Biographical and historical record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana : containing portraits and biographies of some of the prominent men of the state : engravings of prominent citizens in Jay and Blackford Counties, with personal histories of many of the leading families and a concise history of Jay and Blackford Counties and their cities and villages., Part 64

Author:
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 922

USA > Indiana > Jay County > Biographical and historical record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana : containing portraits and biographies of some of the prominent men of the state : engravings of prominent citizens in Jay and Blackford Counties, with personal histories of many of the leading families and a concise history of Jay and Blackford Counties and their cities and villages. > Part 64
USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Biographical and historical record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana : containing portraits and biographies of some of the prominent men of the state : engravings of prominent citizens in Jay and Blackford Counties, with personal histories of many of the leading families and a concise history of Jay and Blackford Counties and their cities and villages. > Part 64

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LBERT G. REES, residing on sectiou 30, Jefferson Township, is a native of West Virginia, born in Taylor County, June 5, 1838, his parents, William and Sarah (Neel) Rees, being born and reared in that State. The mother of our subject died in Virginia wlien lie was a child, and in 1856 the father came with his five children to In- diana and settled in Perry Township, Dela- ware County. Of his children, George died soon after coming to Indiana; Margaret mar- ried Hiram Johnson, and died in Richland Township, Jay County, in 1886; Albert G., the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Nancy Cur- rent lives in Brown County, Minnesota, and John F. lives in Delaware County, Indiana. Albert G. Rees returned to his native county for his bride, Miss Caroline Shuttleworth,

who was reared in the same neighborhood as himself and attended the same schools, the date of their marriage being February 7, 1864. Mrs. Rees was born in Taylor County, West Virginia, April 22, 1845, a daughter of Joshua and Jane Shuttleworth. Mr. and Mrs. Rees lived on rented land in Delaware County, Indiana, several years, wlien in the autumn of 1868 they settled on their present homestead in Jefferson Township, Jay County, commencing there on sixty-five acres of dense forest land. Mr. Rees began life witlı a small capital, but his reliance was mainly his strong hands, and the assistance of his faithful wife. The homestead is 110W doubled in size, and under good cultivation, being one of the best farins in Jefferson Township. The log house first occupied by tliem has been replaced by a more commodious residence, their home being considered tlie neatest cottage in their township. Mr. and Mrs. Rees are the parents of ten children --- Charles William, Richard Henry, Mary Lu- ella, John Martin, Sarah Rosella, George El- mer, Emory Nelson, Lewis Riley, Myrtle Victoria and Idelle Lee, all with the excep- tion of the eldest son, living under the home roof. Chiarles W. is married and resides on a part of his father's homestead. In politics Mr. Rees casts his suffrage with the Demo- cratic party.

OLONEL NIMROD HEADINGTON was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, in 1827, and has lived in Portland, Indi- ana, since 1853. In September, 1861, he with James W. Campbell, raised a company for the war of the Rebellion, which was assigned to the Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry, and on its organization he was elected First Lieu- tenant, and a year and a half later he was

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HISTORY OF JAY COUNTY.

promoted to Captain, his commission bearing date April 10, 1863. May 1, 1864, lie was commissioned Major of his regiment, and January 3, 1865, Lieutenant-Colonel. He was mustered out February 21, 1866, his entire time of service being four years and five months. He participated in the battle of Baker's Creek, or Champion Hills, where he was in command of his company, which lost seventeen men, killed and wonuded, the

entire division losing 1,500 men. Then followed the siege of Vicksburg, in which his regimeut took an important part. After the fall of Vicksburg they moved on Fort Jack- son, and thence to New Orleans, and partici- pated in the Teschi campaign in Louisiana. Soon after this campaign they were sent via New Orleans to Matagorda Bay, and thence up the Rio Grande River 400 miles to Ring- gold Barracks, where their last duty was performed. Colonel Headington had many narrow escapes from rebel bullets during his long term of service, but his health became impaired, and for a number of years follow- ing his discharge he was a continual sufferer from the effects of his army service. In 1870 the Colonel built the Headington House, which he conducted twelve years. He was appointed postmaster in 1878, and served seven years. The faithfulness witlı which he discharged his duties as postmaster is indi- cated by the fact that at the end of his ser- vice his accounts were examined and it was found that he was indebted to the department nine cents, for the payment of which he holds a receipt. He is now engaged in the real estate and insurance business. In 1857 and 1858 he was surveyor of Jay County. Po- litically the Colonel is a Republican. He was reared a Democrat, but the firing on the natiou's flag at Fort Sumter changed his politics. He was married in September, 1858, to Rebecca Hawkins, who died April 1, 1880.

His present wife was Mrs. Ruth A. Watson, daughter of William Haines. The Colonel las two children, a son and daughter-Charles F. and Thetis, wife of Charles T. Tate.

ENERAL J. P. C. SHANKS, attorney at law, etc., Portland, was born in Martinsburg, the county 'seat of Berke- ley County, now West Virginia, June 17, 1826. His father, Michael Shanks, was a native of Hampshire County, Virginia, and was of Irish descent, his parents having ini- migrated from County Down, Ireland, to Pennsylvania about 1765, and from that State to Virginia after the Revolutionary war. He was by trade a millwright. In 1816 he invented the first machine that threshed grain with teeth. The original model was selected by the Commissioner of Patents in 1876, for exhibition at the Centennial Exposi- tion. He was married at Martinsburg, Sep- tember 20, 1821, to Martha B. Cleaver, a member of the Friend's Society. They had eiglit children, four sons and four daughters, the subject of this biography being the third child. The eldest son, Joseph, lost his life in the war with Mexico, and a younger brother, Stephen, as well as the subject himself, served their country during the late Rebellion. Mr. Michael Shanks volunteered in the war of 1812, in defense of Baltimore and Washing- ton. He was a self-educated man, a gentle- inan of strictly moral habits, charitable to a fault, a good historian and mathematician, studious and philosophical, well read in the Scriptures and a believer in them, a kind husband and father, a good neighbor and an honest man. Being opposed to human slavery he left the State of his birth in 1839, for Indiana, saying, " I can not abolish slavery in Virginia, nor prevent its baneful influence.

John DO Shaus

Huldah Shanks

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

on those who remain; bnt I can take my family to a free State, where they may prosper." Moving in a wagon, the only inland conveyance of the times, he located in Jay County, April 8, 1840, in the wild woods. On the very day he left his Virginian home, seeing a number of poorly clad slave women working in a field, with a well dressed white man, whip in hand, overseeing them, he remarked to his son, onr subject, as follows: " My son, do you see those slave women toil- ing in yonder field for a heartless master, and withont reward? They are kept for the product of their bodies, like breeding cattle, and made to labor for the support of them- selves and their unhappy children that they are caused to raise for the market, who, as well as themselves, are subject to sale on the auction block, as you have often seen, or secretly sold to the driver for gain to their assmed owner. The relations of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, are thns broken for money to the holders of their bodies; and the other untold crimes that enter into the general degradation consequent npon human slavery curse this people and conntry and drive us from the State of our nativity; and all this in a land of professed Christians! I am now fleeing, with my family from this moral Sodom before it is too late. You will live to see these fields drenched in human blood over this great crime; it may not come in my day, and yet it may." And it did come in his day. Twenty-two years from that time, namely, July 21, 1861, at the first battle of Bull Run, in which General Shanks was engaged, there fell on the rebel side, many of the schoolmates from whom he parted in June, 1839. The General says that the words of his father burned into his brain and have ever since been present with him, making him an opponent of slavery and oppression and a friend of the negro, the

Indian, and the poor and oppressed of all lands and races. His father died at his home in this (Jay) Connty, April 21, 1867 ,aged eighty-five years, without an enemy. The General's mother, who was of mixed German and French descent, was born December 22, 1800, and died greatly respected, in February, 1879, aged seventy-nine years. She was well educated and fond of reading, and to ler example and precepts are largely due the tenacity of purpose, self-reliance and irre- pressible energy that characterize the Gen- eral. His grandfather, Joseph Shanks, entered the Continental army from Penn- sylvania immediately after the battle of Lex- ington, and remained in the service until the close of the war, taking part in the battles of Quebec, Brandywine, Germantown, Trenton, Stony Point, and Yorktown, Virginia. In his religious creed he was a Scotch Presby- terian. He died in 1834, at the age of eighty-seven years. Inheriting all the traits, principles and sympathies above referred to, when a mere boy, and even before leaving his native home, General Shanks sometimes aided in secreting fugitive slaves and helping them on in their flight. Although there was no organized "underground railroad" at that time, which a more advanced civilization rendered necessary, John P. C. thus prac- tically became one of the first "conductors." and worked, of course, without pay. His school education was limited to what he ob- tained in the Virginia subscription schools before he was thirteen years old, though he pursued his studies for some time afterward, with the aid of his father. In a jacket pre- pared for him by his mother, he carried with him his books, and while driving teain, plow- ing, making rails, camping in the woods, etc., and when others of the family were asleep, in season and out of season, he utilized his spare moments in storing his mind. Candles and

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HISTORY OF JAY COUNTY.

oil being unusual luxuries, he had to study by the light of a fire. His father, by his ex- cessive liberality in indorsing for other men's liabilities, became greatly reduced in circum- stances, and lie (the son) was consequently compelled to devote the years of his youth to hard work on pioneer farms, devoting the proceeds of his labor to the support of the family; and many were the obstacles, disap- pointments and losses he had to suffer. But from early life he made it a rule of action never to yield to misfortune. It was his cus- tom, after gathering his father's grain, to go to Northwest Indiana, to continne as a har- vest hand. These trips he made on foot, resting at night under trees, carrying pro- visions for the journey in a basket of his own make; from home, and returning the proceeds of his labor to his parents. From his four- teenth to his seventeenth year he suffered much from rheumatisin, being sometimes unable to walk; but by "crawling" about he managed to procure material for making bas- kets, and he improved his time in this way until he became able to do better. During this time he was very seriously wounded by an ax, from the effects of which accident he has never yet fully recovered. He also tanned the hides of such game as he could secure, using ashes instead of lime for removing the hair from skins, pounding the oak bark in- stead of grinding it, and using a common wooden trongh, cut by an ax from a log, for a vat. From the leather thus made he manu- factured his own shoes, on lasts of his own make. After recovery from his rheumatic troubles, he cleared land for others, to aid his parents with his earnings. At the age of eighteen he began also to teach school, which profession he followed for a number of winter seasons. He often broke cattle to the yoke, for the use of them during the process. By teaming from his home to Fort Wayne,

though the distance was less than fifty miles, the trip usually occupied about seven days, during which he would remain in the woods wherever night overtook him; and while his cattle were feeding he would study his books or make baskets for the market. We regret that we have not space to record a number of his remarkable experiences on these trips. His mother often remarked of him that "he was encouraged by opposition and strength- ened by misfortune." Since his eighteenth year his physical constitution has been strong. He is six feet two inches in height, erect, of light complexion, brown hair, gray eyes, and all his features are well propor tioned. He is a gentleman of kind sympa- thies, broad and liberal views, and, like his father, has lost much property or money by favoring his importnning but unreliable friends. He is a forcible speaker, original and practical. In some political campaigns he has spoken from four to six hours per day for weeks almost continuously, while he traveled from place to place in a wagon or on horseback. In 1847 General Shanks began the study of law under the preceptorship of Hon. N. B. Hawkins, now deceased, of Portland. In 1848'-49 he was deputy county clerk. In 1850 he was admitted to the bar, and during the same year he was appointed deputy audi- tor of Jay County and postmaster at Port- land. In the fall of that year he was elected, by a vote of both political parties, prosecut- ing attorney of the Circuit Court. In 1850 -'51 he owned and controlled a hotel in Portland. During 1850, in company with James Brom- agem, he owned, printed and published the first newspaper issued in the county. Soon after commencing the practice of law he formed a partnership with James N. Templer, a well- read and successful attorney, and they contin- ued in business together for many years. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court

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of the State and of the United States District and Circuit Courts for Indiana, and March 10, 1863, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1854 he was elected, over a strong opposition, to the Lower House of the Indiana Legisla- ture, where he served on the judiciary com- mittee witli ability. While a member he urged the injustice of using the taxes paid by colored people for school purposes while not providing schools for their children; and he was also active in supporting a prohibitory liquor law. His position on these two ineas- ures led to his defeat, by a small majority, for the same office in 1856. From 1855 to 1860 he successfully pursued his law busi- ness. Having actively participated in the organization of the Republican party, in 1856 he entered heartily in the canvass for the election of Jolin C. Fremont, his party's candidate for President of the United States. In 1860 he was elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress as a Republican from the then Eleventh Congressional District of Indiana, over Colonel A. Steele. His first congres- sional service was in the called session of July, 1861, to provide means to protect the Union against armed traitors, and he heartily co-operated with all friends of the nation's integrity in furnishing men and supplying agencies to suppress the rebellion. His first experience in the army was while he was a member of Congress, in the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; and during the battle, as a volunteer, he fought in the ranks of the Sixty-ninth New York Regiment, un- der Colonel Corcoran, in General Sherman's brigade; was with the Colonel when wounded. After the retreat commenced General Shanks succeeded in rallying a number of straggling troops and made a stand near Cub's Run, covering the retreat. As he did not reach Washington until noon the following day, he

was supposed and reported captured or killed. For his services on the battlefield President Lincoln appointed him a Brigadier-General, which position he declined, saying to the President, " No man should be promoted in the army till he earns promotion by meritori- ous services in the field." Subsequently, at the request of the President, he accepted an appointment on the staff of General Fremont, and served with him through his Missouri campaign, rendering valuable service in or- ganizing and moving the forces in that State. When young the General manifested a fond- ness for horses, and early became a fine rider and driver. Thus, during his military services with General Fremont, the latter pronounced him the best rider in his command; and sub- sequently, in his long and frequent journeys, with the Kiowas, Comanches, Apaches, Chey- ennes and other uncivilized Indian tribes, his boldness as a horseman was often put to the test by tliese wild companions, who often admired his skill and endurance. He was with General Fremont when the latter issued his proclamation of August 30, 1861. giving freedom to the slaves and confiscating the property of those in active. rebellion. General Shanks sustained this proclamation, and drew up the first manumission papers. The question of the surrender of slaves who sought refuge with the Union forces to their former masters was submitted, by Colonel Shanks' suggestion, to Colonels Owen Love- joy, R. N. Hudson and himself. No slaves were returned to their so-called owners. General Shanks returned to his duties in Congress in December, 1861, where he took prompt steps to prevent the return of slaves by the army to their masters. He introduced the first resolution that resulted in definite action, and in the prohibition of the return of slaves. March 4, 1862, he vindicated General Fremont in his war policy, in a speech in

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HISTORY OF JAY COUNTY.

Congress, when a large audience was capti- vated by his eloquence. During the succeed- ing interval of Congress, General Shanks was again with General Fremont, this time in West Virginia. After the expiration of his term in Congress, our subject raised and or- ganized at great expense to himself, the Seventh Indiana Cavalry, an account of which is given in the War chapter in this work. In the Congressional election of 1862, the General was defeated in consequence of liis support of the draft, which took place a few days prior to the election of that year, and of the further fact that in the early part of the war the volunteers, in his district at least, were largely Republican. The draft referred to was accompanied with mob violence at Hartford City on the part of some who op- posed it, and excitement ran so high that any man who attempted to advocate it endangered his life. The General, having been posted to speak at the place, was advised by some of his friends not to appear there, lest his life should actually be attempted; but he was bold enough to fill his appointment; and in the course of his speechi he denounced the home treason manifested there in plain terins. This he did fearlessly, and the cowards did not attempt any violence on that occasion. In other public relations the General has also shown himself to be a progressive man. In 1848 he aided materially in the establishment of Liber College, south of Portland, for the higher education of all classes of persons irre- spective of race. In 1851, in co-operation with others, he spent the property he then had in an unsuccessful endeavor to have a railroad constructed through Jay County; and at a later date, by his greater experience and larger acquaintance, he aided efficiently in the location and construction of two im- portant lines of railroad through the county. He has also aided in improving the highways

leading to Portland. Once he caused a sur- vey of the Salamonia River to be made, with the view of sinking the channel of that stream at Portland. He has spent much time among the various tribes of Indians, from Texas to British Columbia, in securing to them their homes, moneys and supplies, and in protect- ing them from the depredations of designing men. He was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs during the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses; was a member of the same committee during the Fortieth and Forty-third sessions; and was one of the special commissioners appointed by the House to investigate Indian frands. In these ca- pacities he did much to improve legislation concerning the Indians. He was among the savages a great deal, and generally had with him his wife or a son; never had a military guard. General Shanks was member of Congress ten years alto- gether, during the most critical period of the nation's existence,and introduced many wise measures, some of which were adopted. Since his retirement from Congress he has given more attention to his law business and to hiis private affairs, necessarily neglected while engaged in official duties, but he con- sented to serve in the Legislature of the State, and was elected to the House in 1878, where he was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee. He introduced a bill to exempt $600, instead of only $300, of personal prop- erty from execution, advocated woman suf- frage, and took popular positions on all the issnes brought up. In Congress he was always found on the side of simple justice, not seeming to be in complicity with any in- trigne or scheme of jobbery. Having been brought up in comparative poverty, and in- ured to incessant toil, his sympathies are ever seen exhibited in favor of the oppressed, of whatever race, color, or sex. In religion

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General Shanks is not a dogmatist, believing far more in moral principles than in theologi- cal creeds; is a devoted member of the Ma- sonic order. He believes, with the old Latin poet, Terence, that nothing affecting the in- terests of humanity is a matter of indiffer- ence to him. He has the largest library in this part of the State. The above is an ab- breviated outline of the life and public services of a typical frontiersman, a true republican, and a thorough-going, resolute, determined man, the most noted, character- istic man in Eastern Indiana. August 11, 1850, is the date of General Shanks' first marriage, to Miss Deborah Wilson, a mem- ber of the Society of Friends. They had one daughter, now living, wlio was educated at the celebrated Moravian school at Liszt, Penn- sylvania. She married Mr. Cowgill Wilson, and resides near her father's home. During the General's absence his wife, in her efforts to save their home from destruction by fire, contracted a severe cold, terminating in bron- chial affection, from the effects of which she died, March 2, 1852. October 31, following, he married for his second wife Miss Huldah Hearn, a daughter of John Hearn, a farmer residing near Portland. By this marriage there were five sons, three of whom died in infancy. She was a remarkable woman for intelligence, soundness of judgment and firmn- ness of purpose; was strong in the causes of total abstinence and woman suffrage; was with her husband at Washington a large por- tion of the time during his Congressional career; traveled extensively with him among the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains, and whether at the table of the President of the United States or in the tent of the wild Indian, she was the same cheerful, calm, reso- lute, kind and dignified woman. Her devo- tion to her children led her to brave dangers and bear np under trials at which even

rugged men hesitated. In 1874 their eldest living son, John C. M. Shanks, then in his seventeenth year, entered the Government service under Dr. Hayden, in charge of the geological and geographical survey among the Rocky and Elk Mountains in Western and Southwestern Colorado. Young Shanks went in the capacity of assistant topographer. The parents and younger son, July 14, 1874, at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, parted company with this elder son, who, with Dr. Hayden's party, proceeded to their field of operations; and the General with his remain- ing family, after having visited Indian tribes in California, Nevada, Utah and Idaho, re- turned to Denver, Colorado, reaching tliat place August 13, 1874, at which time Dr. Hayden with his men were supposed to be at Granite, a small mining town on the Upper Arkansas River, nearly 200 miles southwest of Denver. Mrs. Shanks, while at Denver, became so impressed that her son was sick in the mountains, that she insisted on going to see him; but her husband attributed her fears to her solicitude, and they returned to their home at Portland. In less than a week a dispatch was received from Dr. Hayden, sent by way of Denver from a point 300 miles west from that place, inform- ing them of the serious illness of their son in camp, ninety miles from any dwelling! The parents hastened to his rescue. Reaclı- ing Denver by rail, they proceeded by stage, by way of Fairplay and Granite, to Twin Lakes, at the eastern base of the main range of the Rockies, where was the nearest dwell- ing to the camp mentioned. Here they met Major Stevenson, of Dr. Hayden's party, who had come from the camp to meet and conduct the General, not supposing that Mrs. Shanks would undertake such a trip. Dr. Hayden and his party, except four men left as a detail for the sick lad, had gone forward with their

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HISTORY OF JAY COUNTY.

work. Major Stevenson and the parents left Twin Lakes on horseback, and had to do much dangerous climbing over cliffs, Mrs. Shank's pony sometimes going upon its knees to avoid falling backward down the immense declivi- ties. The first night they camped between the main range and Elk Mountain, on Taylor River, a branch of the Colorado, where they overtook Mr. Hovey, one of the detail, on his return with supplies for his associates in at- tendance on the sick; and here they also met some Ute Indian trappers, who expressed much surprise at seeing a woman in that locality, as they never thought of taking with them their own women in these ahnost im- passable monntains; and by signs they in- quired how the woman was brought there, and looked with utter astonishment when in- formed that she came as her male compan- ions did-over the main range, the top of which was entirely hidden in the clonds. At this place they left a letter in the notch of a tree, informing Dr. Hayden, if perchance he should pass that way, that Mrs. Shanks and her party were on their way to her sick son; and when, on his return, the doctor found and read the message, he refused to believe the information until he was assured of its truthfulness on his arrival at Twin Lakes. They were without shelter the first night ont, exposed to a cold rain, accompanied with snow and a severe wind; but Mrs. Shanks assured her companions that she felt perfectly well-though in fact she suffered greatly. During the second day they crossed the Elk Mountain at an altitude of 14,025 feet, the wind blowing a perfect gale and the snow falling in flakes. This elevation, covered with bleak rocks, was far above the timber line. Thus they traveled, on long tortuous and dangerous ways, until four o'clock in the af- ternoon of the third day, when they reached the long-sought camp and found their son,

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Author: Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 922

Author:
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 922