USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, Volume II > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52
JOHN S. BAYS .- The late John S. Bays, of Sullivan, was widely known and deeply honored by the court and bar of both Sullivan and Vigo counties, his prominence as a corporation lawyer bringing him very frequently to the courts of Terre Haute and other points in southern Indiana. Commencing in Sullivan county as a general practitioner, nearly a quarter of a century ago, his strong mind became more and more interested in the development of the great business and industrial development of the section of the state which he had made his home, and those forces themselves began to call upon him with ever increasing insistence for his careful, wise and practical legal guidance. The most important development of southern Indiana centered in its coal interests, and prior to their consolidation Mr. Bays had become the legal counsel for most of the large companies. By thus specializing he achieved a standing which placed him among the best informed and most successful lawyers in the country devoted to the management and exploitation of these vast properties. About two years before his death he effected a consolidation of the coal mines of southern Indiana, and this master stroke extended his reputation as a corporation lawyer throughout the central states. The vast business that resulted from this combination passed through his hands, and he did the work quickly because many years of application had made him thoroughly familiar with the details. He had always been a tremendous worker, all his habits were temperate, his constitution was vital with magnetism and based upon an abundance of physical strength, and yet it is doubtless true that the incessant and concentrated labors which finally gave birth to this last and greatest success of his professional life had much to do with the undermining of his health and his inability to resist the inroads of the disease which, with such comparative suddenness, snatched him from his business associates, his professional co-workers, and his loving kindred and friends. He spent the winter preceding his death in California, but, upon his return to Sullivan in the spring it was found that the change had been unavailing, and after several months of heroic struggling and the final resignation of a calm and resigned Christian, he died in the midst of his family on the 13th of August, 1906. On the day of his funeral the whole city practically suspended business, and the memorial resolutions of the bar associations of Sullivan, Greene, Vigo and Knox counties indicated
10
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
how general was the feeling of deep loss which pervaded the ranks of his professional associates. In the procession which accompanied his re- mains from the church to the grave were representatives of these organi- zations, as well as from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he had long been active. "Coupled with his commanding ability as a lawyer," says one of the tributes, "was a high character as a citizen and a lovable disposition as a man and a friend. Ever kind and courteous in his bearing toward his associates at the bar and litigants, fair and honorable in his professional conduct, respectful and considerate of the judge on the bench, and faith- ful above all to those who were so fortunate as to become his clients, he has left among us a name to be cherished and an example to be emu- lated with profit."
John S. Bays was a native of Point Commerce, Greene county, Indiana, where he was born on the 27th of January, 1850. His father, William S. Bays, was born in Virginia, and after his marriage to a Kentucky lady came to Indiana, where he prosecuted his dual calling of hardware merchant and farmer. The parents both died on the old Bays homestead near Worthington, Greene county. John S. obtained his preliminary education in the common schools of his native place, and in 1867, at the age of seventeen, entered the Indiana University at Bloomington. Because of the illness of his father he was obliged to leave the university, after completing a three years' course there. In 1871 he entered the law department of the university, from which he was graduated. Shortly afterward, in 1875, he began practice at Worthing- ton, where he remained for five years, being also the publisher of the Times during a portion of that period. In 1880 he removed to Bloom- field and formed a law partnership with Hon. Lucien Shaw, the firm practicing in Los Angeles, California, in 1883-4. (Judge Shaw is now a member of the supreme court of California.) In the latter year Mr. Bays returned to Indiana, and located at Sullivan, his home thereafter until his death. His talents and strength were all devoted to the practice of his profession and he ever preferred the career of an attorney, as he repeatedly declined to be a candidate for judge of the fourteenth judicial district. In politics he was a Democrat, but was never a candidate for any political office ; but during the administration of Governor Durbin he was appointed as the Democratic member of the board of directors of the Southern Hospital for the Insane, which position he held at the time of his death. The deceased was a member of the Methodist church, the Sullivan lodge of Odd Fellows, and a charter member of Sullivan Lodge No. 911, B. P. O. E. He was instrumental in securing many public improvements for Sullivan, among others the founding of the Carnegie library, of which he was one of the first trustees.
In 1876 Mr. Bays was united in marriage with Miss Hettie Fenton, of Indianapolis, but a native of Canada. She is a daughter of John Fenton, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and married in Clifton, Eng- land. He came to Canada in the fifties with his wife and when they migrated to the United States located in Ohio. Mr. Fenton served in
II
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
the ranks of the Union army throughout the Civil war, and afterward located in Indianapolis, where both he and his wife spent their last years and where Mrs. John S. Bays was educated. The widow still resides at Sullivan, the mother of the following: Lee, born January 30, 1878; Harold, born January 26, 1880; and Fred F., whose biography is else- where given.
Lee received a thorough literary training at DePauw University and graduated in law at the University of Wisconsin. He married Miss Zoe E. Chaney, daughter of Congressman John C. Chaney. Harold, the second son, graduated from the Sullivan High School, and served four years in the army, his experience covering campaigns both in Cuba and the Philippines. He then graduated from Culver Academy, and while a student there held the western academic record in the hammer throw for 1902-3. He married Miss Glenn Lucas, daughter of Captain W. H. Lucas, a sketch of whose life is given in other pages of this work. Harold C. Bays is now head of the artillery department of the Culver Military Academy and instructor in English and mathematics. He has two sons. Lee and Fred Fenton Bays are now associated in the practice of the law, the former having previously been connected with his father.
FRED FENTON BAYS, of the law firm of Bays & Bays, of Sullivan, is one of the able, eloquent and broad-minded young men of this section of Indiana, who in his professional, political and public capacities has already achieved much and given promise of a brilliant and substantial future career. He was born in Bloomfield, Indiana, on the 12th day of July, 1882, a son of the late John S. and Hattie (Fenton) Bays. His father was for nearly a quarter of a century one of the leading lawyers of southern Indiana, and, had he so desired, might have ascended the bench of the higher courts. But all his abilities were wrapped in the practice of the law, and at his death he was considered one of the leading. cor- poration lawyers of the Ohio valley and had no superior as an authority on the law relating to coal interests. As a man he was pure, high-minded and lovable, and the record of his life is given elsewhere in detail.
Fred F. Bays received the foundation of his mental training at Culver Academy, from which he graduated in 1904, after which he pursued his professional courses in the University of Indianapolis Law School and the University of Indiana Law School at Bloomington, Indiana. Soon after graduating from the latter he entered into practice with his brother Lee, who had been associated with his father. The two brothers, under the style of Bays & Bays, have continued the large business established by their father, and are handling it with energy and fine judgment. Although general practitioners, they make a specialty of corporate law as relates to the coal interests, representing both the Southern Indiana railroad and the Southern Indiana Coal Company. They are also attorneys for the Standard Oil Company for that section of the state. Their well-appointed
12
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
and busy offices are located on the north side of the public square on Washington street.
Fred F. Bays is a strong Democrat, and early commenced to partici- pate in the deliberations of the party. At the age of twenty-two he was elected chairman of the county committee, and ably performed its duties for two years. Governor Hanly selected him as a trustee of the Indiana Southern Hospital for the Insane to fill out his father's unexpired term of one and a half years, and at the expiration of that period he was appointed for a new term of four years, which will not expire until 1912. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis, and is also active in the fraternal work of the Elks, being exalted ruler of Lodge No. 911. He maintains his fraternal associations with his alma mater through the Beta Theta Pi of the Indiana University, and has cause to remember his college career with pride as well as fond- ness. While at Culver he won the first medal for oratory and a medal for debate; was editor-in-chief of the Vidette, and was a member of the football and track teams, as well as being interested in boxing and athletics in general. He was a true university man, and has carried the broad, active and versatile life of his college days into the realities of pro- fessional and social life. From college halls he has continued his interest in oratory, and takes time from his busy professional life to promote the art, and in giving a gold medal to the winner of the annual oratorical contest in the Sullivan high school he pays a beautiful tribute to his late father's memory and at the same time furnishes an inspiration to young men and women to cultivate this ancient and time-honored art. The annual event is known as the "John S. Bays Gold Medal Oratorical Contest."
SILVER CHANEY .- A lawyer, real estate dealer and loan agent, who is doing an extensive business at Sullivan, Indiana, is Silver Chaney, who was born September 14, 1858, in Allen county, Indiana, near Fort Wayne. He is the son of James and Nancy (Crawford) Chaney, the former being a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, born August 9, 1823. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. By trade he was a carpenter and contractor, working at the same in the vicinity of Fort Wayne. In his politics, he was a supporter of Republican party principles. He died in 1901, on a farm in Allen county. The mother was a native of Columbiana county, also ; the date of her birth was 1828, and she still survives and is residing in Allen county. Both she and her husband were Presbyterians in their church faith and membership. Twelve children were born to them, seven being now deceased and. the living are: John C., present member of Congress from the Second District of Indiana; Silver, of this biographical notice; Mary E .: Belle, wife of George Lopshire, a resi- dent of Allen county ; Matilda, wife of Joseph Weaver, residing in Wells county.
Silver Chaney spent the early part of his life on the farm and attended the public schools, after which he took an eight months course
13
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
in the schools of Farmersburg, and received a license to teach and taught two years at Cloverland, Clay county, Indiana. He next attended the Wabash College one year and entered Washington and Jefferson College, in Pennsylvania, where he took a literary course, graduating with the class of 1879. He returned to his native state and taught school in Wells and Allen counties two years, as principal of the Zanesville schools. In 1883, he went to Sullivan and engaged in the abstract business, handling real estate at the same time, and continuing in such work until 1887, when he entered the University of Michigan, graduating from the law department of that most thorough and modern school, with the class of 1889. He then returned to Sullivan county, and commenced the practice of law with C. D. Hunt, of Sullivan. After two years thus associated, he practiced independently for a time, and then formed a partnership with A. G. McNabb, with whom he remained a partner for four years. Since that date he has been alone or with his brother, Hon. John C. Besides carrying on in a successful manner his legal business, he is extensively engaged in loans and real estate transactions. He is a director of the Citizens Trust Company of Sullivan and also director in the American- German Trust Company of Terre Haute; director and auditor of the Great Western Life Insurance Co. of Terre Haute.
Mr. Chaney and his brother, Hon. John C. Chaney, organized the Alum Cave Coal and Coke company, which was the first movement in the direction of developing the coal fields of the neighborhood of Sullivan county.
Mr. Chaney is interested in fraternities, being a member of the Odd Fellows order and has been district deputy grand master and grand patriarch for about fourteen years in Lodge No. 146. He is also a member of the Masonic blue lodge, chapter and council. He was married August 12, 1889, to Minnie M. McEneney, born in Sullivan county, August 12, 1864; she was educated in Sullivan county and at St. Mary of the Woods class. Her parents were, Patrick and Julia A. McEneney, both now residents of Sullivan, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Chaney have four children: Julia Verne, Silver Dean, John Francis, and Harold R. Mrs. Chaney is a member of the Christian church and he of the Presby- terian.
WILLIAM H. CROWDER, JR., prominent as the cashier of the Sullivan State Bank, comes of a well-known and highly respected family of Sullivan county, Indiana. He was born November 23, 1868, in Sulli- van, son of William H. Crowder, Sr. and wife, whose family history will be found in another sketch within this work. William H. Crowder of this notice, obtained his education in the most excellent public schools of Sullivan and began his business career at the age of sixteen years in his father's banking house. He became the bookeeper, which position he held until he was twenty-two years of age. At that time he entered into partnership with J. M. Long in the clothing business, remaining four years, when the partnership was dissolved, after which Mr. Crowder went
14
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
to Linton, Indiana, and there conducted a clothing and shoestore for about four years. He then entered the State Bank at Sullivan, in October, 1900, as the teller of that institution ; and also served as assistant cashier. In September, 1906, he was elected cashier of the bank, which responsible position he still holds. He is a stockholder and director in the Sullivan State Bank and accounted a first class business man.
Politically, he is a Democrat and has held the office of city counsel four years, and his term of office as such will expire January 1, 1910. He is connected with the Odd Fellows order at Sullivan. He was married in June, 1891, to Earlene Moore, born in Sullivan, October, 1872, and educated in her native town. She is the daughter of Robert A. and Susan (Robertson) Moore. The mother is deceased and her father re- sides at Sullivan. He is a native of Ohio, and both were among the early settlers of Sullivan. Mr. and Mrs. Crowder are the parents of seven children : William H. Jr., born August 17, 1892, now attending high school; Daniel M., born April 25, 1894; Doris, born May 1, 1898; De- borah, born April 5, 1900; June, born May 12, 1902; Elizabeth, born April 30, 1904 ; Ben Allen, born February 26, 1906.
BENJAMIN COX CROWDER, who is now the county auditor of Sullivan county, was born December 20, 1875, in Sullivan, Indiana, son of William H., Sr., and Sarah (Stewart) Crowder. (For an account of his ancestors see sketch of William H. Crowder, Sr., in this work.) Mr. Crowder received his primary education at Sullivan in the public schools, and in the autumn of 1894 entered DePauw University. When twenty years old he returned to Sullivan and commenced working in the Sullivan County Bank, of which his father was president. He worked as a bookkeeper until this institution and the Farmers' State Bank con- solidated into what is now known as the Sullivan State Bank. He re- mained there until the organization of the National Bank of Sullivan, when he accepted a position in the new bank, he being assistant cashier for the first six months of this institution's history. He then went to Indianapolis and was engaged as bookkeeper in the Crowder-Mason Shoe Company, his cousin, C. H. Crowder being president of that company. He remained thereabout five months and in the autumn of 1901, he was chosen deputy auditor, under J. M. Lang and worked until his term expired and then worked at bookkeeping in the Sullivan State Bank about one year, when he was chosen by E. E. Russell, then county auditor, as his deputy, which position he held until elected to the office of auditor on the Democratic ticket, in November, 1906. He is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; also belongs to the Phi- Gamma Delta fraternity, at DePauw University. Mr. Crowder is president of the Citizens Driving Club.
September 16, 1905, Mr. Crowder was married to Emily H. McCrory, born in Sullivan, Indiana, December 3, 1876. She graduated from the high school with the class of 1896. In March, 1900, she acted as assistant in the county auditor's office, remaining there until her marriage. She
M.S.
I5
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
is the daughter of William and Rachel Ann (Leach) McCrory, both de- ceased. Mr. and Mrs. Crowder are the parents of one daughter, Rachel Louise, born August 1I, 1906. Mrs. Crowder is a faithful member of the Christian church.
DR. JOSEPH R. WHALEN, one of the most successful practitioners of Carlisle, is also a large land owner in Sullivan and Knox counties, has important banking and real estate interests in his home city, and, aside from his high professional standing, is a citizen of most substantial ability and character. Born near Bruceville, Knox county, Indiana, on the 30th of March, 1861, he is a son of Dr. Richard M. and Frances J. (Jenks) Whalen. He comes of distinguished ancestry on both sides of the family, the paternal branch originating in Ireland, where his great-great-grand- father was born. The heads of the three succeeding generations, with which the doctor is directly connected, are buried in Bethlehem cemetery, four miles southeast of Carlisle. On the other hand, his maternal grand- mother, Jane Arnold, was the daughter of Major Arnold, of Culpeper county, Virginia, who fought with Washington at Yorktown, and now lies buried at Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana.
John Whalen, the great-grandfather, was among the first school teachers in Sullivan county, and the grandfather, Richard J., was a farmer who took up government land in the county. The title to the property has never been changed, and Dr. Joseph R. is now the owner of forty acres of the original tract. Richard J. Whalen was born in Tennessee and died in Haddon township, this county. His son, Dr. Richard M. (father of Dr. Joseph R.) Whalen, was born in the township named, November 4, 1832, was reared on a farm, and was graduated in medicine from a Chi- cago college, being long engaged in honorable practice, chiefly in his native locality. He resided in Kansas in 1866 and 1867, and then moved to Haddon township, this county, practicing near Carlisle until his death, July 8, 1899. The deceased was an influential Democrat and a fine citi- zen, serving for two terms as trustee of Haddon township. He was also a Mason in high standing, having been master of the local lodge for a number of times and holding membership in Blue Lodge No. 3, at Car- lisle. Both he and his wife (who died February 26, 1902) were faithful adherents to Methodism. Mrs. Richard M. Whalen was born at Napo- leon, Ripley county, Indiana, on the 12th of February, 1839, daughter of Dr. Joseph Jenks. Her father was born in England; when eleven years of age came to America as one of five brothers; was educated in Cin- cinnati, Ohio; practiced his profession in Indiana, Illinois and Kansas, and died in California about 1890. In Kansas occurred the marriage of his daughter to Dr. Richard M. Whalen, on the 12th of May, 1859, and to that union were born the following children: Lewis T., who died in infancy; Joseph R .; Mary Annette, wife of D. J. Mathers, who is con- nected with the National Bank at Carlisle; Hattie F., deceased ; Fannie S., now the wife of J. B. Latshaw, of Carlisle; Marion R. and Charles, deceased ; and Nellie, who married W. J. Cole, of Sullivan.
Vol. II-2
16
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Dr. Joseph R. Whalen, of this biography, obtained his early educa- tion at Carlisle, Indiana, and after pursuing the higher literary branches at Union College, Merom, taught for a year in Haddon township. He then was associated with his father in the drug business for four years, when he sold his interest and engaged in the buying and feeding of stock until 1891. In that year he was matriculated at the Louisville Medical College, from which he graduated in 1894 with unusual honors, receiving a gold medal as the leader in general scholarship of a class of one hun- dred and ninety-one students. After his graduation he served as demon- strator of anatomy in his alma mater for a year, spending the following three years in practice at Oakton, Indiana, and the four succeeding years at Bicknell, that state. Since that time he has been an active and suc- cessful member of the profession and a public-spirited citizen of Carlisle, following the example of other progressive physicians and surgeons of the country by taking post-graduate studies. In 1893 the doctor pursued such a course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, specializing in anatomy.
Aside from his extensive medical practice, Dr. Whalen has large property interests, which include 810 acres of land in Sullivan and Knox counties and residence property in Carlisle. He was also one of the organizers of the People's Bank of that city, in which he is still a direc- tor. In politics, he is a Democrat, and his fraternal relations are with Masonry-more especially with Carlisle Lodge, No. 3. F. and A. M .; Vincennes Chapter, No. 7, R. A. M., and Vincennes Commandery, No. 20. He has served as master of the blue lodge in Carlisle, Oaktown and Bicknell, Indiana.
On January 1, 1883, Dr. Whalen married Miss Isabelle Gobin, who was born in Haddon township, November 3, 1864, and received her edu- cation at Evansville, Indiana, where the ceremony occurred. She was the daughter of John and Margaret (Hal!) Gobin, natives of Carlisle, her great-grandmother, Dianna Melburne (Forrester) Hall, being an adopted daughter of Lord Melburne, prime minister of England, and was pre- sented to the court of St. James. The Gobins were early settlers of Sul- livan county. Mrs. Isabelle Whalen died June 14, 1907, leaving three daughters: Melburne, born October 7, 1883, now the wife of Manson G. Couch, the mother of two children, and a resident of Lawrenceville, Illinois; Marguerite, born March 5, 1885, and Gladys, born June 27, 1891, both unmarried and living at home. The first Mrs. Whalen was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as are her daugh- ters. On November 4, 1908, the doctor wedded, as his second wife, Mrs. Ida Irene (Smith) Starner.
THOMAS E. WARD, the present treasurer of Sullivan county, Indiana, was born January 4, 1863, in Sullivan, son of Anderson and Elizabeth Jane (Roll) Ward. The father, who was a native of Tennessee, of Irish ancestry, was born March 21, 1818, and died September 22, 1884,
I7
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
in Sullivan county, Indiana. The mother was born in Vigo county, In- diana, in 1836, and died March 2, 1882, in Sullivan county. They were united in marriage in Vigo county in 1854, and resided for a time- probably about four years-in Fayette township, Vigo county, and then moved to a farm six miles from Sullivan, in an eastern direction. After living there one or two seasons, they moved into the town of Sullivan. They then moved back and forth to the farm from Sullivan at different times, but were living on the farm at the date of their death. Anderson Ward came to Indiana when ten years of age with his parents. When he was old enough, he taught school and became a physician, and was also a minister in the Church of Christ, being in the ministry at the time of his death. Politically, he was a Democrat. He was at one time a member of the Masonic order. He and his wife were the parents of the following children : Sarah, deceased; Polly, deceased; Nancy M., residing at Terre Haute; Bettie, of Vigo county ; Thomas E .; Katie, now of Vigo county ; Jennie, of Vigo county; John B., residing in Sullivan county ; Mattie, living in Chicago; Lou H., residing in Sullivan; Maggie, residing in Sullivan county. The living children are all married and settled in homes of their own.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.