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 51
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Wallace was president of the commission appointed to investi- gate General Buell's operations in Tennessee and Kentucky, member of the court that tried the assassins of President Lincoln, president of the court that tried Captain Wirz, keeper of the Andersonville prison. At the end of the rebellion he re- signed his commission and returned to his profession.
After the war, General Wallace turned his attention to literature, in which he has gained considerable reputation. His, The Fair God; or, The last of the Tzins-a tale founded on the conquest of Mexico, has gained a world-wide celebrity He now resides in Crawfordsville, Indiana, enjoying a lucrative prac- tice at the bar.
W. E. NIBLACK.
His early life was devoted to agri- cultural and mechanical pursuits, among the stirring scenes of pioneer life. The first school he attended was kept in a log house, two miles away from his home. He entered the college at Bloomington in the fall of 1838, and attended college there at intervals for two years, but owing to the death of his father, was unable to graduate. Hle after- wards studied law, and was admit- ted to the practice in 1843. In the spring of 1845, he located at Mt. Pleasant, Indiana, the then county seat of Martin county, and formally commenced the practice of law. In August, 1849, he was elected a rep- resentative in the State legislature from that county. In 1850, the year following, he was elected to the State senate from the counties of Daviess and Martin for the term of three years, (as the term then was.) In the session of 1850-1, which fol- lowed, Knox county was added to his Senatorial district; he was con- sequently a member of the State senate during the long session of 1851-2, which revised the statutes to conform to the new constitution of 1851. He went out of the senate in October, 1852, by the operation of
the new constitution. He was re- nominated for the position under the new constitution, but declined to be a candidate. In January, 1854, Hon. Alvin P. Hovey, who was judge of the then third judicial cir- cuit which embraced eleven of the southwestern counties, resigned the office. Governor Wright immedi- ately tendered Mr. Niblack the ap- pointment to fill the vacancy, which, after some hesitation, he accepted, and at once entered upon the duties of the office. In October following, he was elected to the office for the full term of six years.
At the October election in 1856, Hon. James Lockhart, of Evans- ville, was elected a representative in Congress from the first district, which then embraced ten counties of Mr. Niblack's judicial circuit. In the early part of September, 1857, Mr. Lockhart died without having taken his seat in Congress. In the latter part of that month, Mr. Niblack was nominated as a candi- date to fill the vacancy. At the Oc- tober election following, he was elected without opposition. Near the close of the month of October, he resigned his judgeship to accept the position as a representative in
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the thirty-fifth Congress, which be- gan its first session on the first Monday in December following. In 1858 he was re-nominated and re-elected to the thirty-sixth Con- gress. In 1860, he was not a candi- date for re-election, and retired from Congress in the spring of 1861.
In the fall of 1855, he removed to Vincennes, in Knox county, where he still resides. At the October election, in 1862, he was elected a representative in the State legisla- ture from Knox county. During the ensuing session of the legisla- ture, he was appointed a member of what was known as the military auditing committee, which consist- ed of two members of the Senate and three members of the House, and was required to meet once in each month to consider and pass upon all claims arising against the State growing out of the war, of
every kind whatever. Ile did his share of the work of that committee until it was dissolved by the meet- ing of the legislature again in Jan- uary, 1865. In October, 1864, he was again elected to Congress, and re-entered that body as a member of the thirty-ninth Congress, which assembled in December, 1865. IIe was re-elected consecutively to each Congress until last year, when he was not a candidate. Ile will again retire from Congress, therefore, next spring, after a service of fourteen years at two different intervals.
During the thirty-ninth, forty- first, and forty-second Congresses, he was a member of the committee on appropriations, and during the fortieth and forty-third Congress he was a member of the committee of ways and means. He was elected one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Indiana in 1877.
W. S. LINGLE.
He was born in Lawrence county, in 1833. IIe was the only son of Dr. Joseph F. Lingle, who died at Paoli, in 1834. The widow married again, and the subject of this sketch removed with his step-father, J. W. Hinds, Esq., to Madison, Indiana, where his boyhood and early youth were spent. He was educated un- der Prof. W. W. Hibben, at Law- renceburgh Institute, and subse- quently took a partial course at As- bury. Dependent upon his own resources, he obtained temporary employment in the telegraph office at Madison. All his predilections were in favor of the law, and his leisure hours were devoted to a course of preliminary reading un- der the direction of Hon. Joseph H.
Marshall, the distinguished jurist of Jefferson. While thus employed, he accepted a proposition from Col. W. G. Terrell to embark in a journ- alistic enterprise at La Fayette. He was then twenty years of age. As- sociated with Col. Terrell in the business and editorial management of the La Fayette Journal, he laid the foundation for the remarkable success which has crowned his journalistic carcer. IIe retired from the Journal in 1856, and pur- chased the La Fayette Daily Cour- ier. He introduced the first steam press in the State, outside of In- dianapolis, and made his knowl- edge of telegraphing available in the construction of a branch line to nis office, and for a year or two he
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took the Courier telegrams on a Morse instrument in his sanctum. The Courier, for nearly twenty years, under his administration, has attained a large circulation and a commanding influence. His son, Joseph V. Lingle, is associated in the management of the paper. The extent of its business and its influence justifies the remark at- tributed to Mr. Lingle, that he would " rather be the editor of the Courier than the governor of In- diana." A man of positive convic- tions, a terse and vigorous writer, and a good speaker, he has been a tower of strength to the party with which he affiliates. Disclaiming all political aspirations whatever, Mr. Lingle devotes himself with un- tiring energy to the Courier, and the management of the handsome prop- erty which represents twenty years of laborious industry and good man- agement. His real estate invest-
ments in La Fayette have been ju- dicious, and some years since he became the purchaser of the large body of lands in Benton county, donated to Yale College by the late H. W. Ellsworth. These lands have quadrupled in value since the new railroad era in Benton. Every acre of this property has been placed under a high state of cultivation, and Mr. Lingle may claim prestige as a successful "tiller of the soil," as well as a successful editor. He has traveled extensively with his family abroad, and brought home some rare specimens of art, as evi. dence of his taste and culture. He was recently tendered the manage- ment and controlling interest in a metropolitan journal, but, wedded to the Courier and La Fayette, he has determined to spend his days in Indiana. Mr. Lingle was recently elected to the presidency of the ed- itorial association of Indiana.
MAJOR ELISHA G. ENGLISH.
One of the early settlers in the southern part of the State, was Maj. Elisha G. English, who came to Scott county about the time that county was organized, and contin- ued to reside there until near the period of his death, which occurred in the fall of 1874.
He was a leading citizen in that part of the State, and for half a cen- tury was more or less identified with public affairs. IIc served the people of Scott county, as sheriff, as far back as 1828, and was repeat- edly their representative in the State legislature. He was many years a senator from the counties of Scott and Jackson, and also from the counties of Scott and Clark.
He was a member of the legisla- ture as far back as 1832, when that body met in the old court house of Marion county, and at that and the succeeding session, had for col- leagues such men as James Rari- den, George H. Dunn, John Vaw- ter, Elisha W. Huntington, George H. Profit, Samuel Bigger, Caleb B. Smith, John HI. Thompson and Jo- seplı A. Wright, all of whom pre- ceded him in the journey across the dark river, "full of years and full of honors." He was among the last of the survivors of the giants of those carly days.
He continued a representative of the people, cither in the senate or the house, with a few brief inter
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vals, to sometinie about the year 1867-the long period of thirty-five years-about which time he became vice-president of the street railway company, and director in the First National Bank of Indianapolis, which positions he held at the time of his death. He was at one time United States marshal for the dis- trict of Indiana, and in that capacity superintended the taking of the cen- sus of the State in 1860.
He was of a vigorous, long-lived race, his father and mother dying in extreme old age, after living to- gether as man and wife sixty years, and rearing fourteen children, all of whom lived to be married men and women, with children, before there was a single death in the fam- ily. He shared the same vigorous constitution, and was an active, ro-
bust, energetic man to near the time of his death, which occurred in the seventy-seventh year of his age, not from a breaking down of the con- stitution, but from a hemorrhage resulting from a surgical operation. He was very fond of active out-door life, and when over seventy-five years of age he made two trips on horseback all the way from his old home, near the Ohio river, to In- dianapolis, a distance of nearly a hundred miles, just for the fun of the thing, as he said, and to show the boys what an old man could do.
These are the kind of men whose untiring energy has made Indiana great and prosperous. Ile was en- tirely a self-made man, without the benefit of much early education, or any other aid than his own individ- ual exertions.
T. A. WYLIE, D. D., LL.D.
He was born in Philadelphia, in 1810, and was the son of the Rev. S. B. Wylie, D. D., for many years pro- fessor of ancient languages and vice- provost in the University of Penn- sylvania, and for more than fifty years pastor of the Reformed Pres- byterian Church in Philadelphia. The subject of this sketch graduated in 1830, under the presidency of Bishop Delancy. After graduating, he was for a number of years assist- ant in the academic department of the university. Having studied theology in the Seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, he was licensed to preach, in about 1835. He was elected to the chair of natural philosophy and chemis- try in the faculty of the Indiana State University in 1837, under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. Andrew
Wylic. On the death of Dr. Wylie in 1851, Rev. T. A. Wylie acted as president until Dr. Ryans was elect- ed president in 1852. In 1852, he accepted an appointment to the chair of mathematics in Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. After holding this position for two years and a half, he was called back to Bloomington to his former position, which he held till 1863, when he was elected professor of ancient lan- guages. He occupied this chair un- til 1867, when he was made profes- sor of natural philosophy, which chair he still occupies. For nearly thirty years he was pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Bloomington. He received the de- grees of A. B., A. M. in course, from the University of Pennsylvania, and the honorary degree of LL.D. from
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the same institution. The degree of D. D. was conferred by Princeton College, New Jersey, and also by Monmouth College, Illinois, and Miami University, Ohio. Dr. Wy-
lie's labors in connection with the State University of Indiana, will ever be remembered as worthy of highest praise.
GEORGE W. WOOD.
He was born in Goshen, Orange county, New York, September four- teenth, 1808. He received only a common school education, but in after years attained a proficiency in the studies of law and political economy. In 1836 he removed to Fort Wayne, then a mere village of a few hundred inhabitants, where, being a practical printer, he entered the office of the Sentinel, the first, and then the only newspaper pub- .ished in Fort Wayne. In the fol- lowing year he became the propri- etor of that paper. From that time until 1856, he devoted his life to newspaper business, owning and conducting different papers. He then became connected with Sam- ucl Hanna, in railroad enterprises, in which he continued till the death
of the latter, in 1866, when he be- came joint administrator of Judge Hanna's estate with S. T. Hanna, and successfully and with satisfac- tion to all concerned, distributed property exceeding one million of dollars in value. In 1840, Mr.Wood was elected the first mayor of Fort Wayne. In 1849, when a telegraph line was established between Toledo and La Fayette, he became the first resident telegraph operator in Fort Wayne. In 1849, he was appointed register of the United States land office at Fort Wayne, which office he retained until it was discontin- ucd, or removed to Indianapolis. The latter portion of his life was devoted to the care of his own prop- erty. He died on the eleventh of November, 1871.
A. VANGUNDY.
He was born in Ross county, Ohio, July eighteenth, 1823. In 1843 he removed to Carroll county, Indiana, and has lived in Rock Creek town-
ship since that time. He has be- come a wealthy and influential farmer in the township.
COL. W. C. WILSON.
He was born at Crawfordsville, Indiana, November twenty-seventh, 1827. He graduated at Wabash Col- lege in 1847, and at the law depart- ment of the Indiana State Univer- sity in 1849. Admitted to practice law in the first circuit of Indiana on the eighth of January, 1849, and in the supreme court of Indiana, on
the second day of June, 1849. IIc commenced the practice of law at La Fayette in 1850; at which point he is still engaged in such practice. He volunteered as a private soldier under the first call for troops, and was mustered into the United States service on the twenty-first day of April, 1861, as major of the tenth
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Indiana regiment. He was appoint- ed colonel of the fortieth Indiana regiment, raised the regiment, and was mustered into service in Decem- ber, 1862. He served as colonel of the one hundred and eighth Indiana regiment, on John Morgan's raid. He was appointed colonel of the
one hundred and thirty-fifth Indiana regiment in May, 1864, and appoint- ed assessor of internal revenue in the eighth district of Indiana, in September, 1866. He was appointed postmaster at La Fayette, Indiana, in August, 1867.
W. T. ROSS.
He was born in Woodford county, Ky., in 1820. In 1835, he moved to Wabash county, Ind., where he still resides. Was a member of the State
legislature in 1847. He has been quite prominent in agricultural pursuits.
F. P. RANDALL.
He was born in Madison county, New York, in June, 1812. He moved to Fort Wayne in the spring of 1838, and commenced the practice of law, in the study of which he had previ- ously graduated. He was elected school commissioner of Allen coun- ty in 1840. When the town of Fort Wayne had concluded to become a city, at a public meeting of the voters, Mr. Randall was unanimous- ly selected to write out a city char- ter to be submitted to the legisla- ture. It was passed by the legista-
ture without changing a word. In 1847, Mr. Randall was elected to the State senate in the district composed of the counties of Adams, Allen, Huntington and Wells. Governor Willard appointed him director of the State prison, south, in which capacity he served two years. In 1859, he was elected mayor of the city of Fort Wayne. Mr. Randall has devoted much of his leisure time to study, and has collected a library of very rare books.
COL. NORMAN EDDY.
He was born in Cuyahoga county, N. Y., in December, 1810. In 1836, Col. Eddy, having studied medicine, removed to Mishawaka, St. Joseph county, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1848, he removed to South Bend, St. Jo- seph county, where he resided until his death, which occurred January twenty-eighth, 1872, except when temporarily absent, to discharge the duties of his offices to which he had
been elected. In the practicas medicine he had been very success- ful, but feeling a strong desire to become a lawyer, he accordingly prepared himself by a thorough course of study, and was regularly admitted to the bar on the first day of April, 1847. After he had prac- ticed three years, he was elected State senator on the democratic ticket. In 1852, he was elected to Congress from the ninth district,
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having the Hon. Horace P. Biddle for a competitor. In 1854, he was defeated for Congress by Vice-Pres- ident Schuyler Colfax, on the Ne- braska issuc. In 1855, he was ap- pointed United States district at- torney for Minnesota by President Pierce, and in 1856 he was appoint- ed commissioner of Indiana trust lands in Kansas, which office he held until the fall of 1857. At this time he again commenced the prac- tice of law, associating himself with . the late Judge Egbert, but two years after, was appointed by the legisla- ture on a commission to settle claims due the State. When the war broke out he zealously took his stand on the side of the Union, and in 1861 organized the 48tl Indiana
regiment, of which he was ap- pointed colonel. IIe fought with great bravery in the battle of Iuka, where he was severely wounded ; also Corinthi and Grand Gulf, and the siege of Vicksburg, until it sur- rendered, when he resigned, being disabled by his wounds from fur. ther service for his country as a soldier. He continued at his pro- fession until 1865, when he was ap- pointed collector of revenue by Pres- ident Jolinson. In 1870 he was elected Secretary of State on the democratic ticket, which office he held at the time of his death. He was successful in the practice of the law profession subsequent to the war.
ELIJAII HACKLEMAN.
He was born in Cedar Grove, Franklin county, Ind., in October, 1817. Although his educational advantages were slight, he became quite proficient in the English branches, and spent a portion of his early life in teaching school In May, 1849, he removed to Wabash
county, Indiana, and began the im- provement of a farm. IIe filled thio office of county surveyor in Wabash county several years, as also the office of clerk of the circuit court. In October, 1874, he was elected State senator.
GEORGE W. HIOSS, LL. D.
He was born in Brown county, Ohio, in 1824, and moved with his parents to Marion county, Indiana, in 1836. Ile worked on a farm until 1845, when he entered Asbury Uni- versity. Having to carn means for his own support, he left college two terms to teach for that purpose. Ile also taught two hours a day for three years in the Female Seminary in Greencastle. IIe graduated in 1850, and was soon after chosen principal of a flourishing academy at Muncie, Indiana. He remained
at this point two years, when he was elected teacher of mathematics in the Indiana Female College, in Indianapolis. In 1853, he was chosen first literary teacher in the State institute for the education of the blind in Indianapolis. In 1855, he was elected president of the In- diana Female College, and in 1856, he was elected professor of mathe- matics in the Northwestern Chris- tian University, at Indianapolis. In 1864, he was elected State superin- tendent of public instruction, and
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re-elected to the same position in 1866. Before his second term ex- pired, he was elected to the chair of English literature and theory and practice of teaching in the In- diana State University. He held this position until June, 1871, when he resigned to accept the presidency of the State Normal School of Kan- sas. In 1873, he was elected to thic chair of English literature and elo-
cution in the Indiana State Univer- sity, and on account of the de- cline of his wife's health in Kansas, he accepted the position, and still holds it. In 1853, he received the degree of A. M. in course from his Alma Mater, and in 1872, the degree of LL. D. from the Indiana State University. He is regarded as a sound, practical, enthusiastic work- er in the educational field.
THOMAS A. IIENDRICK S.
He was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, September seventh, 1819; was educated at South Han- over College, studied law and com- pleted his legal studies at Cham- bersburg, Pa., in 1843; settled in Indiana and practiced his profes- sion with success. In 1848, he was elected to the State legislature, and declined a re-election ; was an ac- tive and useful member of the con- stitutional convention of 1850; and was a representative in Congress from Indiana from 1851 to 1855. He was appointed by President Pierce, in 1855, commissioner of the
general land office, in which he was continued by President Buchanan until 1859, when he resigned. He was subsequently elected a senator in Congress for the long term, com- mencing in 1863, and ending 1869, serving on the committees on claims, public . buildings and grounds, the judiciary, public lands, and naval affairs. From 1869 to 1872, he practiced the law profession at Indianapolis. In 1872 he was elected governor of the State of Indiana.
O. P. MORTON.
Oliver Perry Morton, one of In- diana's leading statesmen, and at present (1874) her leading repre- sentative in the Senate of the United States, was born in Wayne county, Indiana, August 4th, 1823. His parents died while he was but a boy, leaving him under the care of his grandmother and his aunts. At the age of fourteen he was put under the tuition of Professor S. K. Hoshi- our, then principal of the Wayne County Seminary, at Centerville. After leaving this institution he cn-
tered the Miami University, at Ox- ford, Ohio, where he soon distin- guished himself as a debater and became a star member of the Beta Theta Pi Society. It was at this institution that he first manifested a superiority of intellect and evinced those extraordinary argumentative powers which in after years won for liim the well-deserved reputation of a profound lawyer.
He left the university in Ohio without graduating and returned to Centerville, Indiana, where he be-
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gun the study of the law with the IIon. John S. Newman. Concen- trating all his energies on this one object he soon became proficient in all the branches of the profession and was admitted to the bar, where he carly won the respect and con- fldence of a circle of friends.
In the spring of 1845, Mr. Morton was married to Miss Lucinda M. Burbank, of Centerville, daughter of Isaac Burbank, a respectable and wealthy merchant of that place. Miss Burbank was a lady of rare intelligence and refinement. As the wife of a statesman she has honored both herself and the State of In- diana by her benevolent deeds, not only in behalf of the volunteers who served her State in the war for the Union, but in all charitable under- takings that have appealed to the Christian sympathy of the State.
Mr. Morton began his public life as a Judge of the Circuit Court, in which capacity he served the people of his county one year. IIc was clected to this office by the Demo- cratic party, which he renounced in 1854, owing to the repcal of the Missouri compromise and the pas- sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and became active in forming the Republican party in the State of Indiana. The latter party nomina- ted him for the office of Governor of the State, in 1856, by acclama- tion; but he was defeated at the polls by Ashbel P. Willard, his Democratic competitor. "From the end of the political campaign, in 1856, to the commencement of that of 1860," says Mr. Morton's bio- grapher, " Morton asked no honors of his party; but, nevertheless, la- bored energetically, constantly for the promotion of its success. At political conventions he was always regarded as the most effective of
workers. His sound judgment and eminently practical views of things qualified him to act well those im- portant parts which were assigned him. He was ever regarded as the best of political engineers and held in the highest estimation as a framer of policy. We venture the assertion that the records of the Republican party in Indiana will show that the great leading spirit of that organization, from its very commencement to 1860, was Oliver P. Morten; that he had more to do in directing its movements and es- tablishing its doctrines than any other man !n the State."
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