USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 46
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" He heard the crime-forg'd fetters rattle And queried, 'Are the victors slaves ? Or will there be another battle, Where freemen on its surging waves
"Will fight for rights their fathers willed them, Till hope is lost to mortal vision,
Or fate a funeral pyre shall build them To save their names from curs'd derision ?'
" Our Rooster has but lofty scorn For crime-stained Rads and perjured thieves,
And loud will crow on that glad morn When each in hell his pay receives.
" He'll crow when Morton pleads for ice To cool that lying tongue of his'n; He'll crow when Bradley's in the vise The devil keeps in darkest prison.
" He'll crow when Wells goes plunging under Hell's hottest waves in search of Stearns ; He'll crow when both, with stolen plunder, Receive their pay in bonds and burns.
" Undismayed, our Rooster's crowing, And though the dawn is not serene, He'll crow till man, defiant growing, Will by his courage change the scene.
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" He'll crow till man, though fierce the fight -- No matter where God gave him breath- At freedom's shrine will pledge his might For freedom or a freeman's death."
William G. Terrell bought the Lafayette Journal of James P. Luse in the fall of 1853 and conducted it until 1859. When he purchased the fournal he was a resident of Madison, and he took with him from that city, to assist him in editing it, Charles P. Baymiller and William S. Lingle. Mr. Terrell was a slow but a careful and correct writer and an inveterate punster. He was known as the newspaper joker of that day and some of his sayings are not yet forgotten. In 1852 he attended a Whig convention at Niagara Falls at which Horace Greeley was a speaker. In his speech Mr. Greeley declared that while he favored the election of the Whig candidate for President, Gen- eral Scott, he "spat upon the platform." In a letter to the Madison Banner, giving an account of this convention, Mr. Terrell said that Mr. Greeley could not spit upon the platform and expect-to-rate as a Whig. This bon mot went the rounds of the press of that day.
On the breaking out of our civil war Mr. Terrell assisted in raising a Union regiment in Kentucky, and afterwards was ap- pointed paymaster in the army with the rank of Colonel. After the war ended he was postmaster at Newport, Kentucky, and held the office several years. Subsequent to this time he be- came involved in a personal difficulty with a lawyer of Coving- ton named Meyers, which resulted in the lawyer's death. For this he was tried and acquitted, the jury finding that the killing was justifiable homicide. Colonel Terrell still lives, and at present is engaged on the Cincinnati Commercial.
At this time Rev. William W. Hibben owned and controlled the Lawrenceburg Press. He was a Methodist clergyman and one of the pioneer preachers of that denomination in Indiana. He was a smooth and a prolific writer, and was well known throughout the State. His letters to the Cincinnati Enquirer and to the Indianapolis Sentinel, and his contributions to the Masonic Advocate, over the signature of Jefferson, proved him a writer of merit. He died a few months ago at Indianapolis, old and poor. .
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THE INDIANA PRESS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
William W. Crail was a partner of Daniel D. Jones when the Madison Banner first became a daily. He continued his con- nection with the paper until 1854, when he sold his interest and left the State. He is not a brilliant man, but he is what is bet- ter, an honest and true one. While on the Banner he was the news editor, and he could boil down an article and get its mar- row as well as any one I ever knew. He still lives, and is now working at the case on the Louisville Courier- Journal.
The Brookville American, edited by C. F. Clarkson, was then a leading journal of the State. Mr. Clarkson was identi- fied with the temperance movement, and a large portion of his paper was devoted to that cause. He afterwards sold the American to Rev. Thomas A. Goodwin, and removed to Iowa, where he now lives. After conducting the American awhile at Brookville, Mr. Goodwin took it to Indianapolis, where it died on his hands.
Oliver B. Torbet edited the Lawrenceburg Register, then, as. now, a leading journal of Southeastern Indiana. He was elected to the Legislature in 1851 and again in 1852, the latter year being chosen Speaker of the House. Subsequent to this time he removed to Indianapolis and became a partner of the late General Dumont in the practice of the law. He has been dead some sixteen years, and is better remembered as a politi- cian than as a newspaper man.
One of the best weekly papers then in Indiana was the Greensburg Press, edited by Daviess D. Batterton. Mr. Bat- terton was an educated, scholarly man, and as a writer ranked with the very best in the State. He died at Greensburg many years ago.
The Columbus Democrat, a paper now published by Mrs. Laura C. Arnold and Mr. Addison Arnold, was founded in 1848 by John P. Finkle. In 1850 it went into the hands of Aquilla Jones and William F. Pidgeon, who published it for a year or so, and then sold it to W. C. Statelar. Mr. Statelar introduced a power press, but finding it too expensive for his small circulation, soon abandoned it. In 1855 Mr. Statelar died, and the Democrat was sold to I. C. Dillie. Dr. Nathan Tompkins, a brother-in-law of Hon. William J. Brown, was the editor. The Doctor was a ready, graceful writer, and the
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paper, with improved typography, gained a respectable stand- ing and a good paying patronage. The editor died, and in 1861 Dillie entered the Union army and was killed by guerril- las in Tennessee.
The Soup Spiller, a campaign paper, was issued by Mr. Statelar, from the Democrat office, during the presidential cam- paign of 1852. The name was chosen in derision of General Scott's "hasty plate of soup" letter. A committee of nine Democrats did the editing, and several ingenious jack-knife artists prepared the engravings with which the paper was pro- fusely illustrated.
Shortly after the Democrat was started Samuel A. Moore and William A. Holland began the publication of a Whig paper called The Spirit of the West. Holland remained in the con- cern but a few weeks. Moore was a well-informed politician, a practical printer, and wrote with force and pungency. He was also an off-hand speaker of considerable ability. In May, 1849, Mr. Moore was appointed postmaster at Columbus, and the next year was elected to the lower House of the State Leg- islature. In 1853 he removed to Iowa, where he served as a county judge and as a State Senator. He is now postmaster at Bloomfield, Iowa, and occasionally he appears on the rostrum as a lecturer on literary subjects.
Mr. W. C. Statelar succeeded Mr. Moore, in 1849, as pub- lisher of the Spirit, and soon afterward associated himself with Columbus Stebbins as co-proprietor. Mr. Stebbins was a green farmer-boy, twenty-three years old, strong and awkward, of no experience in life, but of good, hard, native sense. He had occasionally contributed short articles to the local press and believed he was destined by the "bent of his genius" for a brilliant career in journalism. In a short time he bought out his partner's interest in the paper and became sole proprietor and editor. His mind developed rapidly, and though not a polished writer, his articles were bold, aggressive and argu- mentative, especially those on the questions of slavery and in- temperance. Radical as the Spirit was under his management it became doubly so in 1854, on the admission of Mr. J. Fred. Myers as a partner. Mr. Myers was an excellent printer, a German liberal, who hated slavery with all the intensity peculiar
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to the original Abolitionists of the olden time. He was a writer of great force and clearness, indifferent to party expediency, and as pugnacious as a man well could be. In 1854 the pro- prietors changed the name of the paper to the Columbus Inde- pendent. Know-nothingism was then sweeping over the State like a mighty hurricane, gathering within its intolerant embrace the bulk of the defunct Whig party and thousands of discon- tented Democratic "sore-heads." Among all the papers of the State of Whig proclivities the Independent was the only one to boldly grapple with the wild fanaticism. Its proprietors were threatened with loss of patronage, but they courageously stood their ground and prospered, while Know-nothingism went down in disaster almost as suddenly as it had arisen.
In February, 1856, an anti-Democratic editorial convention was held at Indianapolis, a large proportion of the members being Know-nothings. Mr. Stebbins was a member of the com- mittee on resolutions, the majority of which presented a report susceptible of a favorable construction of Know-nothingism. and which gingerly touched the question of slavery. Mr. Steb- bins brought in a minority report, his resolutions embracing the main principles upon which the Republican party was founded. He advocated his report in an argumentative and fervid speech, and with the assistance of the late M. C. Garber, of the Madi- son Courier, and Theodore Hielcher, of the Indianapolis Frie Press, the minority report and resolutions were adopted. The first State convention of the Republican party was held at In- dianapolis the next day, and Mr. Stebbins's resolutions were embodied in the platform.
In the fall of 1856 Mr. Myers withdrew from the Independent. He has since been connected with many journalistic enterprises, and is now publishing a paper at Denison, Iowa, of which town he is the postmaster. Mr. Stebbins continued the Independent until May, 1857, when he removed his printing establishment to Minnesota and started the Hastings Independent, at Hastings. He died there in December, 1878.
Rushville then had two journals, the jacksonian and the Re- publican ; the first under the control of John L. Robinson, and the latter under that of Pleasant A. Hackleman. Mr. Robinson was, for many years a member of Congress, and died United
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States Marshal of Indiana. He was one of the ablest speakers in the State. Mr. Hackleman was a leading Whig, and on the dissolution of that party became a Republican. He was a delegate from Indiana to the Peace Conference held at Wash- ington just before the breaking out of our civil war. When hostilities commenced he became a soldier, and was killed in battle at Corinth while holding the commission of a brigadier general.
In 1852 William M. French published the Indiana Republi- can at Rising Sun. Two years afterward he went to Jeffer- sonville to edit the Republican of that city. In 1861 he removed to Indianapolis, where he has since resided. He is the author of a life of the late Governor Morton, and is a frequent contrib- utor to the daily press. He writes with ease and grace, and was a man of mark in the olden time.
The Richmond Palladium was then conducted by David P. Holloway. It was the leading 'Whig journal in Eastern In- diana and had quite a circulation in other parts of the State. Its editor was a member of the State Senate and afterward was elected to Congress from his district. In 1861 he was appointed Commissioner of Patents, and removed to the city of Washing- ton, where he has since resided. Since his retirement from the patent office he has practiced law, making a specialty of that relating to patents. Mr. Holloway is the father of Colonel William R. Holloway, the well-known ex-postmaster of Indi- anapolis .*
The late Judge James Hughes then edited the North Western Gazette, a weekly paper published at Bloomington. As a writer Judge Hughes was aggressive and strong, but it was as a law- yer and politician that he became distinguished. His editorial career was but an episode, but had he made journalism a life work he would, no doubt, have become eminent in it. He was no common man, but was a master in any work he undertook. He was one of the strongest men Indiana has produced. He died some ten years ago.
James H. McNeely, at this time, was local editor of the In- dianapolis Journal. He afterward went to Evansville, and for a long time was connected with the Journal of that city. About
* Mr. Holloway died September 9, 1883.
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one year ago he removed to Terre Haute and became manager of the Terre Haute Express. He is a thorough newspaper man, is an intelligent and painstaking writer and ranks among the best as he is one of the oldest editors in the State.
A brilliant young man was John C. Turk, of the Greencastle Argus. A graduate of Farmer's College, Ohio, he came to Greencastle in 1849 and studied law with Judge Eckles, and in 1853 started the Argus. In 1856 he went to Keokuk, Iowa, and edited a paper there. From Keokuk he removed to Columbia, Missouri, and assumed control of a paper in that place. Dur- ing the war he lived at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and was engaged in practicing law and writing for the press. He died at Council Bluffs in the fall of 1871. Mr. Turk was a good lawyer, a fas- cinating speaker and a strong writer. He was bold and fearless in his utterances and left his impress wherever he went. But few men in the State at that time excelled him in ability and culture.
Solon Turman then conducted the People's Friend at Coving- ton. He was a member of the State Senate and the youngest man in that body. He afterwards removed to Greencastle, and subsequently became Judge of the Circuit Court. He died at Greencastle a few months ago.
The Times, a weekly paper then published at Laporte, was under the editorial direction of John C. Walker. It was a lead- ing journal of Northern Indiana, and was as influential as any published in that section of the State. It may be mentioned as a matter of history that it was among the first, if not the very first paper, in Indiana, to antagonize the dogmas and methods of the Know-nothing party which sprang into existence in 1854. There was no more promising man of his age in the State than its editor. He was elected a member of the State Legislature of 1853, and took high rank in that body. In 1855-6 Colonel Walker owned and edited the Indianapolis Sentinel, and on the 8th of January of the latter year he was nominated for Lieu- tenant-Governor on the ticket with the eloquent Willard, but being under the constitutional age he did not make the race. In the latter part of 1857 he resumed charge of the Laporte Times, and in 1858 made a gallant race for Congress against the Hon. Schuyler Colfax. Two years after this he was placed at the head of the Democratic electoral ticket, and made a thor-
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ough canvass of the State in behalf of Judge Douglas for the presidency. On the breaking out of the civil war he was ap- pointed Colonel of the Thirty-fifth (First Irish) Regiment of Indiana volunteers, and commanded the regiment about two years. The Legislature of 1863 elected Colonel Walker Agent of State, which required him to take up his official residence in New York. At the expiration of his term of office-in the spring of 1865-he went to England, and remained there eight years. During this period he studied and acquired a good knowledge of medicine, attending lectures at King's College. one of the oldest and best institutions of learning in London. In 1873 Dr. Walker returned to the United States, and in 1875 went to Shelbyville and opened an office for the practice of his profession. He remained at Shelbyville until the spring of 1879. when he was appointed assistant physician of the Indiana Hos- pital for the Insane. From that time till this he has filled that important position with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the public.
Doctor Walker is a good speaker and a good writer, talents not often found in the same person. He is warm and true in his friendships, and courteous and urbane in his manners. He is as gentle and kind as a woman, but is utterly fearless of dan- ger. Although he has not reached the high position his early life gave promise of he occupies a respectable place in his- chosen profession, and has the good will of all who know him .*
In 1855 Dr. Orpheus Everts succeeded John C. Walker in the management of the Laporte Times. He edited that paper with marked ability for some two years, when it again went into the hands of Colonel Walker.
In 1857 Dr. Everts was appointed receiver of a Minnesota land office and removed to that State. On the breaking out of the civil war he was appointed Surgeon of the Twentieth regi- ment of Indiana volunteers, and remained in the service until the end of the war. In 1868 he was chosen Superintendent of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, and continued as such until the spring of 1879. He is now Superintendent of the Sanitarium. near Cincinnati, an institution of first-class reputation for the treatment of the insane.
Dr. Walker died April 14, 1883.
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THE INDIANA PRESS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Dr. Everts is a big man, intellectually and physically. He has distinguished himself in every position he has filled. He is an artist of no mean ability, a prolific prose writer and a poet of genius. As a physician and surgeon; and as a specialist in the treatment of the insane, he ranks deservedly high. He de- signed the new hospital for the insane, and it was mainly built under his direction. It is a monument to his genius, his fidelity and his integrity, and one of which he may well be proud.
The Practical Observer was published at Valparaiso in 1850 by W. C. Talcott. Mr. Talcott now conducts the Porter County Vidette. Both the Observer and the Vidette have been ably edi- ted by him and have exercised a large and legitimate influence within the sphere of their circulation.
Mr. Talcott is not a brilliant man, but he has energy and per- severance, qualities which nearly always win. He is one of the few men in Indiana who has successfully published a country newspaper for more than a quarter of a century.
The Porter County Democrat was established at Valparaiso in- 1856 by L. H. Miller. Mr. Miller was succeeded in the con- duct of the paper by J. L. Rock, an able writer and an influen- tial politician. After several years of successful management of the Democrat, Mr. Rock went upon the staff of the Chicago Times, and as he is lost to public gaze he is most probably en- tombed in the bowels of that mammoth concern.
After publishing the Indiana Tocsin at Laporte for a time, Mr. Thomas Jernegan went to Michigan City, and in 1846 es- tablished the News. The office of the News was burned in 1853 and the paper discontinued. Shortly after this the Mich- igan City Transcript was established, and Richard W. Colfax made its editor. Mr. Colfax left the paper in 1854 and was suc- ceeded by Wright & Heacock. Mr. Heacock withdrew from the paper in a short time and went to California. Mr. Wright changed the name of the paper to the Enterprise and continued to edit it until the fall of 1859, when he went to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and took charge of a paper there. As a writer Mr. Wright was vigorous and sometimes brilliant. When Mr. Wright left Michigan City, in 1859, the Enterprise went into the hands of Mr. Thomas Jarnegan, who controls it to-day. Mr. Jarnegan is one of the oldest editors and publishers in the
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State. With but a few years intermission he has been engaged continuously in the business for nearly half a century. In a green old age he still pursues the chosen calling of his youth with honor both to himself and to the profession.
John and William Millikan were the proprietors of the La- porte Whig from 1845 to 1854. In the fall of the latter year they sold the paper to F. M. Horan and Richard Holmes, who changed its name to the Union. In a short time Mr. Horan re- tired, Mr. John Millikan taking his place. These gentlemen conducted the Union until 1866, when they sold it to the pro- prietors of the Laporte Herald. The Millikans are now over seventy years old, and have devoted more than half their lives to the conduct of country newspapers. They are practical printers, and are plain, temperate, honest and substantial men.
The Laporte Herald was started at Westville, in Laporte county, in 1856. Mr. Charles G. Powell took charge of the office in December of that year, and in 1859 removed the paper to Laporte. The success of the Herald is a valuable example of what industry, energy and perseverance will accomplish.
When the Herald was first issued in Laporte it came in direct competition with five papers which seemed to have possession of the field. It succeeded, however, in 1867, in swallowing the Laporte Union, one of the oldest journals in Northern In- diana. The Laporte Chronicle, started by the Hon. Joseph Packard in 1874, was also merged into the Herald at the be- ginning of last year. The Herald establishment is now one of the largest and best pieces of newspaper property in the north- ern part of the State. and the Herald-Chronicle is recognized as one of the leading Republican papers of Indiana. Mr. Powell was an obscure country boy when he entered journalism, but he has proved himself to be a fluent writer and a first-class business manager. He has never aspired to political position, but he is recognized as a leader in his party. He is one of the postoffice editors of Indiana, having been appointed postmaster of Laporte in 1877.
The Pilot was started at Plymouth, in 1851, with John Q. Howell as editor. Mr. Howell is now a resident of Kewanna, Indiana, and is engaged in practicing medicine and selling drugs.
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THE INDIANA PRESS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Richard Corbaley conducted the Plymouth Banner in 1852 and 1853. He now lives at Healsburgh, Colorado, and is an Advent preacher.
William J. Burns edited the Banner from 1853 to 1856. He afterward started the Stark County Ledger, and died several years ago.
William G. Pomeroy succeeded Mr. Burns in the conduct of the Banner. He now resides at Rolla, Missouri, and is en- gaged in the practice of the law.
Thomas McDonald established the Plymouth Democrat in 1855. His sons, Daniel and Platt, were associated with him in the conduct of the paper, and two years afterward they became its sole owners. Mr. Thomas McDonald died at Plymouth in 1875. Daniel McDonald now owns and edits the Democrat. He has been a member of the State Legislature, has been Clerk of his county, and one year ago was the Democratic candidate for Congress in his district. He is a good writer, and makes one of the best weekly papers published in the State. Mr. Platt McDonald lives in Colorado, and is engaged in mining.
Ignatius Mattingly became editor of the Marshall County Republican in 1856, and continued as such until 1868. He is now postmaster at Bourbon, and editor of the Bourbon Mirror. He commenced the printing business in 1822, and has been in it almost continuously since. He is, therefore, without doubt, one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, editor in the State.
Schuyler Colfax then edited the St. Joseph Valley Register, a paper he established in 1845 and conducted until 1855. It is now the South Bend Register.
Mr. Alfred Wheeler was associated with Mr. Colfax in the conduct of the Register for many years. Since his withdrawal from the paper he has served as Auditor of St. Joseph county, and is now a resident of South Bend.
It would seem to be a work of supererogation to speak of the career of Mr. Colfax. Of all the men who were engaged on the press in Indiana in the olden time he became the most dis- tinguished. He was an influential member of the convention which formed the constitution under which we live. He was elected to Congress in 1854, and continued a member of that body until 1868. During his last two terms he was Speaker of
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the House. In 1868 he was elected Vice President of the United States on the ticket with General Grant. Since the ex- piration of his term as Vice President he has not been in poli- tics, but has devoted his time to literature. He is now one of the best known and most popular lecturers in the country.
The South Bend Forum was established in 1852, by A. E. Drapier, and was published by him and his son, William H. Drapier, until 1862. Both father and son were fluent and ele- gant writers, and while their paper did not reach great influ- ence, it was, nevertheless, ably conducted, in a literary point, being one of the very best papers in the State. Mr. A. E. Drapier died at Mishawaka some three years ago. . William H. Drapier now lives at Indianapolis. He is widely known as the publisher of the Brevier Legislative Reports.
Robert Lowry then edited the Goshen Democrat. He after- wards removed to Fort Wayne, and is now Judge of the Cir- cuit Court of the Fort Wayne circuit.
Samuel A. Hall started the Logansport Pharos, in 1844, and published it until 1869. The Pharos, under his direction, was a sound, conservative Democratic paper. Mr. Hall was not a brilliant man or a fluent writer, but he had a retentive memory. and his head was full of local and general political history. He labored industriously in his chosen profession for twenty-five years, and, while he was a good editor and made a good paper. he died a poor man. He breathed his last in April, 1870, aged 47 years. Poor Hall ! Those of you who knew him will, I am sure, drop a tear to his memory. Indomitable of will, ener- getic, honorable, honest, straightforward, unselfish and constant in his friendships, he was beloved by all who knew him and died without an enemy.
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