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 1879 > Part 48
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CYRUS NUTT, D. D., LL. D.
He was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, September fourth, 1814. His educational opportunities were nec- essarily limited in so new a country. His parents were well versed in the common branches of education, and he was taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and gram- mar at home during such leisure hours as could be redeemed from
manual labor. HIe however at- tended the country school in his neighborhood, when in session, which was about three months in the year. Such was young Nutt's desire for a liberal education that lic improved every opportunity for the acquisition of learning; and when at the age of eighteen, his father proposed to decd him a pieco
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of land in consideration of his faithful labors on the farm, he told him he would rather have a good education than any property. His father first spoke discouragingly, but finally agreed to give him his time and let him get an education by working his own way. He im- mediately went to an academy to prepare limself for college, and in four years from that time he gradu- ated at Alleghany College, Mead- ville, Pa., having supported him- self by teaching during the winters, and at the same time keeping up his studies. He graduated in 1836, and was immediately appointed pre- ceptor of the preparatory depart- ment in the same institution ; which position he filled for six months, when he was elected to the charge of the preparatory department of Indiana Asbury University, which had ju ' been chartered by the leg- islature of Indiana. Mr. Nutt was converted at a campmeeting when in his nineteenth year. He was appointed to the charge of a class of young men as class-leader while in college. He was licensed to exhort, and then to preach ; and he preached his first sermon at Green- castle soon after his arrival.
The first meeting of the trustees of indiana Asbury University was held in March, 1837, at which time Dr. Nutt was elected preceptor of the preparatory department, and arrangements were made to have that department opened at an early day. It required seven or eight days at that time to make the trip from Meadville, where Mr. Nutt then resided, to Greencastle, by the most speedy mode of travel, which was stage and steamboat. Dr. Nutt ieft Meadville about the seventh of
May, and traveled by stage to Pitts- burg, and thence by steamboat to Cincinnati, and thence by stage to Greencastle, where he arrived on the sixteenth of the same month - having walked, however, from Put- namville to Greencastle, as there was, at that day, no public convey- ance from the outside world to Greencastle.
Dr. Nutt entered upon his duties at Greencastle on the fifth of June, 1837, commencing the preparatory department in a small, one-story brick building, with only ;two rooms; the larger of which was occupied by the town school. The smaller room was then the only place available; and there Dr. Nutt began the literary instruction of this since renowned university of the West. At the meeting of the board of trustees, in September of the same year, he was elected pro- fessor of languages. In 1841 he was elected professor of the Greek language and literature, and He- brew, which position he held until 1843, when he resigned and took pastoral work in Indiana Confer- ence, and was appointed to Bloom- ington station. He had been admit- ted into the Conference at its session in Rockville, in 1838, and ordained deacon by Bishop Soule, at Indian- apolis in 1840, and elder by Bishop Morris, at the conference in Center- ville, in 1842. He remained in charge of Bloomington station two years, and the year following was at Salem. His ministry was emi- nently successful in both of these charges. In the fall of 1846, he returned to the university, having been elected to the chair of Greek language and literature, made va- cant by the resignation of Prof. B.
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F. Tefft, who took charge of the Ladies' Repository, at Cincinnati. In 1849, Dr. Nutt was elected Pres- ident of Fort Wayne Female Col- lege, which he accepted and held for one year, when he resigned and accepted the presidency of White- water College, which had been ten- dered him by the trustees of that institution, the climate of northern Indiana not agreeing with Mrs. Nutt, who was a native of Kentucky. He entered upon the duties of the presidency of Whitewater College, at Centerville, Indiana, in the fall of 1850. The school flourished under his administration, and the number of students increased from one hundred and forty to more than three hundred. During the whole of this time he held the position either of trustee or Conference vis- itor to Indiana Asbury University, and took a lively interest in all the' affairs of the church. He remained five years at the head of Whitewater College, when he resigned to enter again upon the work of the minis- try, and at the session of the North Indiana Conference, at Goshen, in 1855, he was appointed presiding elder on the Richmond district, where he remained two years; du- ring which an almost constant revi- val was in progress nearly all over the district.
In the fall of 1857, he was elected to the chair of Mathematics in Indi- ana Asbury University. He was also elected vice-president of the Faculty. Hon. David McDonald, who had been elected to the presi- dency of the university, having de- clined to accept, the administration of the university devolved upon Dr. Nutt for nearly two years, during one of the most critical and impor-
tant periods in its history, until Rev Thos. Bowman, D.D., took charge of the institution in the spring of 1859 The university was conducted with great skill and success by Dr. Nutt and his associates, and fully recov ered from the disaster that had un- fortunately overtaken it in 1856-57. In 1839, he received the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater, Alle- gheny College. In 1859 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Ohio Wesleyan University ; and in 1873, the degree of Doctor of Laws, from Hanover College, and also from the University of Missouri. In 1860, he was a delegate to the General Conference, held at Buffalo, from Northern Indiana Conference, leading his delegation, and served in that memorable session as mem ber of the committee on the Episco pacy, and also on the committees on Education, Judiciary, and Lay Delegation, and proved himself an industrious and useful delegate. He also served as a delegate from Indi- ana Conference to the General Con- ference, which met at Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1872, and was elected seere- tary of the committee on the State of Church, besides being a member and doing service on several other important committees.
In 1860, Dr. Nutt was elected president of the Indiana State Uni- versity at Bloomington, which posi- tion he still holds (1875,) and under his prudent and skillful manage- ment the State university has greatly prospered. Five new chairs have been added to its course of instruc- tions, a medical department, and a department of civil engineering have been created, the number of the faculty have been increased from six to twenty-six, the number
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of students, from about one hun- dred, to three hundred and fifty- eight, the annual income from five thousand six hundred dollars, to thirty thousand five hundred, the number of the alumni from two hundred and forty-two, to nine hundred and seventy-three, the library from one thousand five hun- dred volumes, to near eight thou- sand. The cabinet is now one of the best in the west, and a new and beautiful building has been com- pleted, and all the facilities for instruction have been greatly en- larged. The Indiana university now justly ranks among the very best in the land.
The State university has pros- pered beyond precedent since Dr.
Nutt has been at the head of its affairs. Dr. Nntt was elected presi- dent of Iowa State University in 1842, but declined to accept. He was a member of the State Teach- ers' Convention in 1854, which or- ganized the State Teachers' Associ- ation, and established the Indiana School Journal. He was elected and served as president of the State Teachers' Association in 1863, and has been a member of the State Board of Education for nine years. Both as a minister of the gospel and an educator, Dr. Nutt has been emi- nently successful, and will leave upon the generation that comes after him an abiding impression for good.
BARNABAS C. HOBBS, LL. D.
IIc was born near Salem, Wash- ington county, Indiana, October fourth, 1815. His early years were passed in familiar acquaintance with the trials, privations, and la- bors of pioncer life, and his educa- tion was such as was to be had in the log school-house of that day.
Prompted by aspirations for a better scholarship, he entered, at eighteen years, the county semina- ry, under the instruction of John I. Morrison, at that time and for many years a leading educator in the State. He here became acquainted with algebra, geometry, mensuration, and land surveying, and with the first lessons in Latin and Greek. in addition to his common school course. Ile was kindly offered a home in the family of Benjamin Parke, then United States judge for the district of Indiana, whose intl- ence and friendship were of great
advantage to him, and never forgot- ten. Ile was his office companion at the time of his death in 1834.
Hle commenced teaching while eighteen years of age, and has made it his principal employment until now. While thus engaged in his native county in 1837, he became acquainted with William HI. Mc- Guffey, the anthor of the Eclectic Readers, who opened the way for him to enter the Cincinnati college, over which he then presided, which opportunity he gladly accepted, teaching a part of the time to meet his expenses. He was here under the mathematical instruction of Prof. O. M. Mitchell. During this period of his life he was brought into intimate acquaintance with Prof. E. D. Mansfield, Prof. Drury and Drs. Drake, Harrison, Rodgers and MeDowell of the medical de- partment, in which he took an
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academic course in comparative anatomy and chemistry. These ad- vantages and the inspiration he re- ceived from such men had much to do in determining his future char- acter.
Ile was soon after employed as principal teacher in Mount Pleas- ant boarding school, in Jefferson county, Ohio, where he remained near four years, and until his mar- riage, when a favorable opening in- duced him to establish a school in Richmond, Indiana, to which place he removed in the spring of 1843.
After a uniform success of near four years, he accepted the super- intendency of Friend's boarding school, now Earlham college, for two years.
In 1851, he removed to Parke county to take the presidency of Bloomingdale academy, in which he continuously and successfully labored for near sixteen years.
At the extra session of the legis- lature of 1865, a law was passed creating a State normal school, an institution for which he had long and earnestly labored. He was ap- pointed by Governor Morton one of the trustees, a position which he continues to hold. In 1866, he was delegated by the board of trustees to visit the several normal schools in the United States to obtain the necessary information from their experience, preparatory to the con- struction of a building adapted to the best ideal of such institutions. The architect embraced in his plan the recommendations in his report.
During the summer of the same year he was chosen the first presi- dent of Earlham college, and pro- fessor of English literature, which places he creditably filled for more
than two years, and until elected superintendent of public instruc- tion in 1868. A vacancy occurring in that office by the resignation of Dr. G. W. Hoss, who had accepted a professorship in the State univer. sity, he by appointment of Governor Baker entered at once upon the du. ties of that office ; the term for which he was elected not commencing un- til March fifteenth, 1869.
le applied himself earnestly and faithfully to the duties of his office, and in his county visits, public ad- dresses and official reports, pressed upon the people the necessity of ad- ditional tax for the extension of the school term in rural districts; of the necessity of county superin- tendency; of such modifications in our school laws as would give relief to county officers in mak- ing enumerations, distributions of school funds, and reports; for the perfection of our public school sys- tem so that the common school would grade properly into the high school, and the high school into the college and State university; and for the rights of colored citizens to the benefits of the school funds. The resignations of members in both branches of the legislature during both sessions during his term of office, prevented the real- ization of his wishes, but he has the pleasure of seeing their appro- val by subsequent legislation.
As chairman of a committee of the National Superintendents Asso- ciation, at Washington, he advo- cated such national legislation as would equalize the school funds of the States, especially with reference to Southern States, where school funds had been lost by war. Ilis report of memorial was approved
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by the association, and its presenta- tion ordered.
IIe was one of the carnest advo- cates of reform schools for both boys and girls, and for prison re- form. IIe has the pleasure of wit- nessing the successful inauguration of the first, and of anticipating such legislation as will make our State and city prisons self-supportive, ed- ucational and reformatory.
Hle is one of the trustees and in- corporators of the Terre Haute In- dustrial School, founded by the mu- nificent endowment of Chauncy Rose, Esq., and has had the charge of selecting and sustaining, at the State normal school, about twenty young ladies, by the liberal provis- ion of the same gentleman. These have been chosen from about thirty different counties, and the entire number so aided has been above sixty.
When his term of service as State superintendent closed, he returned to his pleasant home at Blooming- dale, where he resumed the presi- dency of Bloomingdale academy.
While, in early life, he was una-
ble, for want of means, to complete his regular college course, his suc- cess in his chosen profession secur- ed for him an honorary master's degree by Wabash college in 1858, and the degree of Doctor of Laws by the State university in 1870. The latter institution has twice honored him by offering him the professor- ship of English literature, which, at the time, he considered would be attended by too much pecuniary sacrifice for him to accept.
Hle was employed by the State geologist, in 1872, by aid of a do- nation for that object, by the com- missioners, to make a geological survey of Parke county. Ilis re- port may be found in the Geolog ical Reports for that year.
While he maintains a member ship in the Society of Friends, and has been by them approved as a minister for more than twenty years, he is liberal and tolerant towards all. Ilis religious senti- ments are of the full evangelic type, recognizing men of every na- tion, race and color as brethren.
DANIEL KIRKWOOD, LL. D.
IIe was the son of John and Ag- nes (llope) Kirkwood, and was born in Harford county, Maryland, Sep- tember twenty-seventh, 1814. IIis youth was spent in the ordinary routine of farm labor, with very limited opportunities for acquiring even an English education. In 1834 he entered the York County Academy, at York, Pennsylvania, where, first as a student, and after- ward as teacher of mathematics, he continued till 1843, when he was elected principal of the Lancaster
(Pa.) High School. Col. John W Forney and Hon. Thaddeus Stevens were then directors of the Lancas- ter city schools, and Dr. Kirkwood still speaks with evident satisfaction of his carly official relations with the subsequently distinguished jour- nalist and statesman.
In 1849, while residing in Potts- ville, Pa., Dr. Kirkwood published his Analogy between the Periods of Rotation of the Primary Planets, which was favorably received by the scientific public. In 1851 he
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was elected a member of the Amer- ican Philosophical Society, at Phil- adelphia, and in the same year to the chair of mathematics in Dela- ware college. From 1856 to the pres- ent time- with the exception of a brief absence in Canonsburg, Pa .- he has occupied the position which he now holds in the University of Indiana.
Dr. Kirkwood has been a frequent contributor to our scientific jour- nals, and some of his memoirs have
attracted much attention, both In Europe and America. His paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society of Lon- don, Vol. XXIX., was the first to in- dicate the physical cause of the gap in Saturn's ring, and of similar chasms in the zone of asteroids.
The degree of A. M. was conferred on Dr. Kirkwood, in 1849, by Wash- ington college, and that of LL. D. in 1852, by the University of Pennsyl- vania.
JOIIN P. C. SHANKS.
He was born in Martinsburg, Vir- ginia, June seventeenth, 1826. His paternal ancestors came from Ire- land. ITis grandfather, Joseph Shanks, entered the Continental army immediately after the battle of Lexington, and served through the Revolution, participating in the battle of Yorktown. Ilis father, Michacl Shanks, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and an elder broth- er served through the Mexican war.
His father left the State of Vir- ginia in 1830, on account of oppo- sition to slavery, and settled in the wilderness of Jay county, Indiana. The subject of this sketch had few advantages of schools, either in Vir- ginia or in his forest home in the West. His parents being in limited circumstances, struggling to make a home in a new country, their son participated in their labors, hard- ships, and privations. From his fifteenth to his seventeenth year he suffered intensely from an attack of rheumatism, much of his time being helpless, and while in this condition studied industriously un- der his father, who was a good scholar. Regaining his health, he
pursued his studies during all the waking hours which were not occu- pied with the severest manual labor. Ile studied by fire-light at home, and by camp-fires in the woods. He read in the highway while driving his team, and carried his book when he plowed. He worked at the car- penter's trade in Michigan to earn money with which to pursue the study of law. In 1847 he com- menced the study of law in his own county, working for his board, and devoting every third week of his time to labor for his father on the farm.
He was admitted to practice law in 1850, and during that year was acting auditor of his county. In the autumn following he was elect- ed prosecuting attorney of the eir. cuit court by the unanimous vote of both political parties. In 1860 hie was elected representative from In- diana to the thirty-seventh congress, and took his seat July fourth, 1861, when congress was assembled by proclamation of President Lincoln to take measures for the prosecution of the war; he voluntarily fought in the first battle of Bull Run, July
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twenty-first, 1861, and by great ef- forts succeeded in rallying a portion of the fugitives from the ill-fated field. For his conduct, on this oc- casion, he was promoted, and after- wards accepted an appointment on the staff of Gen. Fremont, and serv- ed with him in Missouri, and after- wards with Gen. Hunter, until the re-assembling of congress. After the session of congress closed he connected himself with Fremont's staff, in West Virginia.
In the summer of 1863, Mr. Shanks raised the seventh Indiana regiment of volunteer cavalry, and on the sixth of December, was ordered with them from Indianapolis to the field.
In the following February, he was breveted a brigadier-general for mer. itorious conduct. Having given ef- ficient service until some time after the surrender of Lee and Johnston, he was mustered out in September, 1865, at Hempstead, Texas.
In 1866, Mr. Shanks was elected to the fortieth congress, during which he served on the committees on the militia and Indian affairs. In the forty-first congress Mr.Shanks was chairman of the committee on the militia, and a member of tho committee on Indian affairs and on freedmen's affairs.
During his public life Mr. Shanks has been an industrious worker.
GRAIIAM N. FITCII.
He removed from New York, his native State, to Logansport, In- diana, in 1843. IIc has been twice elected to the Indiana legislature, and has been several times elector of president and vice-president of the United States. He held, for sev. eral years, a professorship in Rush Medical College, Chicago, Ill., and resigned that position to take a seat in congress. He was four years in the national house of representa- tives, defeating in the race for his second term the Hon. Schuyler Col- fax. IIc (Mr. F.) was subsequently four years in the United States sen- atc. Although always a decided democrat, he has twice dissented from the action of the majority of his party. In the triangular con- test for the presidency between Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Douglas, and Mr. Breckenridge, he supported the last named gentleman, influenced there- to by a belief that his election would prevent the threatened civil
war. And again when the major- ity of his party supported Mr. Grec- ley for the presidency against Gen. Grant, he voted for Charles O'Con- nor. IIc opposed alike the ultra anti-slavery men of the North, and pro-slavery men of the South, aver- ring that the former gave the pre- text for dissatisfaction in the South, while the latter exaggerated the pre- text to unreasonably increase the dissatisfaction. IIc thought both, though antipodes in profession, men seeking the same end-civil war and dissolution of the Union. IIc ap- pears to have foreseen the war some years before its occurrence, and warned southern members of con gress of its consequences to theis section : portraying those consc quences, in one of his speeches in congress, much as they subsequent- ly occurred. When the war came, he raised a regiment (forty-sixth In. diana volunteers), and at their head entered the federal service. He was
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soon placed in command of a brig- ade with which he participated in the seige and capture of Fort Thompson, at New Madrid, Mo. IIis command likewise composed part of General Palmer's division, which, subsequent to the capture of Fort Thompson, blockaded the Mississippi at Ruddle's Point, to prevent reinforcements and sup- plies reaching " Island 10" from below. Afterwards he was detach- ed with his brigade from General Pope's command to co-operate with Commodores Foote and Davis in
the seige of Fort Pillow, and con- ducted the seige so vigorously as to materially aid in the forced aban- donment of the fort by the confed- erate troops. The next day after its capture he descended the river and captured Memphis, holling it for some days, until the arrival of General Shanks, of the forty-seventh Indiana. He then, with his own regiment, embarked for the White River, Arkansas, where he rendered valuable service. Dr. Fitch is now a well known and prominent resi- dent of Logansport, Indiana.
HORACE P. BIDDLE.
The father of Horace P. Biddle was one of the early pioneers of the west. Casting his lot in border life, he migrated to Marietta, Ohio, in 1789, where he endured a full share of the hardships of those days. In 1802 he removed to Fairfield county, in that State, where he erected the log cabin or "Cabin Home," of which we present an engraving on the following page. This cabin was located about one mile below Logan, on the north bank of the Hocking river, in what is now Hocking county. Horace P. Biddle was born in this " Cabin Home," in 1814, and lived here with his pa- rents until about twenty years of age. ITis youth was spent working on the farm in the summer and go- ing to school in the winter. In the former capacity he laid well the foundation of a sound, physical constitution, such as only agricul- tural pursuits can give, and in the Jatter-the rural school room-his mind was early directed to the beauties of poetry and literature, with which his writings since have been adorned.
In 1836 Mr. Biddle applied to the late Thomas Ewing to study law, and was cordially received by that gentleman, who, being a member of the United States Senate, at that time, recommended him to the office of the late Hocking II. Hunter, of Lancaster. With the last named gentleman Mr. Biddle earnestly commenced his studies for the law profession. In this undertaking he was entirely successful. Through the special kindness of Mr. Hunter, who proved not only his efficient preceptor, but his sincere friend, he lacked no advantage calculated to facilitate his progress. In April, 1839, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, at Cin- cinnati, and in October, of the same year, he settled permanently in Lo- gansport, Indiana.
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