USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 6
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" GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-As the Executive of the State, it will at all times give me pleasure to answer any suitable requisition made of me by either branch of the General Assembly, and I acknowledge the resolution which I have had the honor of receiving from the House of Repre- sentatives, through the gentlemen composing their committee, to be full evidence that I had reason to have the confidence in the members composing your body, that you would not arraign my conduct whilst holding the important and responsible situa- tion to which the voice of the people of the State has called me. without in the first place allowing me the sacred constitutional privilege to which the humblest citizen is entitled, of being heard in my defense. At the same time, feeling conscious of having committed no act since I have been honored with the office of Governor, incompatible with its high obligations and duties, and, which was not intended, to the best of my ability, for the prosperity of the State of our choice, I must express my convic- tion that the harmony of the co-ordinate branches of this gov- ernment, the laws of delicacy, and the true interests of our common country at this late period, with which I have been
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favored through your committee ; asking to be permitted to add, that in no transaction of mine, official or other, have I anything proper to be communicated, which shall not be at all times sub- ject to the inspection of my fellow citizens of the State, or their representatives. If I have erred in the manner intimated in a resolution sent me, I have erred with the fathers of the repub- lic, the first patriots of the age, and in attempting to do good and advance the highest interests of our beloved country. As custom, precedent and example passed in review before me, I could not be insensible of their force, and have been made to feel as if I had done my duty to my conscience and the State. " I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your most obe- dient servant,
J. BROWN RAY."
This exceedingly diffuse and muddy communication was re- ceived and the question debated by the House until just before the close of its sitting that day, when a vote was taken on Mr. Craig's resolution, which resulted in 28 yeas and 30 nays. The House then, by a vote of 31 yeas to 27 nays, passed a resolution to receive the message of Governor Ray, whereupon the mes- sage was delivered, and the effort to declare the Governorship vacant ended.
In Governor Ray's messages to the Legislature he argued forcibly and eloquently the great advantage that must accrue to Indiana by the construction and operation of railroads, and pre- dicted much which, although at the time seemed chimerical, has really come to pass. Many considered him insane and his utterances those of a madman, but time has demonstrated that in the main he was correct. He saw more plainly than any other man of his day the future of the State in which he lived. After he left office he continued to dilate upon his favorite sub- ject, and to predict a great future for Indianapolis. A writer. who seems to think the Governor was somewhat off his mental balance, thus speaks of him in a late article in an Indianapolis paper :
" During a long period of mental disturbance in his old age, Governor Ray was fond of discussing his 'grand scheme' of railroad concentration at Indianapolis. Here was to be the
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head of a score of radiating lines. At intervals of five miles were to be villages, of ten miles towns, and of twenty miles respectable cities. This crazy whim, as everybody regarded it, has been made a fact as solid as the everlasting hills. The only point of failure is the feature that possessed special inter- est to the Governor. The Union Depot and point of concen- tration of the radiating lines are not on his property, opposite the Court-house, where, by all the requirements of symmetry and consistency, they should have been. Oddly enough, one expedient in construction, which certainly looked silly, has been actually put in use successfully in some one or another of our far Western lines. Where deep gorges were to be crossed, he thought that trestle-work might be replaced by cutting off the tops of growing trees level with the track and laying sills on these for the rails. It is not many months since the papers pub- lished a description of exactly that sort of expedients in cross- ing a deep and heavily timbered hollow on a Western railway- the Denver and Rio Grande probably. So thoroughly has the great ' hub' scheme and its connections and incidents been identified with Governor Ray and his hallucinations, that there are few who know anything of the matter at all who will not be surprised to learn that the origination of it is at least as likely to be the work of Governor Noble's deliberate reasoning as of Governor Ray's fantasies. In his annual message of 1833-4, he discusses the importance of the internal improvement system, then projected and widely debated, but not adopted by the State, and only partially pursued by the help of canal land grants by Congress, and he argues for the concentration of ar- tificial facilities for transportation here. In other words, with- out saying it, he wants Indianapolis to be exactly the ยท hub' that Governor Ray predicted it would be. Whether the rational Governor in office got his notions from the fancies of the de- ranged ex-Governor, or the latter only expanded in his fantastic projects the official suggestion of the other, we shall never know. But the probability is that the sane Governor profited by the hints he saw in the wild talk of the insane Governor. For Governor Noble was not a strikingly original genius, and Gov- ernor Ray, as eccentric and egotistical as he was, had more than an average allowance of brains."
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After Governor Ray ceased to be Governor he resumed the practice of law, but he did not succeed in getting much legal business. He seemed to have "run down at the heel," and, although he was in the prime of life, the public appeared to think him superannuated, as having passed his day of usefulness. In 1835 he became a candidate for clerk of Marion county against Robert B. Duncan, Esq., and, for a time, seemed bent on making a lively canvass. But, before the election came off, he had virtually abandoned the contest. Although he did not formally withdraw, he had no tickets printed, and when the bal- lots were counted, it was found that few of them had been cast for him. In 1837 he ran for Congress, in the Indianapolis dis- trict, against William Herrod, and was defeated, receiving but 5,888 votes to his competitor's 9,635. This want of apprecia- tion by the public soured him, and made him more eccentric than ever.
In the summer of 1848 Governor Ray made a trip to Wiscon- sin and returned home by way of the Ohio river. While on the river he became unwell and, on reaching Cincinnati, was taken to the house of a relative. The disease proved to be cholera, and terminated in his death August 4, 1848. He was buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery, near Cincinnati, outside the State he had helped to found.
Governor Ray's first wife died while he was in the Senate, and in September, 1825, he married his second wife, Mrs. Esther Booker, of Centreville, Indiana.
Governor Ray was egotistical, very dressy and fond of dis- play. He liked sensations, and more than once, while Gov- ernor, exercised his executive functions in a manner that was highly tragical. In the summer of 1825 three executions of white men were to take place at Pendleton for the killing of some Indians. The day arrived and two of the murderers were hung, the sheriff delaying the execution of young Bridges, a mere boy, in hope the Governor would interfere. Mr. John H. B. Nowland, in his " Prominent Citizens of Indianapolis," thus speaks of this event :
"Atter they (Bridges, senior, and Sawyer) had hung about thirty minutes they were taken down and placed in coffins at
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the foot of the gallows. The young man, who had witnessed the scene, was then placed in the wagon (which had been read- justed on the hillside) with the intention of waiting until the last moment for Governor Ray or a pardon. He had not been in this situation long before the Governor made his appearance (which created a shout from all present) on a large, fancy gray horse. He rode directly up to the gallows, where the young man was seated on a rough coffin in the wagon. The Governor handed the reins of the bridle to a bystander, commanding the prisoner to stand up. 'Sir,' said the Governor, 'do you know in whose presence you stand?' Being answered in the nega- tive, the Governor continued : ' There are but two powers known to the law that can save you from hanging by the neck until you are dead ; one is the Great God of the Universe, the other is J. Brown Ray, Governor of the State of Indiana. The latter stands before you (handing the young man the written pardon) ; you are pardoned.'"
Had Governor Ray turned his attention to dramatic literature, the Buffalo Bills of Indiana would have had no occasion to go outside the State for their blood-and-thunder plays.
In traveling it was the custom of Governor Ray to register his name on steamboats and at hotels as "J. Brown Ray, Gov- ernor of Indiana." But, then, he was not the only great man who has been vain. Either Sir Walter Raleigh or Murat would have registered with all his titles.
Governor Ray was a brave man, and sometimes a belligerent one. When a young lawyer at Brookville, James Jones, a farmer, attacked him, and in a hand to hand fight was worsted. When he and Calvin Fletcher were in the active practice of the law they had a personal difficulty at Danville, which caused a good deal of talk at the time. The court was in session, and one morning while the lawyers in attendance were warming their backs at the hotel fire, Governor Ray and Mr. Fletcher got into a controversy about something the former had said in one of his messages to the Legislature. The dispute begat bad blood, and eventually Governor Ray told Mr. Fletcher that if he repeated the offensive remark he would thrash him. Those who knew Mr. Fletcher are aware that threats had but little
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terror to him, so he reiterated the accusation, whereupon Gov- ernor Ray caught him by the nose. At this Mr. Fletcher struck the Governor in the face, but before he could repeat the blow his arm was caught by the bystanders and the belligerents sep- arated. Both these men had the courage of their convictions, and were ever ready to maintain them in the old Western style.
In his latter days Governor Ray was so eccentric that most people thought his mind diseased. He always walked with a cane, and sometimes he would stop on the street and, with his cane, write words in the air. It is no wonder that those who saw him do this believed him insane. A short time before he died he advertised, in an Indianapolis paper, a farm and a tav- ern-stand for sale, and for a proposition to build a railroad from Charleston, South Carolina, through Indianapolis to the north- ern lakes, all in one advertisement.
In person, Governor Ray, in his younger days, was very pre- possessing. He was tall and straight, with a body well-pro- portioned. He wore his hair long and tied in a queue. His forehead was broad and high, and his features denoted intelli- gence of a high order. For many years he was a leading man of Indiana, and no full history of the State can be written with- out frequent mention of his name.
NOAH NOBLE.
NOAH NOBLE, fourth Governor of Indiana, was born in Clark county, Virginia, January 15, 1794. When he was a little boy his father emigrated to Kentucky with his family, and there Noah grew to manhood. About the time Indiana was admitted into the Union Mr. Noble came to the State and located in Brookville. His brother James had preceded him to Brook- ville, and had become quite prominent in public affairs. In 1820, a few years after Mr. Noble settled at Brookville, he was elected sheriff of Franklin county, and was re-elected in 1822. In August, 1824, he was chosen a representative to the State Legislature from Franklin county, virtually without opposition, there having been but twenty votes cast against him. At that time he was probably the most popular man in Franklin county. Enoch McCarty was then clerk of the county, and, being a can- didate for re-election, was considerably disturbed when he heard that the friends of Mr. Noble were talking of him for the office. In a conversation between the partisans of McCarty and those of Noble about the clerkship, one of them said: "Let's elect Enoch McCarty clerk, and Noah Noble Governor." In this way was the movement started that landed Governor Noble in the executive chair. Lazarus Noble, a younger brother of Noah, was receiver of public moneys for the Brookville land district. In 1826 the office was changed to Indianapolis, and while on his way to that place with his books and papers, Laz- arus Noble died. President Adams appointed his brother Noah to the vacancy, and the new receiver at once came to Indiana- polis and opened his office. He filled the place with great ac- ceptability until 1829, when he was removed by President Jack-
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son for political considerations, and the office given to James P. Drake. While receiver of public moneys Mr. Noble was brought into contact with many people, and he made friends of them all. He often assisted the immigrant with money to enter his land, and in other ways accommodated and befriended him. In 1830 he was appointed one of the commissioners to locate and lay out the Michigan road. In 1831 he was a candidate for Governor of the State, and although he was a Whig and the Democracy had a large majority in the State, he was elected over James G. Reed (Democrat) by 2,791 majority. This was a remarkable result, for Milton Stapp, also a Whig, was a can- didate, and polled 4,422 votes.
In 1834 Governor Noble was a candidate for re-election. He received 27,676 votes, and his opponent, James G. Reed, 19,994. In 1839, after his gubernatorial term had expired, the Legisla- ture elected him a member of the Board of Internal Improve- ments. In 1841 he was chosen a Fund Commissioner, a very important and responsible position. Early in 1841 he was of- fered by the President of the United States the office of General Land Commissioner, but he' declined the place because he thought he was needed in Indiana to help the State out of her financial embarrassments.
Governor Noble died at his home near Indianapolis (now within the city limits), February 8, 1844, and was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery. About five years ago his remains were taken up and reburied at Crown Hill by the side of his wife.
That Governor Noble was beloved by his neighbors is evinced by the way they received news of his death. So soon as it was known in the city that he was dead a meeting was held at Browning's hotel, at which Nicholas McCarty presided. A committee of arrangements, consisting of forty-three persons, was appointed, and as evidence of the mutability of earthly things, it may be noted that Alfred Harrison is the only one of of the forty-three now ( 1883) living. The next day a meeting was held at the Court-house, to which the committee of forty- three made report. Samuel Merrill, chairman of the commit- tee, reported the following resolutions :
"' WHEREAS, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from us by death our respected fellow-citizen, Noah Noble, who, as
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Governor of the State for six years, and in the performance of various other official duties, acquired for himself the approba- tion and respect of a large portion of the community ; and,
" WHEREAS, The ability, integrity and patriotism of Gov- ernor Noble as a public officer, and his uniform kindness, lib- erality and anxiety for the welfare of others as a private citizen, secured to him to an extent unexampled amongst us the friend- ship and good wishes of his neighbors and numerous acquaint- ances ; therefore,
" Resolved, unanimously, That this assembly deeply sympa- thizes with the bereaved family of Governor Noble in the loss they have sustained.
" Resolved, unanimously, That the public services and private character of the deceased have been such that his death inspires general gloom and deep regret in the community and State of which he was so distinguished an ornament.
" Resolved, unanimously, That, as a mark of respect for the memory of Governor Noble, this assembly will attend the fu- neral at two o'clock to-morrow, and will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.
" Resolved, That copies of the foregoing preamble and reso- lutions be sent to the widow and children of the deceased, and also to the fournal and Sentinel for publication."
Messrs. Douglas Maguire, Samuel Merrill, Judge James Mor- rison, Dr. Richmond and others, made speeches in favor of the resolutions, and, on the vote being put, they were unanimously adopted. The next day the remains of Governor Noble were taken from his home to the Methodist church in Indianapolis, where appropriate religious services were held. Rev. Dr. Gurley led in prayer, after which Rev. L. W. Berry preached the funeral sermon. The exercises closed with a prayer by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, after which the corpse was taken to Greenlawn and buried.
Governor Noble's father was a slaveholder, and some of the negroes once owned by him, and with whom the Governor had played when a boy, were sold out of the family. After Gov- ernor Noble had removed to Indianapolis he sought out these negroes, bought them, and brought them to his home. He looked after them while he lived, saw they wanted for nothing
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necessary for their comfort, and in his will provided for their maintenance and support. This incident illustrates his good- ness and kindness of heart, and his interest in the race which for centuries had worn the bondsman's yoke.
Governor Noble once gave public notice that if any one hunted on his farm " with dog or gun," he would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. One day the late George McOuat, then a lad, and his younger brother, Andy, while hunting on the Governor's farm flushed a flock of quails, which sought refuge in some beech trees near the Governor's house. The young hunters were under the trees trying to get a favorable position to shoot when they saw the Governor running toward them with a gun in his hand and shouting, "Get out of my inclosure ; don't you dare to shoot in my woods." Andy was scared, and started to run, but his brother George commanded him to stop, and he obeyed. George paid no attention to the Governor, and getting a favorable position, pulled the trigger and brought down five birds. The Governor looked on with a certain degree of admiration, for he loved a good shot, and was proud of his own ability to make one, and when the birds fell, in a pleasant tone he said : "Well, I believe there is no scar- ing a Scotch boy." "You are right, Governor," said the elder of the brothers, "and particularly when that boy is a Mac- gregor." The McOuats are descendants of the Macgregors.
Governor Noble had a laudable ambition to go to the United States Senate, but it was never gratified. In 1836 he was a candidate to succeed William Hendricks, but was defeated by Oliver H. Smith. He led on the first ballot, and continued in the lead until the eighth, when Mr. Smith ran ahead of him, and on the next ballot was elected. In 1839 he was again a candidate for the Senate, to succeed General John Tipton, but was defeated by Albert S. White, on the thirty-sixth ballot. Governor Noble occupied about the same position in Indiana that Henry Clay did in the United States. He was the strong- est man in his party, but his antagonisms were such that he could not draw from the opposition. The consequence was, that while leading off with a large plurality, he never could get a majority. His political opponents preferred any other candi- date to him, and when they found they could not elect their
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own man they always went to the one who could beat Governor Noble. This fact shows he was a positive man. A negative man is the one to draw from an opposing party ; the positive one, however, keeps his friends.
Governor Noble was one of the most efficient promoters of the internal improvement system, and when the system broke down his popularity waned. He never lost his hold upon his friends, but he never had enough of them to reach the goal of his am- bition-the Senate of the United States.
Governor Noble was a remarkable man. "Self taught, al- most, he readily acquired a capacity for managing all kinds of important business ; with a very feeble constitution, he could endure almost any fatigue ; and so much of an invalid as seldom to be free from pain, and always living on the diet of a hermit, he was never otherwise than cheerful, and few persons ever did so much to promote good feeling in the society in which he lived. His benevolence was not manifested merely by profes- sions, but his kind looks and kinder words were always attended by the most substantial aid whenever distress or difficulty ap- pealed to his sympathy."
Oliver H. Smith says that Governor Noble "was one of the most popular men with the masses in the State. His person was tall and slim, his constitution delicate, his smile winning, his voice feeble, the squeeze of his hand irresistible. He spoke plainly and well, but made no pretense to eloquence. As Gov- ernor he was very popular ; his social entertainments will long be remembered." John H. B. Nowland says of him : " In his friendships he was warm and devoted, and confiding to a fault. He had a mild and benevolent countenance, and a smile for all with whom either business or circumstances brought him in con- tact."
DAVID WALLACE.
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DAVID WALLACE, Governor of Indiana from 1837 to 1840, was born in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, April 24, 1799. When he was a little boy his father emigrated to Ohio, and set- tled near Cincinnati. General William H. Harrison lived in the neighborhood, and between him and the Wallace family a friendship was formed that lasted while they lived. General Harrison was then in Congress, and through his influence young David secured the appointment of a cadet to West Point. This act bound the young emigrant to the old pioneer with hooks of steel, and he lived to repay the debt thus contracted with interest compounded.
Mr. Wallace graduated at West Point in 1821, and afterwards, for a short time, was a tutor in that institution. He then entered the army as a lieutenant of artillery, and in about one year re- signed his commission. His father having emigrated to Indiana in 1817, and settled at Brookville, the son came to his paternal home and commenced the study of the law in the office of Miles C. Eggleston, a distinguished jurist of that day. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar, and soon obtained a large practice. He entered politics, and was elected to the Legislature in 1828, 1829 and 1830. In 1831 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and in 1834 was re-elected. Indiana never had a Lieutenant-Governor who excelled him as a presiding officer, and but few who equaled him. His voice was good, his manner dignified, and his decisions just and impartial. In 1837 he was elected Governor, defeating for the office John Dumont, an able and distinguished lawyer who lived at Vevay, on the southern border of the State. He had been closely identified with the
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internal improvement system, and was elected Governor upon that issue, but during his term of office the system broke down and took him with it. It is the nature of the American people to go from one extreme to the other, and the measure that gave him office in 1837 defeated him in 1840. When the Whig State convention met that year it passed him by and nominated for Governor Samuel Bigger, a man who had not been identified with the internal improvement system. He stepped aside with- out a murmur, and at once resumed the practice of the law. The next year, 1841, he was elected to Congress from the In- dianapolis district, defeating Colonel Nathan B. Palmer. Two years afterward, 1843, he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by William J. Brown 1,085 votes. In 1846 he was chairman of the Whig State central committee. He again went back to the law, and practiced it uninterruptedly until 1850, when he was elected a delegate to the constitutional con- vention from the county of Marion. In this body he was chair- man of the Committee on Public Institutions, and was a mem- ber of the Committee on the Practice of Law and Law Reform. He took but little part in the deliberations of the convention, his name only appearing nine times in its records, except on the call of the roll. It seems strange that a man of his talents and experience in public life should have taken so insignificant a part in the proceedings of the convention ; but strange as it is, it is true. He made one speech in opposition to the proposition of Judge Pettit to abolish grand juries, which was a strong pre- sentation of the reasons why it should not be done.
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