USA > Indiana > An illustrated history of the state of Indiana: being a full and authentic civil and political history of the state from its first exploration down to 1875 > Part 51
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
Judge Long is a fluent speaker and a graceful writer, and has ac- quired some fame as a poet, by vari- ous fugitive pieces, and a number of ballads and songs, which have been set to music and published in the principal cities of the country.
CHARLES LOUDER,
Whose portrait is given elsewhere, was born in Guilford township, Hendricks county, Indiana, on the twelfth of May, 1823. His parents, Mather and Ruth Lowder, emigrated from Guilford county, North Caro- lina, and were among the first set- tlers of what was then known as the " White Lick " country. He is among the oldest natives of this part of the State, and particularly of Hendricks county. He has been a citizen of the county since his birth, and has most emphatically
grown up with the country. Though he has always been modest and un- assuming, he has done much in molding the general character of the neighborhood, and in putting on foot and pushing forward public enterprises which have tended to subdue what was at the time of his birth an unbroken wilderness, and change it to one of the garden spots of the State. Being a man of fair education, and naturally of an ob- serving and correct mind, there are few who understand more clearly
673
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
the wants of the country than he does, or that are more willing to aid in any measure for the further de- velopment of the country or the general good of her citizens. In politics he has voted with the whig and the republican parties, but claims the right to vote only for such men as are " honest and capa- ble," and clear of the use of all intoxicating liquors as a beverage. He is, and has been from his birth, a member of the religious society of friends, and is esteemed by those who know him as a conscientious and consistent member. By occu- pation he has always been a farmer - one from choice and not from cir- cumstance. His good eye, fine taste, and natural love for domestic animals, induced him early to en- gage in breeding fine horses, cattle and hogs. Having been engaged in breeding thorough bred cattle for nearly twenty-five years, he may now be considered one of the pio-
neers in this State of this branch of scientific agriculture. The numer- ous sales he has made gives him an enviable reputation not only in this State, but in nearly all the Western States, as a good judge, and as a conscientious and reliable dealer. He is a warm friend of education on general principles, but especially that kind known as agricultural education, or such education as will make agriculturalists generally in- telligent, and will induce farmers and their sons and daughters to re- spect farming, and enable them to pursue it in the light of science. His farm known as " Crescent Hill," from its peculiar shape, lies within three miles of the place of his birth, on the west side of White Lick creek, north of the Indianapolis, Terre Haute & St. Louis railroad. His farm, buildings and general im- provements are among the best in the country, and show his energy and taste as a farmer.
AMOS S. EVANS.
In the spring of 1800, Richard Evans emigrated from Kentucky, and settled in Highland county, Ohio, where Amos S. Evans, his son, was born May sixteenth, 1816. Richard Evans was an extensive and successful farmer, and trained his son to the same occupation. The son, however, was born to be a mer- chant; and, in 1836, at the early age of twenty, in obedience to an in- stinct which had been manifest from boyhood, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, F. Evans, and embarked in business on his own account at Defiance, Ohio. In the fall of 1838, he removed to Hills- boro, Ohio, where for twenty-five
years he prosecuted the retail dry goods trade with success. Having determined to seek a larger and more promising locality for trade, he removed, in the spring of 1860, to Fort Wayne with a view of en- gaging ultimately in the wholesale trade. For two years, while making arrangements to that end, he con- tinued the retail trade. At length, in August, 1862, in the dark days of the war, against the remonstran ces and amid the forebodings of friends, he inaugurated the whole- sale dry goods trade of Fort Wayne. Wholesale grocery houses had ex- isted there for some years, but he was the pioneer of the dry goods
43
674
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
jobbing trade in Northern Indiana. Up to this time he has continued the same business, with constant and increasing success ; and with the aid of several well-chosen junior part- ners, all young men trained in busi- ness by himself, he has established a house second to none in the State in standing or prosperity.
Mr. Evans is eminently fitted for the business which he has pursued with such unvarying constancy from boyhood up. With the keenest powers of observation, cautious in the midst of danger, and yet bold to take advantage of the rising tide, he never fails to catch the favoring breeze, and yet has always been found with all sails furled when a storm came.
During this long, active and labo- rious life, he has not been unmind- ful of other and higher interests, both public and private. He is a man of extensive reading and cul- ture, and accurate general informa- tion. In 1854 he traveled in Eu- rope, and, in 1856, with his wife, made a second and more extended tour, embracing Europe, Egypt and Palestine. With many others of the State, he has been an active worker in behalf of prison reform. In 1871 he was appointed by Gov. Ba- ker one of the commissioners of the house of refuge for juvenile offend- ers. In all religious enterprises, and especially in the Sunday-school work of his city and State, he has been particularly active. In 1867
he bought a lot, and built on it a neat and suitable chapel, at his own expense, for a mission Sunday- school in a destitute part of Fort Wayne; and he has personally su- perintended the school ever since with the exception of one year. In 1872 he was president of the State Sunday-school union, and has rarely ever missed one of its meetings. For fourteen years he has been one of the officers of the Allen county Bible society, and was for several years its president.
Upon the whole Mr. Evans' life has been one of great labor and activity, and at the same time of great usefulness. He lias shown how it is possible for a man to be a philanthropist, and a worker in all humane and christian causes, and a systematic and successful business man on the largest scale, at the same time. He has proved by his own example that a man may grow rich in trade and yet be doing good all the while. Such examples are not as numerous as they should be, and they deserve to be noted when they occur.
Mr. Evans was married September twelfth, 1843, to Mary Poage, of Greenup, Ky. She died December thirteenth, 1853. On February eleventh, 1856, he was married to Sarah H. Hanna, of Fort Wayne, who is still living, and is a worthy co-laborer with her husband in all good works.
COL. W. R. HOLLOWAY.
Prominent among the enterpris- ing, energetic citizens who have contributed so largely to the mar- velous prosperity and development
of Indianapolis, is Colonel W. R. Holloway, the postmaster.
A sketch of Mr. Holloway's life is necessarily brief, for the reason
675
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
that it comprises but a few years of active manhood, although within their scope have been compressed as much zealous industry and prac- tical sagacious labor as marks the lives of a majority of men who have lived out the full term of their alloted years. Col. Holloway was born in the city of Richmond, Wayne county, December 6th, 1836, his father, the Hon. D. P. Holloway, being then the editor and proprietor of the Richmond Palladium, one of the oldest and most influential weekly papers in Indiana, particu- larly while under Mr. Holloway's control. The father afterwards be- came the well-known Commissioner of Patents, in Mr. Lincoln's admin- istration.
Young Holloway served his ap- prenticeship in his father's office, imbibing there those habits of ap- plied industry and enthusiastic love for the profession of a printer and editor that have clung pertinacious- ly to him through life.
He finished his trade in the office of the Cincinnati Times, when that paper was in the zenith of its suc- cess and influence, under the man- agement of the late Calvin W. Star- buck.
Returning to Indiana in 1858, he re-entered his father's office, remaining about a year, during which time he published a history of Richmond and the early settle- ment of Wayne county.
Being married in the month of November, 1858, he concluded to enter the profession of law, and studied in the office of Morton & Kibby, (Mr. Morton being his brother-in-law.) He was admitted to the bar in Wayne county in 1860. Hon. Oliver P. Morton was elected
Lieutenant-Governor of the State in that year on the republican ticket, headed by Governor Lane, and the latter being elected United States senator, a few days after his inaugu- ration, Morton succeeded to the gubernatorial chair. Col. Holloway was appointed his private secre- tary, remaining in the executive office until 1863, throughout two of the hardest years of Governor Mor ton's term, incident to the muster ing and equiping of thousands of troops before the work had devel- oped into anything like system.
In this arduous labor, Col. Hollo. way, uniting industry, remarkable quickness of thought and action, and perception of things amount ing almost to unerring instinct, was of the greatest assistance to the Governor and to the State. Gov ernor Morton appreciated his abili. ties, and has ever relied largely upon him in the subsequent years of his distinguished career.
Leaving the Governor's office, Col. Holloway went into business in the city of New York, in which he was quite successful. The old love for a printing office, however, retained its hold upon him, and in 1864 he purchased the Indianapolis Journal establishment, remaining its sole proprietor and editor for over a year. He was unanimously nominated by the republican cau- cus of the legislature for State printer, and elected, but resigned the office when he sold his interest in the Journal. Upon his retire- ment from the Journal, he re-enter- ed Governor Morton's office as con- fidential secretary, but in another year re-purchased an interest in the Journal, retaining an active partici- pation in the editorial control of
676
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
the paper until 1872. He was ap- pointed postmaster by President Grant in 1869, and reappointed in 1872, retiring finally from the Jour- nal in that year.
His management of the Journal was conspicuous in this, that he in- troduced most of the metropolitan features that now mark Indiana- polis journalism; the papers of the city prior to that time being deci- dedly "slow " in style. His admin- istration of the postoffice has been admirable in every respect, to the complete satisfaction of the citizens of Indianapolis and of the officials of the department.
Col. Holloway has a quick, nerv- ous walk, dispatches business rap- idly and correctly, and is always ready and courteous to every de- mand made upon his time and pa- tience. His friendships are of the warmest character, and for those he favors with his confidence no ser- vice seems too exacting.
A city full of such bustling men as Col. Holloway could remove mountains if they stood in the way of progress. In the character of such citizens must be found the secret of the almost supernatural advancement of the Hoosier mo- tropolis.
WILLIAM MITCHELL.
He was born in Montgomery county, State of New York, in Jan- uary, 1808. In 1836 he came to In- diana, and built a log cabin in Ken- dallville, where he now resides. The place was then a wilderness for miles in every direction. He was elected to the Indiana legislature in 1842. In 1860 he was elected to Congress, and was, during the war,
a firm supporter of the Union. He raised many troops, and otherwise contributed means and labor to the nation's cause. He has been largely instrumental in promoting home public improvements. He organ- ized the First National Bank of Kendallville in 1863, and was presi- dent of that institution until his death.
WILLIAM P. EDSON.
He was born in Mount Vernon, Indiana, May 14th, 1834, where he still resides. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1856, at the age of twenty-two. He was elected from Posey county a mem-
ber of the State legislature. In 1858, he was elected prosecuting attorney, and in 1860, clerk of the Posey cir- cuit court. He was appointed judge of the common pleas court by Gov- ernor Baker, in 1871.
DR. ANDREW LEWIS.
He was born on the nineteenth of April, 1813, in Lewisburgh, Pa. He early turned his attention to the study of medicine; completing his studies, he began the practice of medicine, and has lived a long life
of usefulness, both in the practice of his profession, and in works of public improvement. He was also instrumental during the war, for the cause of the Union. He resides at Princeton, Indiana.
677
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
JOHN M. LOCKWOOD.
He was born in Westchester coun- ty, New York, in 1809. He moved to Indiana, with his father, in 1818. Being left an orphan when only a boy, he struck out on his own re- sources and won success. After a long and successful business life,
he settled down in Mount Vernon, where he still resides. He was in- strumental in organizing the Mount Vernon National Bank, and with the exception of two years, he has been its president.
WILLARD CARPENTER.
He was born in Stafford, Orange county, New York, on the fifteenth of March, 1803. He removed to Evansville, Indiana, in 1837, where he still resides. He is now one of the oldest and most respected citi-
zens of that place, having lived a long life, which has, in a great measure, been devoted to the inter- ests of the city with wonderful suc- cess.
JOHN PURDUE.
Mr. John Purdue, who has en- deared his name to the people of Indiana as the founder of the Pur- due University of La Fayette, was born in Huntington county, Penn., in 1802. His native village, Ger- many, located between two small mountain ranges, presented, during the years of his minority, all the scenes and incidents of pioneer life. It was a German settlement, as its name indicates, and the early resi- dents were not blessed with any of the modern appliances that now lend a charm to farm life. Mr. Pur- due's father, Charles Purdue, was a poor, hard-working, honest pioneer. He lived in a log cabin eighteen by twenty feet, one story high, with a family of eight children. John, the subject of this sketch, was the only son. The other seven children were daughters. Times were hard in this pioneer settlement then, and Mr. John Purdue was early on the list of " hired help." At the age of
eight years he was first sent to a country school, where he at once evinced his natural taste for intel- lectual culture. He made rapid progress in his elementary studies, and after a few years of great in- dustry, improving every opportu- nity, he became quite proficient in the English branches of study, and was himself called to the school- room as a teacher.
After several years as a most use- ful and successful teacher, Mr. Pur- due, having partially lost his health, decided to exchange the profession for out-door exercise." During the years of his professional labors he had saved up a little money, be- sides supporting a large family, and now he went out into the world to try his luck at speculation. He vis- ited Marion county, Ohio, where he purchased a quarter section of land for nine hundred dollars, paying half down, and getting three years credit, without interest, on the bal-
678
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
ance. He at once went to farming and worked a portion of this land a year and a half. During the first fall on his new farm, the farmers of the neighborhood came to him and desired him to purchase all their hogs. He told them that he had no money, but they offered to trust, and urged him to take them to market. He accepted their offer and started to market with about four hundred hogs. This was his first great speculation in merchan- dise, and as with all others in which he has engaged, it was successful. He made over three hundred dollars on the trade, paid the farmers their price, and won their highest confi- dence and esteem. We make men- tion of this circumstance in his early life to show that no matter what he engaged in, the full confi- dence of the people around him was unconditionally extended. Nor did he ever abuse that confidence.
We shall not follow Mr. Purdue step by step in his commercial life. It has been a magnificent success for the individual, but not less so for education in Indiana, as we shall see. He came to La Fayette in 1839 and opened a store of gen- eral merchandise in connection with
Moses Fowler. Soon after he struck out on his own account and has since accumulated a vast fortune, which has been freely distributed for be. nevolent and educational purposes His commercial operations in New York city during the late civil war were characterized by wonderful business foresight, unflinching in- tegrity and substantial rewards, so much so that Mr. Purdue's name became a tower of credit in that city. He was truly the king of the produce merchants in that great metropolis during his business res- idence there.
After his business relations with New York closed he returned to La Fayette, Ind., where he still re- sides. From his vast accumulation he has endowed the Purdue Uni- versity (agricultural college) with nearly $200,000, and proposes in the near future to largely increase the endowment. He is a genial old bachelor, having never married, is conversant with all standard Eng- lish works, pleasant in conversa- tion, spending much of his old age in the entertainment of friends, of which he has, perhaps, more tlian most great men.
CHARLES B. LASSELLE.
He was born at the town of Vin- cennes, this State, on the twelfth of October, 1819. He is descended from the old stock of French pio- neers, who explored and settled the Wabash valley, his father, the late General H. Lasselle, of Logansport, having been born, in 1777, at the Miami village, near the present site of Fort Wayne, at which his father was then located, with his family,
as a government agent; his mother being born at Vincennes in 1787, and the daughter of Major Francis Bosseron, who, at the head of a company of that place, assisted General Clarke in the capture of the British fort there in 1779.
In the spring of 1833, he removed with his father's family from Vin- cennes to Logansport, where he has ever since resided.
679
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
In the spring and summer of 1833 he attended school at what was called the " Seminary." This was a one story brick building built as a school-house, but used for holding courts, elections, religious meetings, exhibitions, and public meetings generally, and occasionally for a school. It was then the only school- house in Indiana north of the Wa- bash river.
In the fall of 1836 he was sent by his father to the State college at Bloomington. He attended this college until the spring of 1839, when, owing to a loss of health from a too close application to his stud- ies, he returned home. Shortly af- terwards he commenced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. D. D. Pratt, and was admitted to the Logansport bar in the fall of 1842. He has continued in the practice at this bar, with more or less of inter- missions, ever since.
In 1847 he was elected and com- missioned as prosecuting attorney of the county for the term of three years. About this time, and for sev- eral years, he assisted in publishing and editing the Logansport Tele- graph, a weekly newspaper, then conducted by his elder brother, Judge Lasselle, now of Washington City.
In 1862 Mr. Lasselle received the nomination of the democratic party of Cass county for the office of rep- resentative to the State legislature. Although opposed by one of the ablest and best men of the State - the Hon. D. D. Pratt, late United States senator, as the nominee of the republican party, which had carried the county at the last pre- ceding election -yet such was the public confidence in Mr. Lasselle, coupled with his personal popular.
ity with the people, that he was elected by nearly 250 majority
In 1864 he was again nominated by the same party for the same posi- tion, and in the face of a determined opposition and a popular opponent, was re-elected by a large majority. In 1866 he was again solicited by his party friends to become a can- didate for the same position, but de- clined. In 1868 he was elected to the State senate from the counties of Cass and Fulton, which then composed the senatorial district. Having resigned, with his party friends in the senate, at the regular session of 1869, in order to prevent a quorum, and thus prevent a ratifi- cation of the fifteenth amendment without first taking the sense of the people upon that question, he was again returned to the senate by a large majority, at the following special election held for the elec- tion of senators. And having a second time resigned, with his party colleagues, at the special session of the same year, he was, at the regu- lar election of 1870, again elected for the third time to that position.
Mr. Lasselle has for many years devoted considerable attention to the early history of the Wabash valley. Having derived through his ancestry many ancient and rare doc- uments and manuscripts, he has greatly added to them by years of diligent research and careful pre- servation, so that he now possesses a mass of such historical matter no where else to be found. He has fur- nished historical sketches for sev- eral localities in the State, and has otherwise contributed to the general history of the Wabash valley. We are informed, and trust that he may continue his services in this laug- able enterprise.
1
680
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
PLINEY HOAGLAND.
He was born on the thirty-first of July, 1810, near New Philadelphia, Ohio. He has been a very promi- nent citizen of Fort Wayne for many years, taking an active and important part in all railroad and canal and city improvements. In 1851 Mr. Hoagland was elected a member of the house of representa- tives of the Indiana legislature, and in 1862 a member of the State sen- ate. Judge Mccullough, after his appointment to the office of comp-
troller of the currency, resigned his position as president of the Fort Wayne branch of the bank of the State of Indiana, and accepted the appointment, resigned his seat in the State senate, and held the posi- tion until the organization of the Fort Wayne national bank, under the national banking law, when he declined the offer of the presidency of the institution, but accepted the office of vice-president, which he still continues to hold.
DAVID S. GOODING.
He was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, January twentieth, 1824. He is a grandson of the late Colonel David Gooding, of Kentucky, and the eldest son of Asa Gooding, de- ceased. His father removed to Rush county, Indiana, in 1827, and to Hancock county, Indiana, in 1836, where Mr. Gooding has ever since resided. He was educated at the Indiana Asbury University, but the death of his father made it neces- sary for him to leave the university before graduating and return home and take charge of his father's fam- ily. While at home he studied law, and was a licensed and practicing lawyer before he was twenty-one years of age. In 1847, when he was twenty-three years old, was elected to the State legislature from Han- cock county. In 1848 he was elect- ed prosecuting attorney of Han- cock county for three years. In 1851 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Indianapolis cir- cuit for two years, over Ex-Gov- ernor David Wallace. In 1852 he was elected judge of the com-
mon pleas court for the counties of Hancock and Madison for four years over Judge John Davis, of Anderson. In 1856 he was elected a State Senator from Hancock and Madison counties for four years over Judge H. H. Hall. In 1861 he was again elected common pleas judge for four years for the counties of Decatur, Rush, Henry, Madison and Hancock. In 1864 he resigned the judgeship and was nominated and elected a presidential elector for the State at large on the union ticket. His name was at the head of the electoral ticket, and he cast his vote for Lincoln and Johnson. In January, 1865, President Lincoln nominated him for a United States judgeship in New Mexico, which nomination he declined, and the nomination at his special request was withdrawn after the senate ju- diciary committee had determined to recommend his confirmation by the senate. In June, 1865, he was appointed United States marshal for the District of Columbia by President Johnson, and was con-
-
681
-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
firmed by the United States senate in January, 1866, and continued to serve as United States marshal until after the inauguration of President Grant in 1869, when he resigned and returned home to Indiana in May, 1869, and resumed the prac-
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.