USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A portrait and biographical record of Delaware county, Ind. : containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all of the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Indiana > Part 11
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 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
143
AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN.
ambition to serve the people faithfully, his philanthropy and universal love of mankind, all combined to make him one of the noblest of men. Strong in his convictions, yet court- eons to opponents; great in intellect, yet approachable by the humblest of men; high in position, he met every man as his equal; independent in thought, self-reliant in prin- ciple, and rich in pleasant greeting to all whom he met; though dead, he yet lives in the hearts of the people, and his noble characteristics stand out in bold relief as beacon lights to guide and direct generations yet to be.
3 AMES D. WILLIAMS was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, January 16, 1808, and moved with his parents to Indiana in 1818, settling near the town of Vincennes, Knox county. He grew to manhood there, and upon the death of his father, in 1828, the support of the family de- volved on him. He received a limited educa- tion in the pioneer log school-house, but, by mingling with the best people in the neighbor- hood, he obtained a sound practical knowledge of men and things, which, in a great measure, compensated for his early deficiency in liter- ary studies, so that when, on reaching his ma- jority, he was unusally well versed for one in his circumstances. He was reared a farmer, and naturally chose agriculture for his life work, and followed it with much more than ordinary success, until the close of his long and useful life. Gov. Williams entered public life, in 1839, as justice of the peace, the duties of which he discharged in an eminently satis- factory manner for a period of four years, re- signing in 1843. In the latter year he was elected to the lower house of the state legisla- ture, and from that time until his election to the national congress, in 1874, he was almost
continuously identified with the legislative service of the state. Few men in Indiana have been so long in the public service, and few have been identified with more popular legislative measures than he. It is to him that the widows of Indiana are indebted for the law which allows them to hold, without administration, the estates of their deceased husbands, when they do not exceed $300 in value. He was the author of the law which distributed the sinking fund among the coun- ties of the state, and to him are the people largely indebted for the establishment of the state board of agriculture, an institution that has done much to foster and develop the agri- cultural interests of Indiana. He was a dele- gate to the national democratic convention at Baltimore in 1872, and in 1873 was the nom- inee for United States senator against Oliver P. Morton, but the party being in the minor- ity, he was defeated. He served in the national house of representatives from Decem- ber, 1875, till December, 1876, when he re- signed, having been elected governor in the latter year. The campaign of 1876 was a memorable one, during which the opposition, both speakers and press, ridiculed the demo- cratic nominee for governor, making sport of his homespun clothes ond plain appearance, but the democracy seized upon his peculiari- ties and made them the watchwords of victory. Gov. Williams, or Blue Jeans, as his friends were pleased to call him, was a man of the strictest integrity, and was known as a careful, painstaking executive entering into the minu- test details of his office. He was self-willed and self-reliant, and probably consulted fewer persons about his official duties than any of his predecessors. In personal appearance, Gov. Williams was over six feet high, remark- ably straight, had large hands and feet, high cheek bones, long sharp nose, gray eyes, and a well formed head, covered profusely with
144
GOVERNORS OF INDIANA
black hair. He was courteous in his inter- course with others, a good conversationalist, and possessed in a very marked degree shrewd- ness and force of character. He died in the year 1880.
LBERT G. PORTER .- Among the self-made men of Indiana, none stand higher or have a more note- worthy career than the distinguished gentleman whose name heads this sketch. Al- bert G. Porter was born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., April 20, 1824. He graduated at Asbury uni- versity in 1843, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1845, and began to practice in Indianapolis, where he was councilman and corporation attorney. In 1853 he was ap- pointed reporter of the supreme court of Indi- ana, and was subsequently elected to the same position by a very large majority of the voters of the state. He was elected to congress from the Indianapolis district in 1858, on the republican ticket, overcoming an adverse democratic majority of 800, which he con- verted into a majority for himself of 1,000. Two years subsequently, he was re-elected by a smaller majority. On March 5, 1878, he was appointed first comptroller of the United States treasury, which position he filled with distinguished ability until called therefrom to become a candidate for governor of Indiana on the republican ticket. He resigned, and en- tered into the campaign of 1880, which will ever be memorable in the history of the state. After a canvess of remarkable bitterness and excitement, in which every inch of ground was stubbornly contested, Mr. Porter was elected governor by a handsome majority. He held the office from 1881 to 1884, his adminis- tration being regarded by friend and foe, alike, as on of the ablest in the history of the state.
Mr. Porter has for many years ranked as one of the ablest and most successful lawyers in Indiana, and his "Decisions of the Supreme Court of Indiana " (5 vols., 1853-6), are re- garded as among the best of their kind in the state. Besides his talent in politics and law, Mr. Porter enjoys a literary reputation of no mean rank, attained chiefly from his law writ- ings and lectures. He is especially good authority on matters relating to pioneer his- tory in the west, and has in preparation a history of Indiana, which will undoubtedly rank as a classic in that line of literature. At this writing (September, 1890), Mr. Porter occupies the position of United States minister to Rome, which high honor was conferred upon him by his friend, President Harrison.
SAAC P. GRAY is a native of Pennsyl- vania, having been born near Downing- town, in Chester county, October I'8, 1828. His father, John Gray, moved to Ohio and settled near Urbana, when Isaac was almost eight years old. Within a short time thereafter his parents removed to near Dayton, Ohio, but did not long remain there, when they moved to New Madison, Darke county, Ohio, where young Gray grew to man- hood and became proprietor of a dry goods store. He married Eliza Jaqua, a few years his junior, and the daughter of Judson and Jaqua, who resided about two miles from New Madison, in a neighborhood (which had a postoffice) called Yankee town. Gray's parents are of Quaker descent, but they never adhered to the society Their ancestors came over with William Penn and took a prominent part in early colonial times. On November 30, 1855. Isaac P. located at Union City, Ind., his family then consisting of his wife and two baby boys, Pierre and Bayard S. From the
145
AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN.
time of his arrival he became one of the lead- ing citizens of the then small town. He was always active, energetic and progressive, and no work or enterprise in the town was consid- ered without his advice and counsel, and in many cases financial co-operation. He always bore a prominent part in all public matters and was depended upon to speak for the interests of the place.
He was engaged in the dry goods business for a while after he came to Union City, then in the banking business, finally drifting into the law, where by reason of his pleasant speech, excellent judgment of human nature and the happy faculty of condensing and mak- ing plain his thought, he became a successful advocate.
After a few years of practice in the law, however, the civil war came on, and Gray, being a strong unionist, was appointed colonel of the Fourth Indiana cavalry, which position he held from September 4, 1862, to February II, 1864. He also raised and organized the 147th regiment Indiana volunteers, mustered in March 13, 1865, Col. Peden ; mustered out August 4, 1865. He was also colonel of the 105th Indiana (minute men). Served five days -July 12-17, 1863. At the close of the war he became a banker, organizing with Hon. N. Cadwallader, the Citizens' bank, of which he is a prominent stockholder and vice presi- dent. In 1866 he was candidate of the anti- Julian wing of the republican party for con- gress. Entered the law in 1868, and was state senator of Randolph county in 1868-72, on the republican ticket, of which body he took position as a leading member. In 1870, he was appointed by President Grant consul to St. Thomas, West Indies, and confirmed by the senate, but declined. In 1872 he was ap- pointed a delegate at large for the state of Indiana to the national liberal republican con- vention at Cincinnati, and, by that conven-
tion, was made the member, for the state of Indiana of the liberal republican national ex- ecutive committee.
Dissatisfied with the administration of Gen. Grant, he joined the Greeley liberal inove- ment in 1872, and from that time on acted with the democrats. In 1876 the democratic state convention nominated him by acclama- tion for lieutenant governor, and he was elected to that office in October, 1876. In 1880 he was a candidate for governor before the demo- cratic state convention, and lost the nomina- tion by four votes, but was named by accla- mation a second time for lieutenant governor. In the general democratic defeat incurred in October, 1880, Col. Gray shared the catas- trophe. But, by the death of Gov. J. B. Wil- liams, in November, 1880, Lieut. Gov. Gray was promoted to the position of governor of Indiana, which honor he sustained with appro- priate dignity, addressing the legislature in perhaps the most voluminous message ever presented by any occupant of the gubernatorial chair to any legislative body. In 1884 he received the democratic nomination for gov- ernor, to which position he was triumphantly elected in the fall of that year, and for four years served in a manner so satisfactory to his partisan friends that he became the recog- nized leader of the democratic party in Indi- ana, and it has always been insisted by his supporters that his name, on the ticket with Cleveland, in 1888, would have that year secured the presidency of the United States to the democratic party. In the spring of 1894 Mr. Gray was appointed by the Cleveland administration United States minister to the republic of Mexico.
Isaac Pusey Gray is a man about five feet ten inches high, well proportioned and stands erect, with a semi-military carriage, and weighs about 180 pounds; his hair was black and curly, but is now somewhat tinged with
146
GOVERNORS OF INDIANA
gray; bold, prominent forehead, a full, frank, plump and florid face, strongly indicative of a high order of intelligence, and light blue eyes, beaming with good nature. His face is un- adorned except with small chin whiskers. Suave of address and of kind disposition. He is always cordial and pleasant with strangers and extremely sociable among his friends and acquaintances, He enjoys the society of his friends. Perhaps one of the elements of his great popularity and steadfast hold upon his friends, is his freedom from any aristocratic reserve, and yet no one has a keener sense of the demands of true dignity; a man of great decision and firmness, yet always respectful of others' feelings. The home Gray left in Union City was and is to-day one of its finest resi- dences, a spacious brick dwelling located on a large plat of ground. He has built and owned some of the best residence properties in the city. He took great pride in his house, which was nicely furnished and supplied with a fine library, where he and his wife, who were great readers, gratified their literary tastes.
Mrs. Gray is a blonde of medium height, with gray eyes, well defined features, clear complexion, good figure, easy and graceful carriage. She is regarded as a fine looking lady, whose years rest upon her with becom- ing grace and dignity. By descent she comes from an honorable French family, whose ancestors at an early date settled in New England and New York.
His son Pierre, the elder, graduated at the Indiana State university in 1874, and his younger son, Bayard S., graduated at De Pauw university in 1876. Pierre followed his graduation by a course of law, and has ever since practiced his chosen profession, except while he acted as private secretary to his father as governor, 1885-1889. He is now associ- ated with his father, in the practice, at Indian- apolis. Pierre was married, about ten years
ago, to Miss Kate Alma McDonald of Union City ; they have no children. Bayard S., after returning from his alma mater, studied in his father's law office, but soon thereafter took up journalism, in which he made a brill- iant success He has however abandoned that field and located in Chicago, where he is again at the law. Like his father, Bayard S. has a taste for politics, and being a fluent speaker, with an unlimited vocabulary, he has taken a more or less active part in politics since his majority. Since his removal to Chi- cago he has achieved considerable prominence and is now regarded as one of their public speakers.
LVIN P. HOVEY .- This gentleman, who was elected governor of Indiana in 1888, has had a notable career, both civil and military. He was born in 1821, in Posey county, Ind., where he has spent his whole life. After a common school education, he studied law and was ad- mitted to the Mt. Vernon bar in 1843, where he has practiced with success. The civil posi- tions he held previous to the war were those of delegate to the constitutional convention of 1850; judge of the third judicial circuit of Indi- ana from 1851 to 1854, and judge of the su- preme court of Indiana. From 1856 to 1858 he served as United States district attorney for the state. During the civil war he entered the national service as colonel of the Twenty- fourth Indiana volunteers, in July, 1861. He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers on April 28, 1862, and breveted major-general for meritorious and distinguished services in July, 1864. He was in command of the east- ern district of Arkansas in 1863, and of the district of Indiana in 1864-1865. Gen. Grant, in his official reports, awards to Gen. Hovey
147
AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN.
the honor of the key battle of the Vicksburg campaign, that of Champion's Hill. This is no small praise; also, it is remembered that military critics, in view of the vast conse- quences that flowed therefrom, have ranked Champion's Hill as one of the five decisive battles of the civil war, and second in impor- tance to Gettysburg alone. Gen. Hovey re- signed his commission on October 18, 1865, and was appointed minister to Peru, which office he held until 1870. In 1886 he was nominated for congress by the republicans in the Evansville district, which theretofore had steadily given a large democratic majority. Gen. Hovey's personal popularity and military prestige overcame this, and he was elected by
a small majority. In congress, he attracted attention by his earnestness in advocating more liberal pension laws, and every measure for the benefit of the ex-Union soldiers. Largely to this fact was due his nomination for the governorship of Indiana, by the repub- lican party in 1888, the soldier element of the state being a very important factor in securing his nomination, and his subsequent election. In his social relations, Gov. Hovey has always been very popular, and his family circle is one of the happiest in the state. Though a strong partisan, he is never abusive or vindictive, and at every trial of strength at the polls, he has received strong support from many personal friends in the ranks of the opposite party.
I RA J. CHASE was born in Clarkson, Monroe county, N. Y., December 7, 1834. His father, Benjamin Chase, moved into Orleans county, where most of Ira's years were spent up to the age twenty. After leaving the public school of that day, he attended the Milan (Ohio) seminary and Medina academy. At twenty he accompanied
his father to Illinois, driving a team much of the time alone through Michigan and Indiana, landing in Chicago in the spring of 1855. Farming, merchandising and school teaching filled up the time until the war broke out. In 1857 he united with the Christian church. March 24, 1859, he married Miss Rhoda J. Castle, of Cook county. In 1861 he was the first man to enlist in the town of Barrington, Ill. He assisted in raising a company of men and was unanimously elected first lieutenant. The enlistments were so numerous that the government could not accept them all, and the organization disbanded, a part going into company C, Nineteenth Illinois, June 17, 1861, of which Chase was made sergeant, This regiment saw hard and continuous service from the start, being always on the move, serving in Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee the first year of the war. While in camp at Elizabeth- town, Ky., he heard the news of the birth of his second child. He was appointed drill ser- geant and placed on special duty, owing to poor health. In this capacity the Eighteenth O. V. I. officers invited him to aid in drilling their men, as they were fresh from the farms of their state. A petition, signed by Col. Stanley, Lieut. Col. Grim, for years chief justice of Iowa, and Major C. H. Grosvenor, famous as a soldier and statesman, was pre- sented to the field officers of the Nineteenth Illinois, asking for his transfer to a lieutenancy in the Eighteenth Ohio. This was endorsed by Gen. J. B. Turchin, brigade commander, and by Maj. Gen. O. M. Mitchell, division commander. but denied by Maj. Gen. Buell, department commander. Our soldier was in the seige of Nashville, 1862; was discharged and returned home from Nashville in 1863, and entered into business, but sold out, owing to a long and very serious illness of his wife that left her blind and lame for years. He prepared himself for the ministery and became
148
GOVERNORS OF INDIANA
pastor of the Christian church in Mishawaka in 1867, and has served at LaPorte, Wabash and Danville. For a period of time he la- bored in Pittsburgh and Peoria. He has been prominent in G. A. R. circles, was twice de- partment chaplain and once department com- mander. In 1886, while in California, he was nominated for congress by the fifth district. Upon his return he accepted and made his first political campaign. Col. C. C. Matson had received his fourth nomination. His average majority for the three terms previous had been about 1,800. In 1886 it was 532. In 1888 Mr. Chase was spoken of for governor, and though there was no activity manifested re- ceived a handsome vote. Gen. Hovey was nominated and private Chase was nominated for lieutenant governor by acclamation. He served two terms as presiding officer of the senate.
On the death of Gen. Hovey he served the state as governor from November 24, 1891, to January 8, 1893. At the state convention called by the republicans to nominate state officers, Gov. Chase was nominated by accla- mation to succeed himself. He entered into the campaign with all the earnestness of his nature, and everywhere it has been said that no man ever fought a harder fight.
LAUDE MATTHEWS, who at this time fills most acceptably the office of governor of Indiana, was born in Bethel, Bath county, Ky., December 14, 1845. His father, Thomas A. Matthews, was a farmer, and also for a time a commis- sion merchant at Maysville. His paternal grandfather, Capt. George Matthews, com- manded a company of soldiers at the battle of the River Thames, in the war of 1812. Through his mother, Eliza (Fletcher) Mat-
thews, Mr. Matthews traces his origin to one of the most worthy names in the common- wealth, and his maternal grandfather, Jefferson Fletcher, represented the Bath district in the national house of representatives in the day's Henry Clay. Young Matthews attended such schools as the county of his nativity afforded until his fifteenth year, then removed to Mason county, Ky., his father having purchased a farm near Maysville. Here the schools were of a better class, and he availed himself of their advantages by riding six miles each way daily. In 1863 he entered Center college, Danville, Ky., where he graduated in June, 1867. January 1, 1868, he married Miss Martha Renick Whitcomb, only daughter of James Whitcomb, one of the honored gov- ernors of this state, from 1843 to 1849. The marriage took place in Ross county, Ohio, where Mrs. Matthews is connected on her mother's side with the Renicks, well known for their wealth and public spirit. The young people moved to Vermillion county, Ind., in 1869, where Mr. Matthews settled down to the occupation he had chosen for his life work, the useful and honest calling of farming. His capacity for public affairs, and the evidence he gave of sensible ideas as to public needs, led to his selection by the democrats of Vermillion county, in 1877, as their candidate for repre- sentative in the legislature. That he was well appreciated by his neighbors was shown by some five hundred republicans of his county voting for him, and he had the honor of being the first democrat elected from that county of heavy adverse majorities. His record in the legislature was a fine one, and in 1880 he had a strong following for lieutenant governor. In 1882 Mr. Matthews was a candidate for state senator in his district, and cut down the . republican majority of 900 to 300. In August, 1890, he was nominated by the democrats for secretary of the state and triumphantly elected
149
AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN.
at the ensuing election, his plurality reaching the astonishing and almost unparalleled figure of 20,000, in round numbers. His conduct of the office of secretary of state was so satisfac- tory to the people, that he was called upon to head the democratic state ticket in 1892. Although being a candidate before the state convention for renomination as secretary of state, he was nominated candidate for gov- ernor, and in the following November elected to that office by a plurality of nearly 7,000, leading the state ticket by several hundred votes, and higher than the average upon the electoral vote. He was inaugurated governor January 9, 1893, and is now, with the same earnestness and conscientious regard of public duty, performing the work of that office. Gov. Matthews, while faithfully attending to his duties as a state officer, still keeps up his interest in farming and the class of workers to which he belongs. He has done much in the way of improving the breeds of cattle and domestic animals by importing valuable speci- mens, and was the founder of the Short Horn Breeders' association of Indiana, the first asso- ciation of the kind ever organized in the United States. He was also originator of the American Short Horn association of the United States and Canada. While his business is that of farming, he is, nevertheless, a fluent speaker, and withal a man of fine address and genial manners. Mr. Matthews has three children; the eldest, Mary, is the wife of Sen- ator Cortez Ewing, of Greensburg; Renick Seymour Matthews, who, after a course in the Rose Polytechnic institute, is fitting himself in electrical engineering, and Miss Helen, a school girl, aged fifteen. Mr. Mat- thews is a man of positive character and strong intellect, and no man is more loyal in his citizenship, more faithful in his friendship, more devoted in his home life, or more worthy the regard of his fellow men.
ALLER TAYLOR, one of the first senators from Indiana, after her admission as a state, was born in Lunenburg county. Va., before 1786, and died there before 1826. He re- ceived a common school education, studied law, served one or two terms in the Virginia legislature as a representative from Lunenburg county. In 1805 he settled in Vincennes, Ind., having been appointed a township judge. He served as aid de camp to Gen. William H. Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe, and in the war of 1812-15. On the admission of In- diana as a state, he was elected United States senator, and at the close of his term was re- elected, serving from December 12, 1816, un- til March 3, 1825. He was a man of fine lit- erary attainments and a prominent political leader of his day.
J AMES NOBLE was the son of Thomas T. Noble, who moved from Virginia to Kentucky, near the close of the eight- eenth century James Noble grew to manhood in Kentucky, and after his marriage, which was consummated before he had at- tained his majority, began the study of law in the office of Mr. Southgate, of Covington. After finishing his legal studies and being ad- mitted to the bar, he removed to Brookville, Ind., and commenced the practice of his pro- fession, and soon became known as one of the most successful lawyers and most eloquent ad- vocates of the Whitewater country. When Indiana became a state Mr. Noble represented Franklin county in the constitutional conven- tion, in which he was chairman of the legisla- tive and judiciary committees. In August, 1810, he was elected a member of the first legislature under the state government, which met at Corydon, November, 1816, and ad-
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.