York, but at this time the lead-
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