USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 26
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Mr. Owen was twice married. His first wife's maiden name was Mary Jane Robinson. He married her in New York, April 12, 1832. The marriage was performed by a notary public, in the presence of the bride's family and a few of her neighbors. Previous to the marriage, Mr. Owen drew up and signed a pa- per, from which I make this extract :
"Of the unjust rights which, in virtue of this ceremony, an iniquitous law tacitly gives me over the person and property of another, I can not legally, but I can morally, divest myself. And I hereby distinctly and emphatically declare that I con- sider myself, and earnestly desire to be considered by others, as utterly divested, now and during the rest of my life, of any such rights, the barbarous relics of a feudal and despotic sys- tem, now destined in the onward course of improvement to be wholly swept away, and the existence of which is a tacit insult to the good sense and good feeling of the present comparatively civilized age."
Mr. Owen lived to see the "iniquitous law swept away " in Indiana, and had the pleasure of knowing that it was mainly by his efforts that it was done.
Mrs. Owen lived to a ripe old age, and until her husband had become one of the noted men of his day. When she died, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a hymn, which was sung at her burial, and her husband delivered a eulogy upon her life and
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character, as he stood by her open grave. In this eulogy he thus declared his faith in a hereafter :
" I do not believe-and here I speak also of her whose de- parture from us we mourn to-day-I do not believe more firmly in these trees that spread their shade over us, in this hill on which we stand, in these sepulchral monuments which we see around us here, than I do that human life, once granted, never perishes more. She believed, as I believe, that the one life succeeds the other without interval, save a brief transition slumber, it may be for a few hours only. Again, I believe, as she did, in the meeting and recognition of friends in heaven. While we mourn here below, there are joyful reunions above."
Mr. Owen's second wife's maiden name was Lottie Walton Kellogg. He married her about a year before he died. His autobiography, which was mainly written at her house, was dedicated to her.
Mr. Owen was a devoted Odd Fellow, and was appointed by the Grand Lodge of Indiana to purchase ground, and upon it erect a Grand Lodge hall. The building in Indianapolis known as Odd Fellows' Hall was the result of this appointment.
Mr. Owen, having been one of the early settlers of Indiana, knew what it was to travel over bad and muddy roads. In 1851 and '52, he warmly advocated, by pen and tongue, the con- struction of plank roads, and did much to create the plank road fever of that time. These roads, like the block pavements of to-day, were smooth and delightful to travel upon when new, and like them, also, were exceedingly rough and difficult to get over when old and worn. They lasted but a few years, and gave place to the gravel and macadamized roads now so gener- ally used.
In 1843 or 1844 Mr. Owen was invited by the Union Literary Society of Hanover College to deliver an address before it. So soon as it was known that the invitation had been given and accepted the faculty of the college and some of its trustees de- termined he should not speak. Rev. E. D. McMasters was the president of the college, and to him, more than any one else,
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was due the insult that was heaped upon Mr. Owen in this mat- ter.
Knowing that Hon. James Y. Allison, of Madison, was then a resident of Hanover, I addressed him a note, asking for his recollection of the event. In Judge Allison's reply he said :
"I remember the circumstances well, as I was one of the committee of the Union Literary Society to confer with Dr. McMasters on the subject. Mr. Owen had been invited as the anniversary speaker for the society, and Dr. McMasters said, · He, being an infidel, can not speak,' and we had to cancel the engagement."
The illiberality and dogmatism that prompted such a decision would have put upon Mr. Owen the iron boot and driven in the wedge, had the laws of the land allowed it. Thank God for the law that prevents bigots from putting men to the torture for a difference of opinion !
Mr. Owen's mother was a Presbyterian, and his father a deist. He adhered to the doctrines of his father until middle life, but the teachings of his mother had not been entirely lost upon him. In many of his speeches, and often in his writings, he spoke of Jesus, and always with reverence. In his latter days he be- came, as we have seen, a spiritualist, and he enriched the liter- ature of his time with publications in favor of that doctrine. It has been charged that he recanted spiritualism before his death, but this is a mistake. He died in the faith he had so ably ad- vocated and defended.
Mr. Owen was a radical of the most pronounced type. He tried to make the world better by uprooting and destroying that which he believed to be bad. He never advocated a measure because it was old ; in fact, age was a reason for attacking it. He believed in progression. He thought the world should grow better as it grew older, and he labored hard to make it so. That in some respects he succeeded must be the verdict of mankind.
Mr. Owen was unusually prompt in meeting his engagements. If he made an appointment he kept it to the minute. He was
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always on hand when the train started, never being left nor having to run to reach it.
Mr. Owen was five feet eight and a half inches high, and weighed about 150 pounds. He had a large head (he wore a 73-inch hat) and a long face. His nose and mouth were large. his forehead broad and high. His eyes were a blue-gray, over which the lids drooped when he was absorbed in thought. The expression of his face was frank and mild. He had great earn- estness in all his undertakings, from the most trivial to the most important. He would throw all his energies into an attempt to stop a street car rather than wait for the next one. To succeed in what he undertook, and to give pleasure to others, gave him the greatest happiness.
He was very fond of making presents. Indeed, this was al- most a mania with him. In order to make an offering that would be a surprise, so as to give the greater satisfaction, he would take trouble out of all proportion to the result. He was impatient when forced to attend to business, particularly that relating to money matters. He had a contempt for money for its own sake, and spent it freely. He occupied but a small part of his time in money-getting, yet he made a good deal of it. His freedom, however, in spending money and giving it away prevented him from accumulating anything like a fortune .. No traits of his character were more prominent than his buoy- ancy and hopefulness. In the severest reverses he saw some- thing good. He lived in the faith that mortal affairs were pre- sided over by a beneficent being and influenced by his spirit. In a trustfulness childlike in its simplicity, he believed that, in some way or other, everything that transpires, no matter what its immediate appearance may be, works out for good.
In politics, Mr. Owen was a Democrat. On the breaking out of the civil war he separated from his party, and during the great struggle affiliated with the friends of Mr. Lincoln's ad- ministration, but on those questions which usually divide par- ties he was essentially a Democrat.
I can not better conclude this sketch than by adopting the language of another, one who knew Mr. Owen, intimately and well, Mr. B. R. Sulgrove :
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" His manner was courteous, unaffected and conciliating. He never let his feelings displace his reason and force him to harsh language or ungenerous allusions. Even in the heat of a presi- dential campaign he never dealt in personal aspersions or im- putations of bad motives. Severity, irritation, invective, were no parts of his rhetoric. He abused neither individuals nor parties, and was as little of a " rabble rouser " as a quiet man could be, though one of the most powerful and altogether the most winning of all speakers the Democracy ever had in this State. He relied on facts, and rational applications of them. and he never made a stump speech that did not contain more substance in a sentence than most stumpers could get into a wind gust continued, like a Chinese play or a Ledger story, for six months. He was what a party orator never was then and rarely is now-a scholar. He knew something besides ' ante- cedents,' and ' records,' and . platforms,' and the stale drippings of ten thousand watery effusions. If he had any animating principle to which all others were subordinated it was his hu- manity. In all his lectures and legislation and fugitive publi- cations his theme was social or individual improvement, effa- cing mean prejudices, diffusing wholesome correction, elevating human nature. He inherited it from his father, and made it at least as effective by good sense and practical statesmanship as his father did by wealth and energetic preaching.
" In scholarship, general attainments, varied achievements. as author, statesman, politician and leader of a new religious faith, he was unquestionably the most prominent man Indiana ever owned. Others may fill now, or may have heretofore filled. a larger space in public curiosity or interest for a time, but no. other Hoosier was ever so widely known, or so likely to do the State credit by being known, and no other has ever before held so prominent a place so long with a history so unspotted with selfishness, duplicity or injustice. He was a pure man, and in two generations of politicians with whom he lived and labored there can not enough more of the same kind be named to have filled the bond of Sodom's safety. It is noteworthy that, though he began his public life an infidel, he ended it a believer in the most irrational of superstitions, if it be not the most inaccessi- ble of sciences ; his father did, too. Mr. Owen, though, as
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might have been expected from his tolerant and genial nature, was never bigoted or disposed to maintain that he must be right and everybody else damned for doubting, in the fashion of Wendell Phillips. He did a great deal for the State in his life, and always set a good example in industry, system and punctuality, and preached by acts many virtues that usually are most loudly inculcated in the pulpit."
THOMAS SMITH.
THOMAS SMITH, known in the days of his political activity as " Tom, the Tanner," was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1799. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and inherited many of the characteristics of that hardy and contentious race. Pluck, endurance, tenacity of purpose and uncompromising devotion to principles were his by birthright. When a boy of eighteen he left his native State and sought a home in the West. He located at Rising Sun in 1818, and commenced to learn the trade of a tanner. He labored assiduously, and in due time be- came a master workman.
In 1821 he married Frances, daughter of Hon. John Watts, and soon afterward removed to Versailles. He at once estab- lished a tanyard and went to work at his trade. His business brought him in contact with nearly all the people who traded at Versailles, for in those days it was the custom for a man who killed a sheep or a bullock to take its hide to the tanner's and have it made into leather. The affability of the young tanner, his accommodating manner and his intelligence all combined to -give him influence and make him a power in the county in which he lived. At that time much attention was paid to mil- itary affairs, the annual muster and drill being looked forward to with as much anxiety as is now the county fair. The village tanner became the militia colonel, and seldom was colonel more popular with his soldiers than he. He thus laid the foundation for a popularity that never deserted him.
Colonel Smith subsequently represented Ripley county in both branches of the Legislature. While in the Legislature he opposed the wild schemes of internal improvement which bank- rupted the State and brought financial dishonor upon her name.
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His course upon this subject added to his popularity at home, and was the immediate cause of his subsequent political ad- vancement.
In 1839 Colonel Smith was nominated for Congress, and made a successful race against the Hon. George H. Dunn, the Whig candidate, his majority being 999. Mr. Dunn was an able man, and when Colonel Smith was nominated· his friends were fearful that he would not be able to meet Mr. Dunn on the stump, but after the first encounter of the candidates these fears were dispelled. He developed unexpected powers.as a debater, and proved himself a full match upon the stump for his com- petitor.
In 1841 Colonel Smith was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by James H. Cravens 1,030 votes. This was the year after the ever-to-be-remembered Harrison campaign. Two years after this he was again a candidate, his opponent being John A. Matson, whom he defeated by a majority of 255. In 1845 he was a successful candidate for re-election, defeating Joseph Eggleston, Esq., an able and popular man, by a major- ity of 540 votes. He did not seek a re-election, but at the ex- piration of his term, in 1847, retired to private life. His con- gressional career was honorable both to himself and his State. He proved himself a ready and fluent speaker, and took rank among the best debaters in the House.
In 1850 the Democracy of Ripley county nominated Colonel Smith and Hon. James H. Cravens for delegates to the consti- tutional convention. They were unquestionably the ablest men in the county, and were peculiarly fitted for the place. Mr. Cravens had two years before broken with the Whig party and supported Van Buren for the presidency, and after the election was over had affiliated with the Democracy, but there he was not at home. He was an anti-slavery man of decided convic- tions, and was never loth to express them. His position upon the slavery question cost him many votes and caused his defeat. Colonel Smith was elected, although he, too, was an anti- slavery man, but he was not so radical in his views as Mr. Cra- vens, nor so open in expressing them.
In the convention Colonel Smith was made chairman of the committee " on county and township organization, powers and
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offices," and was also a member of the committee " on revision, arrangement and phraseology." He participated actively in the proceedings of the convention. and during its sittings made several speeches of great merit.
Colonel Richard M. Johnson, once Vice President of the United States, died while the convention was in session, and resolutions were introduced expressive of the sense of its mem- bers. During Colonel Smith's congressional service he had for three months been a member of Colonel Johnson's house- hold, and for a part of the time was very ill with fever. His host had cared for and nursed him, and in other ways had en- deared himself to his guest. Therefore, it is no wonder that Colonel Smith paid this beautiful tribute to his memory, in his speech seconding the resolutions :
" Sir, in war Colonel Johnson was as brave as Jackson ; of death or danger he was fearless as Worth, or Scott, or Taylor. But as a man, in his affections he was tender as a child. The tale of sorrow never entered his ear and failed to draw a tear from his eye.
" If goodness of heart, kindness of soul and acts of charity form claims on heaven, then may we not say his spirit is blessed ? Mr. President, I second the motion for the adoption of the resolutions."
Colonel Smith offered a resolution in the convention in favor of a provision to make all banks organized in Indiana respon- sible for the issues of each other ; also, that the banks so organ- ized should issue no notes of a less denomination than ten dol- lars. The convention, however, voted it down. He made a speech against the re-eligibility of State and county officers, and the constitutional provisions upon these subjects are the work of his hands. Upon the question of erecting by the State a monument to those who fell at Tippecanoe, he said :
" SIR -- It requires no monument of marble to perpetuate the memory of those who fought at Tippecanoe. Their monument exists in the hearts of their countrymen. To the soldiers who fell upon the battle fields of Mexico you need rear no huge col- umn of granite or marble. Such things perish ; but the memory
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of brave deeds never perishes. Go to the city of Washington and look at the monument that has been there erected to the memory of those who fell at Tripoli. See the mouldering con- dition in which it now is, whilst the memory of their deeds is fresh in the minds of Americans. Who is there that would fail to be convinced that they need no monument erected by human hands? Their deeds have erected for them a monument more durable than brass. Erexerunt monumentum ære perennius."
Upon the question of prohibiting negroes from coming into the State Colonel Smith made a lengthy speech, from which I make the following extract :
" Whenever you make a law that we shall not feed these un- fortunate people, under the penalty of presentment or indict- ment, or fine ; and whenever a man shall be brought into court under a presentment or indictment of this kind, and shall stand up and plead his cause and say : 'This man came to my house ; he was starving ! he begged of me bread; I gave it to him, and he did eat'-how, under such circumstances, could you enforce a penalty of this kind upon any man? You can not do it. I tell you, sir, I would feed the starving man, if black as Pluto. The dog does not live that I would not feed, if I knew he were starving. Your penalties would never quench these irresistible sympathies of the people of Indiana. I have too much confidence in their humanity to believe they would suffer even a black man to die at their door for want of food."
Seldom do we find better examples of true eloquence than these extracts afford. The tanner boy had become an orator of power and skill, and, springing as he did from the people, he delighted in pleading the cause of the poor and oppressed. He was " to all the world akin."
When the convention had completed its work, Colonel Smith went back to his home at Versailles, and never afterward held public office. He did not, however, cease to take an interest in public affairs. When Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska act he left the Democratic party and went into the Fusion or People's party. On the formation of the Republican party he became a member of it, and remained in its ranks while he
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lived. He was a Democrat by education and from conviction, but he did not hesitate to sever his connection with his party when he believed the public interests required it. He was an opponent of banks, of a protective tariff, and of monopolies of all kinds, but he held these questions in abeyance while the war lasted and the Union was in danger of dissolution. He did not allow party to stand between him and what he believed to be public duty. He left the party with which he had trained so long, and which had honored him so highly, because he be- lieved that, upon the issues then before the country, his party was wrong. In so doing he alienated many warm. and devoted friends, but this he counted as naught. He never hesitated to go where he believed public duty called him.
As a politician Colonel Smith was decided in his views and frank in expressing them. He had no compromises to make with what he believed to be wrong. He opposed rings, cliques, and corruptionists in every form. In short, he was a man of the people ; he sprang from their ranks, and was true to their interests.
Colonel Smith died at Versailles, April 12, 1876, and was buried there. His widow still lives, and shares, in a large de- gree, the affection the people bore her husband. It must be a comfort for her to know that her husband is not forgotten by the people of the State whose constitution he helped to make, and whom he served so long and so well, both in the councils of the State and of the Union.
Oliver H. Smith, in his " Early Indiana Trials and Sketches," thus speaks of Colonel Smith :
"In the winter of 1818 one evening I went to a little school- house in Rising Sun to a debating society. I met there a num- ber of young men of the place, among them the subject of this sketch ; a young tanner in his apprenticeship ; his face smooth, eyes and hair dark, forehead high, face narrow, countenance smiling and pleasant, below the common height. spare person. I heard him that night, and then said : . That young man will yet be known in the State.' Time rolled on, Thomas Smith married a daughter of Judge John Watts, settled in Versailles. Ripley county, was soon after a member of the Senate of the
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State, among the most able of that body. Soon after he was elected to Congress, and again re-elected, and served his con- stituents with decided ability in that body of distinguished men. His manner as a debater was plain, straightforward, emphatic, impressive. He was heard with attention whenever he spoke. He was a strong Democrat and a prominent leader of that party until the Missouri compromise line was effaced by the Nebraska and Kansas bill, when he took sides with the Republicans, and presided at their convention at Indianapolis. He maintained the integrity of the compromise acts, and placed himself firmly upon the principles of non-extension of slavery over territory that was ever free."
JOHN L. ROBINSON.
KENTUCKY has furnished Indiana many men of mark, and among them John I. Robinson. In his day he was a power in Indiana, and when he died one of the brightest intellects in the State went out. What manner of man he was, and what he did worthy of remembrance, I will try to tell.
John L. Robinson was a native of Mason county, Kentucky, and was born May 3, 1814. When eighteen years old he came to Indiana and settled in the county of Rush. He went into a country store, and for some time weighed coffee and sugar and measured calico for a living. After awhile he commenced business for himself, but, like Patrick Henry, he was not a suc- cess as a merchant, his experience as a storekeeper being more utilized in the study of character and in learning the different sides of human nature than in piling up a balance on the right side of the ledger. He paid more attention to the variations of the political compass than to the fluctuation of the markets, and was a better judge of men than of dry goods. He soon earned a reputation at home for political tact and sagacity, and in 1840, when but 26 years old, was placed upon the Democratic electo- ral ticket for his district. Until then he was but little known outside of his county, but when the canvass closed he was ac- knowledged to be one of the strongest debaters in Eastern Indi- ana. The campaign of 1840 was a memorable one, and termi- nated in the defeat and utter rout of the party to which Mr. Robinson belonged, but it served to bring out his great powers as a political debater.
During the canvass of that year the Whig leaders at Rush- ville, at the head of whom was the late General Pleasant A. Hackleman, proposed a debate between Mr. Robinson and
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Caleb B. Smith. As is known, Mr. Smith was among the ablest men of his party, and at that time had a reputation as a political orator beyond the boundaries of the State, but this did not deter the young Democratic chieftain from accepting the challenge. He believed in the principles of his party, and had confidence in his ability to advocate them in a convincing manner ; so he entered the lists without hesitation, and valiantly strove for the mastery. When the lists were opened and the contestants en- tered, great was the wonderment of the people that one so young and inexperienced should have the temerity to encounter the Whig Goliah. But when the bugles sounded the charge and the battle commenced, the wonderment ceased. Like the disin- herited knight's assault upon Brian de Bois-Gilbert, that of the young David was for victory or utter discomfiture. And al- though it can not be said he won the right to crown the Queen of Love and Beauty, he showed his ability to handle his weapon deftly and to measure spears with the best. The debate lasted three days, and Mr. Robinson came out of it with a reputation as one of the very strongest political disputants in the State.
In August. 1842, Mr. Robinson was elected Clerk of the Cir- cuit Court of his county, and in 1847, before his official term had expired, he was nominated and elected to Congress. He was re-elected the two succeeding terms, and on the accession to office of President Pierce in March, 1853, he was appointed United States Marshal of Indiana. President Buchanan con- tinued him in this office, so he held it from the time of his ap- pointment until his death.
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