USA > Indiana > Newton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 58
USA > Indiana > Benton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 58
USA > Indiana > Pulaski County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 58
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 58
USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 58
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 58
USA > Indiana > White County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 58
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reviewing the history of Mr. Hanly. Daily he has " fought the good fight " · against adverse circumstances and has won a richly deserved place in the affections of the people, whose interests he holds paramount to all else.
From his youth his reading and study of our history as a government, and of the causes which have led up to our importance among the nations of the world, caused Mr. Hanly to devote his talents to the Republican party. In 1890 the young lawyer was elected to the Indiana state senate from Foun- tain and Warren counties, and served his constituents with ability and fidelity. In 1894 he was elected to congress after a most brilliant and impressive cam- paign, receiving over five thousand and three hundred votes above the popu- lar fusion candidate. His record in congress is most excellent, as might be expected of such a man. He soon distinguished himself as an orator, though he never strove for effect; but his earnestness of purpose, his fine command of language and the heart which he throws into his simplest utterances in the halls of debate, win for him the attention and interest which is in itself the sincerest flattery.
In 1895 the counties of Tippecanoe, Benton and Warren were taken out of the congressional district then represented by Mr. Hanly and placed in the tenth district, with the counties of Newton, Jasper, Porter, Lake and White. Mr. Hanly was a candidate in the new district for renomination, but was defeated by Hon. E. D. Crumpacker, of Valparaiso, after the most remarka- ble convention ever held in the district, by the narrow margin of fifty-two hundredths of a vote, in a convention of two hundred and forty-five delegates. In 1898 the Republicans elected a majority of the members of the general assembly of the state, and Mr. Hanly became a candidate for United States senator. The legislative caucus was held on the evening of January 11, 1899. On the first ballot thirty-two votes were cast for him, and he continued to lead on every ballot until the last, never receiving less than thirty votes on any ballot, and frequently as high as thirty-six and thirty-eight, out of a necessary forty-five. On the twelfth ballot Hon. A. J. Beveridge was nomi- nated, receiving fifty-four votes to Mr. Hanly's thirty-five.
Mr. Hanly is now engaged in the practice of law in the city of Lafayette, in connection with Senator Will R. Wood. He is a safe lawyer and an elo- quent advocate, and enjoys a large and increasing practice.
JAMES M. RODGERS.
In the subject of this sketch is found a veteran of the civil war and a respected citizen of Sheffield township, Tippecanoe county, Indiana, who has filled the office of deputy assessor and assessor of his township for about seven years. He springs from sterling Scotch ancestry, his grandfather having
Aumen In Rodgers
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come from the north of Ireland, with his family, and settled in Philadelphia before the war of 1812. His family comprised the following named chil- dren: William, John, Henry, Joseph, Margaret, Martha and one sister whose name is not remembered. Grandfather Rodgers died in Philadelphia a short time after his arrival in this country. His widow lived in that city for a number of years and at the time of her death, which occurred there, she was ninety-six.
William Rodgers, the father of our subject, was born in the north of Ireland and was a young man when he came with his parents to America. He was a cabinet-maker by trade. As England allowed no mechanics to leave Ireland, he resorted to the plan of working as day laborer, and thus he gained permission to leave the Emerald Isle. He was then about twenty- one years of age. Shortly after his arrival in Philadelphia he enlisted for service in the war of 1812 and went aboard the privateer Wasp. While on this vessel he was in several engagements and was wounded in the calf of the left leg, receiving a bullet which he carried in his leg the rest of his life. He was married in the Shenandoah valley, in Rockingham county, Virginia, to Miss Elizabeth Goul, a native of that county and a daughter of William and Ann (Miller) Goul. William Goul and wife were Germans who, after coming to this country, settled in Virginia and became well-to-do farmers of that state. Their children were Christian, William, John, Elizabeth, Mar- garet, Ann and Barbara. After his marriage William Rodgers settled in Rockingham county, Virginia, where he bought land and where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout his life. His children, in order of birth, were James M., Ausbraugh, Jane, Vintitia and Elizabeth. The father died at the age of sixty-five years. He was a Presbyterian, a man of many estimable traits of character, and he brought up his family to occupy honorable and useful positions in life.
James M. Rodgers, the direct subject of this review, was born in Rock- ingham county, Virginia, August 24, 1828, and received a common-school education in subscription schools, that being before the days of the public school. The greater part of his education, however, has been obtained out- side of schools, by observation and home study, and he may be termed a self- educated man. In Virginia he learned the trade of millwright, at which he worked for a time after coming to Indiana. It was in the spring of 1855 that he came west, the day of his landing in Lafayette being March 3, and on the 24th of the following May he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Ann Lowman, like himself a native of Rockingham county, Virginia, the date of her birth being November 25, 1827. She was a daughter of David and Catherine (Gunn) Lowman. Mr. Lowman was of German descent and was born in Augusta county, Virginia, his people being among the early settlers 33
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of the Old Dominion. He was married, in Rockingham county, to Catherine Gunn, and his children were Ellen, Jane, Catherine, Jacob and John. The Lowman family came to Indiana in 1851 and settled on one hundred and sixty acres of land in Perry township, Tippecanoe county, which Mr. Lowman bought, and here he improved a farm and lived for a number of years, until he retired. He died at Dayton, Indiana, at the age of eighty years. He was a man whose character was above reproach. Deeply pious, he was a class-leader in the Methodist church, and exerted an influence for good that was felt by all who knew him. Politically, he was a Republican.
After marriage Mr. Rodgers settled in Perry township, and was engaged in farming here at the time the civil war came on. He enlisted at Lafayette in October, 1861, as a private in the Tenth Indiana Light Artillery, under Captain Gerome B. Cox, for a term of three years or during the war. He was in the service one year, with the forces that operated in Kentucky and Tennessee, during which time he showed himself to be a brave, true soldier, performing his duty promptly and cheerfully. He was accidentally shot in a tent at Indianapolis, where he had been sent on account of being disabled. An officer, going through the manual of arms, carelessly discharged his gun and the ball passed through two tents and took effect in the left wrist of Mr. Rodgers, who was asleep in the tent. The hand was amputated the next morning in the hospital and he was soon afterward sent home on furlough, and the following February he was honorably discharged, at Indianapolis.
In 1885 Mr. Rodgers bought a good farm of eighty acres, in Perry town- ship, which he still owns and operates. Politically, he is a Republican, and for a number of years has filled local offices. He was appointed deputy assessor by Fremont Paul, assessor of Perry township, and served as such two years. He was elected assessor of the township in 1885, for a term of five years, and filled the office most acceptably. Also he served a term of seven years as deputy sheriff of Tippecanoe county. He is well known throughout the county and is as much respected as he is well known. He was town- ship trustee four years, and is now serving a term of four years as assessor.
Of Mr. Rodgers' family, we record that Hugh F. married Jane F. Mattix, and has one daughter, Bertha. They reside on the home farm. John D. married Alice Miller, who died, leaving him with a daughter, Ruth. Jacob Guy, unmarried, is a farmer of Perry township, Tippecanoe county.
HON. JAMES T. SAUNDERSON.
The senior member of the firm of Saunderson & Hall, attorneys at Fow- ler, Indiana, is a native of Delphi, this state, born on the 11th of October, 1841, and is known to the world as a " self-made " man. He acquired his
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education in the public schools of Carroll county, but before his education was completed or his life work chosen, the war cloud darkened the land, and he was the first of Indiana's brave boys to go to the front. Enlisting Sep- tember 12, 1861, as a private in Company A, of the Second Indiana Cavalry, he served over two years at the front. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, under the command of Generals Buell and Rose- crans, and participated in a number of hard-fought battles of the war, besides many skirmishes and scouting expeditions, in which, by reason of the limited number engaged, the dangers were as great as in general engagements. The first important battle was that of Pittsburg Landing or Shiloh, which has gone down in history as one of the turning points of the civil war. Others were the battle and siege of Corinth and the battle of Gallatin. But the hardships of the march and exposures of camp life without adequate protec- tion against the elements seriously affected Mr. Saunderson's health, which was never very robust, and he was discharged for disability in 1864.
For some time following this his time was spent in nursing himself back to normal health, and in 1865 he began the study of law, at Monticello, Indiana, where he remained a student and practitioner until April, 1868, and was admitted to the bar in White county in 1867. Early in the next year he married Miss Emma Magee, of Monticello, Indiana, and soon afterward he moved to Kentland, Newton county, where he engaged in the successful practice of his profession for a quarter of a century. His reputation as an able counselor and jurist soon became established throughout the district, and no man stood higher in the profession than Mr. Saunderson. But impaired health again overtook him and he went to Oklahoma territory, hop- ing to recuperate under a change of climate and surroundings; and while there, in 1893, he was appointed by President Cleveland as a member of the board of commissioners of Oklahoma territory. Receiving, however, no permanent benefit to his health, he resigned his position and went to Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, where he remained a year and was greatly benefited. Returning eastward he stopped at Denver, Colorado, and engaged in practice there for a year; and his sojourn in the mountainous regions proved so beneficial to his health that he decided to return to his native state and re-engage in practice.
Previous to his coming to Fowler, in April, 1897, he formed a partner- ship with Hon. E. G. Hall, who is the present representative in the lower house of the Indiana state legislature.
Judge Saunderson has been a lifelong Democrat in his political views, and active and influential in the counsels of his party. He is a gentleman of modest demeanor, claiming nothing for his achievements, but allowing the world to judge him by his deeds. It is said by those who know him best that he is a forceful, logical speaker and candid reasoner, that he is well
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versed in legal knowledge and scrupulously honest in the advocacy of any principle which he believes to be right. With such a record behind him, he can well afford to be modest and unassuming. He is prominently identified with the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities.
The parents of Judge Saunderson were Hon. George C. and Sarah (Miller) Saunderson. The former was a native of England, where he was educated and reared to manhood. He became one of the pioneers of Indi- ana, coming to the state as early as 1832. He read law in Ohio, was married there, and brought his young wife to the backwoods of the " Hoosier " state. Under the old constitution he served sixteen years as one of the associate judges of his district. He died in Delphi, Indiana, in 1859, at the age of fifty-six years. His wife, a native of Vermont, also died in Delphi, at the age of forty-two years. They had three sons and five daughters, our subject being now the only surviving son, while three sisters are also deceased. The eldest of the children was Catharine, who died in young womanhood; William E. died at the age of thirty-nine years, while sheriff of White county. The other deceased members of the family died in infancy or early childhood. The living are Mrs. Mary C. Spitler, of Carroll county, Indiana, and Mrs. Martha E. Montgomery, of Benzonia, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Saunderson have been unfortunate with their children, having three dead and none liv- ing, all having died in early infancy.
Such is the record of the life and character of one whom it is a delight to honor. The history of the pioneers of Carroll county, as well as that of Newton and Benton, would certainly be incomplete without mention of both the father and the son, the latter being the only representative by name of a once numerous family.
ZACHARY T. JOHNSON.
Zachary Taylor Johnson is an extensive land-owner and agriculturist residing near Seafield, White county, Indiana, and is a son of Rev. Robert Carson and Mary (Whity) Johnson. He was born a quarter of a mile north of his present home in Princeton township, October 29, 1849. The Rev. Robert C. Johnson was born in Ohio, in 1820, and came with his parents to Battle Ground, Indiana, when he was about sixteen years old. He worked on his father's farm until he was twenty-two, acquiring an education largely through his own unaided efforts. At the age of twenty-two he was united in wedlock to Miss Mary White, also a native of Ohio, and now a resident of Morocco, Indiana, in her seventy-seventh year. Mr. Johnson entered five hundred acres of land in the vicinity in which his son still lives, and added to it until he owned seven hundred acres at the time of his death. He and a Mr. Sea platted and named the town of Seafield. He was quite an extensive
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farmer and herded large droves of cattle during the week, while the Sabbath was spent in preaching the gospel. He was a close Bible student and of irreproachable character that forbade him to engage in any conduct that would sully it. He was the founder of the Palestine church, and assisted in building all the other churches in the neighborhood, and it has been impos- sible to find in his life anything of personal reproach, moral delinquency or intellectual weakness. Their children are as follows: Winfield Scott, who when last heard from was in Canada; Zachary T., our subject; Sarah M., wife of Scott Johnson, of Carroll county, this state; Dr. John M., of Burling- ton, Indiana; Mary E., wife of John Rogers, of Morocco; Marsa Ann and Lincoln, who died in infancy.
Zachary T. Johnson was reared to manhood in the same neighborhood in which he was born, and, with the exception of four years in the schools of Battle Ground, received his education in the common schools of that district. In 1872, he returned to the homestead and farmed with his father until he was twenty-five, when he was married and set up for himself. He built the resi- dence he now occupies, broke the sod, built fences, set out orchards, and otherwise improved the property, making it one of the most desirable in this section. At his father's death he inherited one hundred and fifty acres near Seafield, one hundred and twenty acres of which he now tills. He conducts a model farm and has about thirty-five head of good stock on it.
Mr. Johnson was married August 2, 1874, at Seafield, to Miss Lear Templeton. She was a daughter of James Templeton, an old resident of this place, where she was born in 1854, and died in 1878. She had one child who died in fancy. In 1882 he took for his second wife Miss Ida Spencer, daughter of John Spencer, a native of Virginia, and an early settler of this township, where Mrs. Johnson was born, in 1862. They have two daughters, now students in the neighboring school, who give promise of great musical ability. The family are members of the Christian church at Palestine, to the construction of whose house of worship he was a liberal contributor. He is an exponent of the teachings of the Republican party, but has never aspired to office.
FRANCIS E. GOODSPEED.
Francis Ebenezer Goodspeed was born November 26, 1848, in Will county, Illinois, near the village of Plainfield. His father, Samuel Good- speed, was born in Tioga county, New York, February 21, 1812. When he was four years old his parents moved to Pennsylvania, where they lived until Samuel was twenty-two, when they accompanied himself and wife to the state of Ilinois, and settled near Oswego, Will county. After several moves
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they finally settled at Plainfield, where they lived a number of years, and then moved to Peotone township, where Samuel Goodspeed bought three hundred and twenty acres of land. He added another eighty to this and carried on general farming until the year before his death, when he moved to the village of Peotone, dying there in 1887. He was a prominent Repub- lican and held a number of town offices, serving as justice of the peace for eight years. He was three times married, first to Caroline Clark, a native of Pennsylvania, who died in 1846, and the second time to Sarah Messinger, the mother of our subject. She was born in Ohio, in 1827, and was a daughter of Ebenezer and Fanny (Snow) Messinger, farmers of Ohio, where she was born. The first marriage resulted in the birth of six children: John, in Dakota; Phœbe, the wife of N. S. Beedy, of Peotone, Illinois; Eunice, deceased; Emily, a resident of Oregon; George, deceased; and Henry, living in Texas. The children of the second marriage are Francis, our subject; Caroline, wife of James Carr, of Iowa; an infant, deceased; Edward, a farmer in Kansas; William, a resident of Englewood, Cook county, Illinois; Hattie, wife of James Morrison, near Peotone, Illinois; and Samuel, a resi- dent of Iowa. For his third wife Mr. Goodspeed married Mrs. Hattie Bryan, who is still living.
Francis E. Goodspeed was reared in Will county, Illinois, and attended the district school until he was twenty-one, receiving a good common-school education. He remained at home another year, and then went to Goodland, . where he worked for different farmers in breaking prairie until the great fire in Chicago, when he went to that city and worked in clearing away the debris for two months or more. Then he returned and farmed a part of his father's ground one year, and the two years following superintended the entire three hundred and twenty acres. He then purchased sixty acres near this, which he cultivated for three years, when he exchanged it for one hun- dred acres in Jasper county, this state, four miles from Remington. He dis- posed of this in 1891 and bought two hundred and forty acres two and one- half miles from Wolcott, which he makes his home. He has since sold eighty acres from this piece, and devotes the remainder to general farming and stock-raising. He keeps a number of cattle, horses, hogs and sheep.
He was married in March, 1875, at Michigan City, Indiana, to Caroline A. Knight, a daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah (Laughlin) Knight, the former a native of Vermont, the latter of Ireland. Mrs. Goodspeed was born in Vermont, October 23, 1844, and, her mother dying six months later, she was raised to womanhood by Archibald Renfrew, with whom she came to Will county, Illinois, during the civil war. They have had three children: Mere- dith, a student of the Remington high school, of the class of 1900; Sarah, also a student in the high school, of the class of 1902; and Hattie, deceased.
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Mr. Goodspeed is a worker in the Baptist church, of which he is a deacon and trustee. He is also the superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Wolcott church. He is a Prohibitionist in his political views, and on one occasion received the nomination for county commissioner.
CYRENIUS JOHNSON.
Tippecanoe is well favored among the counties of Indiana with a goodly number of men of mark and merit, men to whom the general public can point with pride because of their sturdy, substantial character. Like the mighty oak of the forest, they have grown stronger with the occasional tempests of life. Among this number may be mentioned Cyrenius Johnson, of the Johnson-Barnes Hardware Company, wholesale and retail dealers in hardware, agricultural implements, machinery and seed, at Nos. 18, 20 and 22 North Second street, Lafayette.
Mr. Johnson was born in Highland county, Ohio, near Leesburg, Feb- ruary 7, 1824, a son of Abner and Hannah (Van Pelt) Johnson. His father, a native of Virginia, was a farmer and stock dealer, who emigrated from his native state to Ohio when twelve years old with his father, and grew to man- hood and was married there. Moving to Clark county, that state, he engaged in the grocery business in South Charleston until 1831, when he removed to Indiana, settling in Tippecanoe county, where he remained a short time. Later he entered land from the government in Carroll county and located upon it. The remainder of his life he passed in agricultural pursuits. His death occurred in 1856, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife, a native of Ohio, died in Tippecanoe county in 1836. Both were members of the Society of Friends. He had been a volunteer private soldier in the war of 1812.
They had eight children, of whom only three are now living, namely: Cyrenius, the subject of this review; Rhoda, now the wife of Solomon Gaddis, of Rossville, Clinton county, Indiana; and Edwin B., of Nodaway county, Missouri.
Ashley Johnson, grandfather of Cyrenius, was a native of Virginia, of Scotch and English descent, a farmer by occupation, a Revolutionary soldier under .General Clark, of Virginia, and finally died in Ohio, at the age of ninety-five years and three months. He had a large number of children, bringing thirteen up to years of maturity.
John Van Pelt, our subject's maternal grandfather, was a native of Hol- land, whose father emigrated to Pennsylvania when he (John) was two or three years of age. He grew to manhood in that state, and then moved to Clermont county, Ohio, and from there to Highland county. By occupation
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he was a farmer, in religion a Quaker, and at the time of his death was over seventy-five years of age. He had three sons and seven daughters, of whom Mrs. Johnson was the eldest. John Van Pelt's wife was of Irish descent.
Cyrenius Johnson was twelve years old when his mother died, and his father moved his family back to Highland county, Ohio, in 1837, and they resided there till 1845, when Cyrenius came again to Tippecanoe county, where he has lived ever since. Up to the time he was eighteen he was employed on a farm. Afterward he learned the trade of tinsmith, which he followed several years as a journeyman. He started in business for himself in 1851, and added to his stock a line of stoves and hardware in January, 1854, by the purchase of an establishment where he had formerly been employed; and now for the long period of forty-seven years he has been con- tinously engaged in the hardware trade. At first he had a partner, the firm being Johnson & Patton. After several changes in the firm, it was in May, 1891, organized into a stock company known as the Johnson-Barnes Hard- ware Company, which continues to the, present time. They handle by wholesale and retail all kinds of shelf and heavy hardware, agricultural imple- ments, etc.
On the 8th day of July, 1847, Mr. Johnson married Miss Emeline Bron- son, daughter of John and Phœbe (Blakesley) Bronson, and they have had eight children, two daughters and six sons, namely: Clara Louisa, Henry C., Phœbe Hannah, Hiram B., Ashley C., William W., John V. and one that died in infancy. Clara L. died at the age of nineteen years; Henry C., at the age of one year; Phoebe H. married Henry C. Kenney, of Lafayette, and has three sons,-Harry C., William E. and Charles; Hiram B. married Miss Anna Jones and lives in Chicago, where he is in the employ of the Reading Hardware Company, of Reading, Pennsylvania; Ashley C. married Miss Anna Sample, of Lafayette, a daughter of Robert Sample, and they have one son, Dudley S .; Ashley C. is employed in the store with his father; William W. married Miss Flora Riley, of Muncie, this state, and is a member of the drug firm known as The Hogan-Johnson Drug Company of Lafayette: he has one daughter, Gladys; and John V. is employed in the store with his father.
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