Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 27

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial History of Grant County Indiana > Part 27

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1902, Mr. Charles C. Cring, of South Bend, Indiana, conceived the idea of a chain of schools, and being successful in interesting 'Mr. Brunner in the project, they incorporated under the name Indiana Busi- ness College. That same year they purchased the Logansport Business College and organized the Kokomo Business College. Their business prospered, and from time to time they purchased additional schools, so that now the Indiana Business College comprises thirteen well-estab- lished, well-conducted, well-attended business schools within the limits of the Hoosier State. The schools are known by either the title of Indiana Business College, or as follows: Marion Business College, Marion ; Ko- komo Business College, Kokomo; Logansport Business College, Logans- port; Muncie Business College, Muncie; Anderson Business College, Anderson; Columbus Business College, Columbus; Richmond Business College, at Richmond; Lafayette Business College, Lafayette ; Crawfords- ville Business College, at Crawfordsville; Washington Business College, at Washington; Newcastle Business College, at Newcastle; Vincennes Business College, at Vincennes; and Central Business College, at Indian- apolis, Indiana.

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WALTER W. SLAIN AND FAMILY

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The Marion Business College has always employed high-class instructors, and maintains an up-to-date equipment. It has for years taught most of the bookkeepers and stenographers who have accepted and held positions in the city of Marion, and its standing among business men assures a competent graduate every chance for employment.

The curriculum of this institution includes a careful training in the following subjects : Bookkeeping, Business Arithmetic, Commercial Law, Salesmanship, Penmanship, Spelling, Rapid Calculation, Business Cor- respondence, Business English, Shorthand, Typewriting, Commission, Manufacturing, Banking Office Practice and Stenotypy. The school continues to operate in the old quarters at No. 211 South Washington street, and is now recognized as one of the best institutions of its kind in the State.

Mr. O. E. Butz at this time is manager of the Marion Business Col- lege, personal mention of his career and work being given in the sketch preceding this. Under his management the college has met with its greatest success, due in no small way to his efficient methods and fine executive ability.

WALTER W. SLAIN. Not all the farms in Grant county are owned by members of the old families. Among the progressive younger agricul- turists who have come to the county from other sections, and by their enterprise and thrift have laid substantial foundations for large pros- perity, Walter W. Slain, a hustling young farmer, with a fine reputation as a man and citizen, has a prominent place. Mr. Slain operates a fine farm of eighty acres in section twenty-five of Jefferson township. Prac- tically all his land is improved, he is the type of man who allows little waste ground about his farm, he is rapidly transforming his acres into one of the most valuable and productive estates in his part of the county. A substantial red barn and a comfortable white house are the more im- portant of the building improvements. Mr. Slain bought his present farm in January, 1912, and has it well stocked with hogs and sheep. He also cultivates sixty acres of farm land in the same vicinity. Mr. Slain has come into his present prosperity after a number of years as a renter and tenant, and has earned all he possesses. He has operated farms in this part of Grant county for some years, and has a reputation for pro- gressive and reliable methods of land management and is regarded as an upright citizen and thoroughly capable business man.

Walter W. Slain was born in Boone county, Indiana, May 14, 1875, was reared and educated in Delaware county, and since 1898 has had his home in Grant county. His parents are John William and Elizabeth (Higden) Slain. His father, a native of Rush county; Indiana, was mar- ried in Boone county to Miss Higden, who was born there, and a few years later they went to Madison county, bought and operated a farm of eighty acres, and later moved to Delaware county, where the father farmed until his retirement. He now lives in Gaston, and is a vigorous man bearing easily the weight of almost seventy years. He and his wife are active in the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is an official and served for some years as superintendent of the Sunday school. Of the eight children, six are living, and the family record is as follows: Etta, who died a young woman: Millie, who died after her marriage, leaving no children; Albert, who is a farmer in Madison county, and has seven living children ; Walter W .; Thomas, a mechanic, living in Elwood, and has two sons; Ethel, wife of Glenn Wood, now living on a farm in Madi- son county, and they have three daughters; and Ira, who occupies his father's Madison county farm, and has one son; and one child, Leonard, who is a nephew adopted into the family, and has always had the posi- Vol. II -12

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tion of a son, is now a farmer in Clark county, Indiana, and has one son and one daughter.

Walter W. Slain was married in Delaware county, to Miss Florence Nottingham, whose father, Rufus C. Nottingham, is a well known and prosperous citizen of Grant county, and his career and family are sketched on other pages of this Centennial history. Mr. and Mrs. Slain are the parents of the following children: Charles and Clifford, who both died in infancy ; Virgil A., born March 11, 1898, and now attending the public schools; Roy Ormal, born January 6, 1903, and in school. Mr. and Mrs. Slain are Methodists belonging to the Pleasant Grove church, and in politics he is a Republican voter.

EDWIN CALDWELL. When Train and Eliza (Wells) Caldwell came with their family from Fayette county, arriving in Grant county November 20, 1856, they had two children, Edwin and Fanny Caldwell, and they had buried two in Fayette county,-Amanda and an infant that had not been christened. Another son, John W. Caldwell, was born in Grant county. Fanny Caldwell and the parents are buried in this county. The father died July 27, 1881, and the mother lived several years, passing away April 14, 1897. Only two sons remain of the family.

Edwin Caldwell married Miss Nancy J. Carmichael, of Hope, Bar- tholomew county, August 19, 1877. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Edwin Caldwell and wife moved from the Caldwell family home in Liberty township to Marion, where they have lived continuously except while he was employed as a clerk in the war department, in Washington City, and also for a short time spent on the Pacific Coast. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell have one son, Frank Caldwell, a student in the Marion high school. There were a number of prominent Southern Grant county families who, like the Caldwells, came from Fayette county in an early day, and all of them are good citizens. Mr. Caldwell went to the district schools near his home in Liberty township, and later to the Fairmount high school, and to the Summer Normal Schools in Marion. For years he was among the progressive teachers of Grant County, where he both "taught" and "kept" school for fourteen years, spending four years of that time at "College Corner," where the Marion Normal College finally located when the city was extended out South Washington street.

Mr. Caldwell is of a mathematical turn of mind, and even while teach- ing, he used to do a great deal of work as a bookkeeper. Now for several years he has been recognized as an expert accountant. He is one of the state field examiners, and does accounting all over Indiana as he finds time to leave the city, local manufacturers and business corpora- tions employing him most of the time in auditing accounts for them. He has all the modern appliances, typewriting, tabulating machine, etc., and frequently does his work at home. Mr. Caldwell has reduced the business to system, and in his "pigeon holes" are kept the previous year's records, so that when a call comes to audit a set of books he simply takes down his file, and knows just where he stands-an easy matter.

Mr. Caldwell is frequently called upon to install the books for new firms and corporations, and being an excellent penman it is always a satisfactory service. Commercial auditing is congenial employment and remunerative, and while he enjoyed teaching he would not want to teach again. Mr. Caldwell is a licensed embalmer, having worked with the different Marion undertakers, but the work of an accountant is more congenial to him and all his time is taken at present. The Caldwell family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mrs. Caldwell has occupied much of her spare time with fancy lace

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patterns, having many scarfs and table covers as a result, and she dares not place a price on her designs has done so frequently, and had to make others. Knitting is a profitable pastime.

COL. GEORGE W. STEELE. In the present Governor of the National Military Home, Indiana, Grant county has one of its most distinguished characters, and one whose citizenship is not merely local, but national. Col. Steele is one of those figures who stands forth as a representative not of a city or state, but of a nation. However, during the greater portion of his long life, Grant county has been his home. He made splendid record as a soldier and officer in the Civil War; spent several years following the war in the regular army on the frontier. Became identified with the old pork packing industry in Marion, and was one of the principal organizers of the First National Bank of Marion; in 1880 began a career as congressman which continued through many years, during which he performed distinguished service for his constit- nency and for the nation; and had the honor of serving as the first governor of Oklahoma Territory. This brief outline indicates the diver- sity and importance of his career, and the many reasons why Grant county esteems him as among its foremost public characters.

George W. Steele is a native of this state, born in Fayette county December 13, 1839. When he was a little more than three years of age his parents moved to Grant county, settling here on February 3, 1843, so that for more than seventy years this county has been his home. His parents were Asbury and Mary Louisa (Waddom) Steele, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Indiana. Asbury Steele was a lawyer by profession, and was for many years a successful member of the Marion bar. Soon after he had taken up his residence in this county, he was elected to the office of county clerk, and re-elected, resigning, however, to resume the law early in his second term. He was the colonel of the 34th Indiana Volunteers from August 2, 1861, to January 14, 1862, when he,resigned. Was a state senator. His death occurred in 1886; that of his wife in 1870. Of their six children only two are now living: Colonel George W. Steele and Asbury E. Steele, an attorney of Marion.

Col. George W. Steele received his education in the common schools of Marion and had collegiate advantages in the Ohio Wesleyan University. At an early date he took up the study of law and after being admitted to practice, opened an office in Hartford City, this state, on April 11, 1861. Two days later Fort Sumter was fired upon and after eight days in his new office he closed it and rode horse-back across country to Marion and enlisted in a company which was organized in this city for the Eighth Indiana Regiment of Infantry. He was not mustered into that company, however, having gotten his name upon the roll too late, but with others formed a nucleus for a company which was mustered into the Twelfth Indiana Infantry on May 2, 1861, he being commissioned a First Lieutenant. This regiment was stationed at Evansville until July 18, 1861, at which date it was ordered to Wash- ington in order to take part in the campaign which terminated in the battle of Bull Run. The regiment failed to reach the field in time to participate in that first great disastrous battle to the Federal army, and during the following winter of 1861-62 it was engaged in picket duty, the camp of his company being near Antietam Aqueduct, Maryland. In March, 1862, the Twelfth Indiana was among the advanced troops in the forces that drove the Rebels out of Winchester, Virginia.

When the stated term of service for the regiment had expired it returned to Indianapolis, via Washington, D. C., to be mustered out,

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and arrived in Washington the night after the first day's battle at Fair Oaks, Virginia, in May, 1862. The following morning's paper gave vivid account of the severe reverses suffered by General McClellan and his troops, and this news produced such an impression upon the regiment that it at once marched to the White House and offered its services without compensation, to President Lincoln. This prompt action in the face of great national danger was greeted with many com- pliments by the President, who said he believed the battle would be over before the regiment could reach the field, and advised the officers and men to return to their homes and resume their respective avoca- tions in life.

In August, 1862, Col. Steele organized a company for the One Hun- dred and First Indiana Infantry, was elected captain, and at once with the regiment was transported to Newport, Kentucky, to meet the forces of Bragg which were then threatening to cross the Ohio River. The Company took active part in the campaign which forced Generals Bragg and Early to countermarch. The Union Army under General Buell overtook the Confederate Army at Perryville in October, 1862, where a fierce battle, in which the One Hundred and First Indiana partici- pated, ended in favor of the Union cause, the Confederates under Gen- eral Bragg retreating. There were many other engagements, especially skirmishes in which the One Hundred and First Indiana actively par- ticipated, until Murfreesboro was reached, when another great battle, one of the greatest of the war, was fought. The Union Army, being victorious, remained in and near to Murfreesboro until in June, 1863. On February 8, 1863, the major of the regiment having resigned, although there were eight captains who ranked Captain Steele, he was commis- sioned major, on account of a petition signed by every officer of the regiment present, save one captain who ranked him. He has a copy of this petition, prizing it very highly. Commissary supplies having to be brought over a long single line of railroad, harassed by the enemy, made foraging necessary. On one of these foraging expeditions a division of General Morgan's Cavalry followed a brigade commanded by General Hall, to which the One Hundred and First Indiana belonged. This regiment was thrown out to offer as much resistance as possible to Morgan's command, while three regiments and a battery of artillery, the Nineteenth Indiana, parked the loaded train they had, and took position. This the regiment did successfully, two companies of skir- mishers under the command of Major Steele performing especially active and efficient service, and as evidence that the regiment was where the most severe fighting occurred, is the fact that seven-eighths of the men killed and wounded belonged to the One Hundred and First Indiana. The enemy tried for six or seven hours to drive the brigade from its position, but finally withdrew, leaving a hundred and eighty dead and wounded on the field.

On May 31, 1863, the Colonel of the regiment having resigned, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Doan was commissioned Colonel and Major Steele Lieutenant Colonel, but on account of active service and inacces- sibility to mails and mustering officers, they served without mustering until the close of the war.

The regiment was in all of the campaigns and battles in which the troops of its brigade were engaged to Chattanooga, including the battle of Chickamauga; at Missionary Ridge; the ninety days' campaign includ- ing the fall of Atlanta, all the time under fire or within hearing of fire, the march after Hood into Alabama; then back to Atlanta, and to the Sea, through the Carolinas, the battles of Smithfield and Benton- . ville; after the surrender of Lee's army, marching to Richmond and to

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Washington; thence by railroad and steamboats to Louisville, arriving the latter part of June, 1865, whence they had started the latter part of September, 1862. On the Campaign to the Sea, Colonel Steele was in charge of a battalion of foragers that for efficiency and good luck was not excelled by any other organized body of nearly the same strength.

After the war he tried the grocery business, it only taking him a very few days to ascertain that the business was too large for him. On account of which he sold out and started as a "boomer" in Kansas City, Missouri. Was surprised at the limited success he had. Returning to Marion, he married Marietta E. Swayzee, a daughter of one of the oldest and most respected families of Grant county. Shortly after- wards he accepted a commission as First Lieutenant in the Fourteenth United States Infantry and was ordered to California, going to New York, thence to Aspinwall, now Colon, crossing the Isthmus of Panama, thence to San Francisco by Pacific liner, and to San Pedro, and by ambulance to their new home at Camp Grant, arriving within two days of a year after the date of their marriage, where they lived for several months in an adobe house with two small rooms, dirt floor, dirt roof, and canvas windows; the Apaches being so hostile it was entirely unsafe to go out of the camp without an escort. Colonel Steele was later made regimental quartermaster; then depot quartermaster. The regiment was ordered East, with headquarters at Nashville, Tennessee, where a daughter, Marietta V., was born. The Indians on the Upper Missouri becoming troublesome, the regiment was ordered to Fort Randall, and thence to Fort Thompson, and after securing tranquility, to Fort Sedgwick as headquarters, the regiment scattering, some of the companies remaining at this post, others going to Sidney, Fort D. A. Russell, Fort Fetterman, and to Laramie, where the headquarters of the regiment moved on account of trouble with the Sioux Indians. Colonel Steele was not only quartermaster of the regiment and depot quartermaster, but was made commissary, looking after not only the supplying and distribution of supplies for the troops at Laramie and Fetterman, but supplying nine thousand five hundred Indians with rations for several months.

He resigned from the Army after ten years' service, becoming a successful pork packer in Marion, and he yet wonders how it happened that he was able to borrow all of the great amount of money that was necessary to run such an establishment, without being able to pay for the completion of the building or having a dollar of capital, obtaining all he needed on his checks alone.

In 1878, having political aspirations, he made the race for nomina- tion to Congress on the Republican ticket. The congressional district, composed of Grant, Madison, Delaware, Henry, Hancock, Shelby and Johnson counties, was strongly Democratic, which, the Colonel states, probably made it easy for him to get the endorsement of Grant county. The convention was held in Shelby county. Colonel Steele having gone to the army as a boy and only having returned a comparatively short time, all of which was occupied in business, he had few acquaintances throughout the district. Nevertheless his Grant county friends nearly secured his nomination ; he only losing by a vote and a half, Colonel Gross defeating him. In 1879 George W. Steele, Jr., was born. In 1880, the district being changed to take in Grant, Howard, Miami, Wabash, Wells, Adams, Jay and Blackford counties, Colonel Steele was nominated and elected to the Forty-seventh Congress by a plurality of 533. Was reelected in 1882 by a plurality of 333; again in 1884, by a plurality of 54, and again in 1886 by a plurality of 408. Howard county being taken out of the district and giving twice the plurality he had had at

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any time, caused his defeat by 400 in 1888. He was out of Congress for six years. He helped to organize the First National Bank of Marion and became its president in 1890. During the same year, on account of the insistence of President Harrison, and because he did not think he was much of a banker, he accepted the governorship of Oklahoma Territory, with the distinct understanding that it was only to be a temporary appointment, on account of desiring to go into business. He found the Territory with county seats without county boundaries; the authority of the military removed on account of the civil act organizing the territory. There were no other officers in the territory save the commissioner, and receiver of the land office and the United States marshal; the United States district judges and the secretary of state arrived shortly afterwards. County boundaries were made by the Governor and the only change asked was by one county, that two town- ships that had been given to it be added to another, hoping and expect- ing that the Cherokee Strip between Oklahoma and Kansas would be opened, when additional territory might be added to this (Stillwater) county. In this they were right. Enumeration of the population was provided for, and officers appointed, from treasurer of state to road supervisors and constables, the applicants for office or their friends or both being asked to meet the Governor at the county seats and make application in person. The appointment of all these officers was made inside of ten days, and so far as he is aware no complaint was made that any of them were not honest and efficient. Apportionment of the population was made for legislative purposes; elections held, and the legislature assembled to enact or adopt laws for the government of the territory, the apportionment being entirely satisfactory to all political parties and so fair that it resulted, in a majority of only two in favor of the Republicans. The question of the location of the capital of the territory was one of the first that came up for consideration, and two Republicans from Oklahoma county agreed to give the organization to their rivals in consideration of their votes for the removal of the capital from Guthrie, the temporary seat of government, to Oklahoma City. This with other considerations entering into the matter before the vote was taken made the Governor feel it incumbent upon him to veto the bill, which he did, very much of course to the disappointment of not only the senators and members of Oklahoma County engineering the scheme, but to many of the good citizens of that county. Afterwards on account of prearrangement, the capital was voted for another county, and the bill again vetoed, the reasons for which being stated opening in the legislature by the Governor. The Capital question, however, was so disposed of during the incumbency of Governor Steele that it never gave any further trouble to the people of the territory, nor was it changed until after the territory became a state, when it was finally fixed at Oklahoma City. He found the people of the territory very poor on his arrival, and was able to secure from the National Treasury $44,000.00 in money with which to buy rations; secured competent men of unques- tioned integrity to expend the money, and arranged for the transporta- tion of the supplies to the points for distribution in the territory, without cost or loss to the poor people. In the fall of that year, on his assurance that he would do the best he could to see that wheat in kind was returned. if the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and Rock Island Railroads would deliver it to their agents and loan it to the farmers for seed, twenty thousand bushels were secured, and it was returned bushel for bushel. Thousands of people more than there were quarter-sections of land camped on government reservations, especially on the school lands, and arrangements were made by the Governor, through the Secretary of

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the Interior, for leasing these lands annually at the best price, payable in cash; giving preference to the lessee when future leases were to be made. This was the first arrangement of its kind, and resulted not only in giving homes to the people occupying these lands and improv- ing them for the use of the territory, but many thousand dollars were added to the school fund.

After remaining nineteen months as Governor, instead of five or six as he first expected, he resigned, coming back to Marion, in the mean- time being offered an important position : that of Government Director of the Union Pacific Railroad. Notwithstanding its good salary he felt like returning home. Shortly thereafter he with others purchased a large tract of land near Marion, and became a director in what was known as the Wanamaker Land Company, which did not disappear from the map, but only because it was all paid for. It is just now worth as much as it cost in 1892.

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 27

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1034