USA > Indiana > Rush County > Centennial history of Rush County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 11
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Although in his earlier life Mr. Morton had been a Democrat, he was elected on the Republican ticket, and then for two terms as governor, during the trying Civil war days, he distinguished himself as an executive. It was while he was governor of the state that he became partially paralyzed, and ever thereafter was forced to go abont in a wheel-chair. In 1868, he was elected to the United States Senate, and ahnost immediately was recog- nized as perhaps the ablest man in the upper house of Congress. He was returned for a second term, but before the expiration of this, the fighting career of Oliver Perry Morton was brought to a close, his death occurring at his home in Indianapolis on November 1, 1877.
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Thomas A. Hendricks, later vice-president of the United States; Judge Jeremiah M. Wilson, who later became one of the leading lawyers of the country while practicing at Washington ; and others of renown have at one time or other practiced in this county.
ROSTER OF THE RUSH CIRCUIT BAR
The present (1921) active members of the bar of the Rush Circuit Court are J. Thomas Arbuckle, Howard E. Barrett, Anna L. Bohannon, George W. Campbell, Chauncey W. Duncan, Abraham L. Gary, Thomas M. Green, Frank J. Hall, Samuel L. Innis, John F. Joyce, Gates Ketchum, John D. Megee, Benjamin F. Miller, Wallace G. Morgan, Douglas Morris, Hannah S. Morris, William L. Newbold, Donald L. Smith, John Q. Thomas, Jolin A. Titsworth, Samuel L. Trabue, George W. Young and James V. Young.
In Chronological Order-In the order of their admis- sion the following lawyers who resided in this county at the time of admission have practiced at the bar of the Rush Circuit Court: Hiram M. Curry, admitted in 1822; Charles H. Test, 1822; Charles H. Veeder, 1822; William J. Brown, 1830; John McPike, 1831; John Alley, 1831; George B. Tingley, 1835; Samuel Bigger, 1835; Finley Bigger, 1836; Robert S. Cox, 1836; Pleasant A. Hackle- man, 1837; A. W. Hubbard, 1840; Phineas Cassady, 1840; Reuben D. Logan, 1843, George C. Clark, 1844; Leonidas Sexton, 1847; Robert S. Sproull, 1847; Benjamin F. Johnson, 1849; W. Robinson, 1849; Lewis H. Thomas, 1852; Thomas C. Galpin, 1856; Samuel B. Garrett, 1856; Ben L. Smith, 1857; William A. Cullen, 1857; William Cassady, 1857; Isaac H. Stewart, 1858; William O. Sexton, 1858; Rodman Davis, 1859; William H. Pugh, 1859; Jefferson Helm, Jr., 1859; John R. Mitchell, 1863; George B. Sleeth, 1866; Alexander B. Campbell, 1866; Hugh M. Spalding, 1866; Davis S. Morgan, 1867; George W. Bates, 1867; George H. Puntenney, 1867; Frank J.
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Hall. 1869: Sammel F. King, 1869: A. Smith Folger, 1870; John W. Study. 1870; Levi W. Study, 1870: Jesse J. Spann, 1871: Thomas Poe, 1871: John Q. Thomas, 1871 ; A. B. Irvin. 1871 : David W. McKee, 1872; George W. Young. 1872: Claude Cambern, 1874; Albert Irvin. 1874: O. Spencer Moore, 1874: James W. Brown, 1875; Thomas M. Green, 1875; John D. Megee, 1876; Thomas J. Newkirk, 1876; William A. Posey, 1880; Wesley S. Morris. 1880; George W. Campbell, 1880; Gates Sexton. 1881 ; U. D. Cole, 1881 : Frank P. Kennedy, 1881 ; Thomas A. Smith, 1882: Samuel H. Spooner, 1882; William J. Henley, 1883: James W. Tucker, 1884; Thomas M. Ochiltree, 1884: Douglas Morris, 1885; Howard E. Barrett, 1885: Charles F. Kennedy, 1886: John F. Joyce, 1886: Benjamin F. Miller, 1886; Lot D. Guffin, 1887; Samuel L. Innis, 1887: John M. Stevens, 1893; Wallace G. Morgan, 1893: John A. Titsworth, 1893; James E. Watson, 1894; Samuel L. Trabue, 1894: Ned Aber- crombie. 1895: Donald L. Smith, 1895; Will M. Sparks, 1896: W. C. Bretz, 1896; Ora W. Herkless, 1896; John S. Abercrombie. 1897; James V. Young, 1898; Carl V. Nipp, 1898; JJames Thomas Arbuckle, 1899; William C. McColgin, 1900; William L. Newbold, 1902; John H. Kiplinger, 1902: Walter E. Smith, 1903; Chauncey W. Duncan, 1906; Edgar E. Hite, 1906; Dennis O'Neil, 1906; John S. Matthews, 1906; Abraham L. Gary, 1907; Gates Ketchum, 1916; Anna L. Bohannon, 1919; Hannah S. Morris, 1921.
CHAPTER VII
MILITARY ANNALS
The military annals of Rush county prior to the Civil war fail to show any separate organizations (barring meager references to the pioneer militia ) although a few of the residents of the county had participated in the Mexican war. It is recalled that the majority of the voters of the county were opposed to the administration that carried on that war and that local enthusiasm in that behalf was at most but lukewarm. However, on receipt of the news of the battle of Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, Nehemiah Hayden and Oliver C. Hackleman aroused a sufficient degree of patriotic fervor to recruit a company for service. They went to Indianapolis to get their company accepted, but found upon arrival that the required thirty companies from this state already had been filled. Captain Hayden enlisted in another unit, however, and went to the front, as did George B. Tingley and possibly a few others whom the older chronicles do not mention. Not a few of the pioneer settlers of Rush county had rendered service in the War of 1812 and there also were quite a number of the soldiers of the Revolution- ary war who spent their last days within the confines of this county, having joined their children or grandchildren among the pioneers of this section, and the graves of these latter, where known, have been marked by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
PEN PICTURE OF PIONEER MILITIA COMPANY
One of the most illuminating glimpses of the early davs hereabout that has been preserved among the numer- ous "reminiscences" of the pioneers is a narrative of Elijah Hackleman dealing as follows with the peaceful exploits of Col. William S. Bussell's "Light Horse Troop," a locally famous unit of the state militia in pio-
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neer days: "The drill grounds were on some of the newly made pasture lands of Jehu Perkins. In fancy's vision I vet see them entering the field of drill, with their dashing chief at their head, arraved in their bearskin caps, faced with red on each side, with long red plumes streaming in the air, their blue coats well tipped off with red and vel- low flashes, long swords at their sides, their fiery steeds prancing to the martial music and their silver-mounted saddles and holsters flashing in the sun. * I remem- ber on one occasion-the 11th of May, 1829-of seeing this company escort old Edward Swanson from the jail to the gallows in Rushville."
The short-lived Indian uprising known as the Black- hawk war in April, 1831, in which Abraham Lincoln served, gave the people of Rush county their first real war thrill. Unhappily, the five mounted companies called for as Indiana's quota in this war were filled before the news reached Rush county, but Colonel Bussell, Elihu Garrison, Harvey Hedrick and William Lower enlisted and on July 23 there was a gathering of citizens to see them off to war. Colonel Bussell died in 1822 in Georgia and Alfred Posey succeeded him as colonel of the Seventy- first Indiana militia regiment. The militia system was abandoned abont 1837 and an older chronicle relates that the last attempt to hold battalion drill was on Henry Armstrong's farm near New Salem. this narrative con- timing to relate that "out of 600 or 800 men enrolled only thirty or forty were in the ranks, and they without arms, although at that time every man in the county owned a rifle. Fully 1,000 people assembled as spectators. Col. John Tyner mounted a stump and with chapeau in hand thanked the battalion for former services and relieved the men from further duty."
THE CIVIL WAR
A contemporary account says that "nothing in Rush county has ever exceeded the excitement that followed the
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bombardment of Ft. Sumter. For nearly a week people in every walk of life abandoned their callings and congre- gated in groups about the towns and villages to learn the latest reports from the scene of conflict. The first news reached Rushville on Sunday morning, April 15, 1861. Those who were wending their way to their respective places of worship either turned aside to inquire further details or pursued their course with little thought of their religion. Perhaps a short prayer was breathed for the preservation of their common country and the main- tenance of the right."
Upon receipt of news of Lincoln's call for 75,000 men the disturbed people took new heart and on Wednesday evening a meeting was held at the court house, Col. Joseph Nichols presiding. Among the patriots who made stir- ring speeches at this meeting were Joel Wolfe and P. A. Hackleman, and resolutions were adopted pledging the county's support to the National Government. A num- ber of volunteers responded to the call for service at this meeting. On the following Saturday another meeting was addressed by Joseph J. Amos, William A. Cullen. William Cassady, P. A. Hackleman, Joel Wolfe and the Rev. James Havens and pledges were made that the fam- ilies of men who enlisted would be taken care of. Upon the call for volunteers ninety-three men enlisted, and a company was organized with the following officers : Captain, Joel Wolfe ; first lieutenant, Paul J. Beachbard; second lieutenant, Robert J. Price ; third lieutenant, John Fairley. This company proceeded to Indianapolis and was there encamped at the state fair ground when on Sunday, April 28, Miss India Hackleman, in behalf of the women of Rushville, presented the command with a silk flag. When accepted for service the company was reor- ganized, and went to the front as E Company of the Six- teenth Indiana regiment with the following officers: Captain, Paul J. Beachbard; lieutenants, John S. Grove and Silas D. Byram. P. A. Hackleman was commissioned
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colonel of the regiment and Joel Wolfe major, the former being promoted in time brigadier-general and the latter lieutenant-colonel.
On one of the panels of the beautiful soldiers' monu- ment in East Hill cemetery. Rushville, Rush county's service in the Civil war is briefly told in letters of stone. thus: "Rush county furnished for the war for the Union 2,385 soldiers. Complete companies-Infantry: Com- pany F. Sixteenth Indiana, one year: Companies C. G and H. Sixteenth Indiana, three years; Company K, Thirty-seventh Indiana, three years; Company G. Fifty- second Indiana, three years: Company H, Fifty-fourth Indiana, one year ; Company D, Sixty-eighth Indiana, three years : Company E, One Hundred and Twenty-third Indiana. three years. Cavalry: Company M. Ninth In- diana, three years. Artillery: Twenty-second Indiana battery, three years. The remainder enrolled in other companies and regiments."
The beautiful stone in East Hill cemetery commemo- rative of the deeds of the men from Rush county who took part in the war for the Union is the only soldiers' mon- mment in Indiana erected by a Grand Army post. On May 2. 1884, the comrades of JJoel Wolfe post. G. A. R .. held a campfire at Melodeon hall in Rushville to raise money to aid in the erection of a soldiers' momiment at the state capital. this having been before the state pro- vided for the erection of the present monument there. The sum of $300 was raised at this meeting and was for- warded to Indianapolis, but when this volunteer move- ment on the part of the old soldiers of the state fell through, the money was returned. and in March, 1885, the post appointed three trustees who kopt the money at eight per cent. interest for fifteen years, at the end of which time it had earned $754.06. making the fund amount to $1,054.06. With this sum in hand the post contracted with Sehrichte & Sons. of Rushville, who erected in East Hill a monument which has since been the
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pride of the whole county. The cost of this monument. including the soldier figure on top, was $1,350, and the balance required to take care of the cost was taken from the general fund of the post. This monument was un- veiled with appropriate ceremonies on October 16, 1900, in the presence of a large crowd.
ECHOES OF TREASON HEARD
It is the experience of our country that no war has ever been fought by the United States that the party in power was not opposed in its policies before, during, or after the war. It was thus in 1812, 1846, 1861, 1898 and in 1917. In a Government like ours it will always be so; but it was especially true during the Civil war. Dating back to the adoption of the constitution the question of slavery had been a serious problem presaging the "irre- pressible conflict" and ending in secession and the sub- jugation of the South with the end of slavery.
Oliver P. Morton had succeeded to the governorship of Indiana, and well for the credit of the state, and the welfare of the Union, for a man of another type might have permitted a rebel wedge to be driven through the North to Lake Michigan, and as it was it took all the loval strength of Ohio and Illinois and the indomitable cour- age of Morton to prevent the formation of a Northwest- ern confederacy. Treason, headed by Vallandigham in Ohio and spreading westward through Indiana, Illinois and Missouri with oathbound organizations, for a while threatened the safety of the Union. In 1863, a legislature opposed to the governor met at Indianapolis and after refusing to receive the governor's message sought to shear him of all his war power and create a military board. To prevent this the loyal members of the legis- lature left the hall and city, thus destroying a quorum. No appropriation bill was passed and the state institu- tions, the state arsenal, the state militia and all other public essentials were left to perish. But Morton rose to
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the occasion and succeeded A loyal house in New York advanced the money and the state's credit was preserved.
Harrison H. Dodd. grand commander of the Sons of Liberty in Indiana. was tried and convicted of treason, but with the aid of friends and a rope escaped from a room where he slept and made his way to Canada. Bowles, Milligan, Horsey, and Humphrey were tried and convicted (the first three sentenced to death, the latter to life imprisonment), but General Hovey remitted the sen- tence to a short time in his own county jail, while Gover- nor Morton interceded with President Johnson and Bowles, Milligan, and Horsey were sentenced for life at Columbus, Ohio. penitentiary, but later, under Johnson's amnesty proclamation allowed to return home.
These incidents may seem foreign to a county history were it not for the fact that Rush county was only an integral part of the state and the conditions here were similar to those in other parts of the state. On June 10. 1863. Hon. J. Frank Stevens, ex-senator from Decatur county, while acting as assistant enrolling officer in Walker township, this county, was shot and killed, while Craveraft, enrolling officer, was mortally wounded by unknown assassins about three miles southeast of Homer.
A Rushville newspaper had warned all draft offi- cers "to insure their lives, " showing a knowledge of dis- loval and treasonable designs, while a convention held at Rushville on January 31, 1863, resolved "That we are opposed to the further prosecution of this abolition war, and believing that in its continued prosecution there awaits ns only the murderous sacrifice of legions of brave men, ignominious defeat, shame and dishonor We are for peace."
All this, too, after Indiana had sent nearly a hundred regiments to the front, and her soldiers had won imper- ishable renown on a hundred battle fields. June 3, 1861, at Phillippi. Va., twenty-seven Rush county men of Company E. Seventh Indiana, with other troops fought
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and won the first battle of the Civil war and one survivor of Company F, Thirty-fourth Indiana (Daniel Kinney), fought at Palmetto Ranche, Texas, May 13, 1865, the last battle of the war.
THE COUNTY'S RECORD IN THE WAR
Beginning with the Seventh regiment, Rush county was represented in twenty-six regiments. Company F, Sixteenth regiment (one year), was officered by Col. P. A. Hackleman (afterward brigadier-general, killed at Corinth, Miss., October 3, 1862), Lieutenant Colonel Joel Wolfe, Captain Paul J. Beachbard, Lieutenants John L. Groves, Silas D. Byram, with ninety-six privates. The Sixteenth Indiana was reorganized as a three-year reg- iment and Companies C, G, and H were principally from Rush county. Company C was officered by Lieutenant Colonel Joel Wolfe (killed at Richmond, Ky., August 30, 1862, and the whole regiment taken prisoners), Major James M. Hildreth, Quartermaster Henry B. Hill, Sur- geon John C. Cullen, Assistant Surgeon John H. Spur- rier, Captains Paul J. Beachbard and Wm. A. Ingold, Lieutenants D. C. Barnard, G. W. Marsh, I. N. Wester- field and R. S. Davis, with 117 privates. Company G., Six- teenth regiment officered by Capt. Aaron McFeely, Lieutenants Isaac Steele, W. L. Peckham, T. M. Bundy, and James Steele, with 126 privates, twenty-four of whom were transferred to the Thirteenth cavalry. Com- pany H, Sixteenth regiment, officered by Capt. Elijah J. Waddell, Lieuts. James G. Glore, J. C. Ellis, and J. M. Huston, with eighty-one privates. Rush county was well represented in the ranks in the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-fourth, and Thirty-sixth regiments. Company K, Thirty-seventh regiment was a Rush county command, officered by Captains John McKee, and John B. Reeve, Lieutenants Wm. R. Hunt, Isaac Abernathy (killed at Stone River, December 31, 1862), and John
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Patton (died February 13, 1863, from wounds received at Stone River), Assistant Surgeon Jefferson Helm, with eighty-four privates. The Thirty-ninth and Fifty-first regiments represented Rush county.
The Fifty-second regiment was commanded by Col. E. H. Wolfe (afterward brevet brigadier-general), Lieu- tenant Colonel Wm. C. MeReynolds; Quartermaster W. H. Smith; Surgeons Marshall Sexton and James W. Martin. Company G, of this regiment, was captained by Joseph McCorkle and Ross Guffin, Lieutenants C. M. Ferree, Theo. Wilkes, James H. Wright, W. S. Conde, and H. S. Carney (the last two being the only living com- missioned officers of Rush county), with seventy-three privates.
In Company H. of the Fifty-second regiment, were thirty-four privates from this county but no officers. Company H, Fifty-fourth regiment, was captained by John H. Ferree, Lieutenants John W. Mauzy, and Wm. M. Brooks, with thirty-five privates. Capt. Nathan Pat- ton commanded Company 1. Sixty-eighth regiment, with twenty-two privates. Company D, Sixty-eighth reg- iment was officered by Major James W. Innis, Captain James H. Mauzy and Lieutenants Wm. Beale, Deliscus Lingenfelter and D. S. Thomas, with sixty-five privates. Company 1, Eighty-fourth regiment, had thirty-three privates and Company F six privates from Rush county, with no officers. The One Hundred and Eleventh regi- ment (minute men) was commanded by Captain James S. Hibben and Lieutenant Henry Dixon, with fifty-nine privates. The One Hundred and Twenty-first regiment. (Ninth cavalry) was officered by Captains James Frazee and John W. Jack, Lieutenants N. F. Leisure and Alex B. Harris, of Companies E, F and M, had 133 privates. This regiment lost fifty-five men in the explosion of the Sultana, April 26, 1865. The One Hundred and Twenty- third regiment was officered by Lieutenant Colonel W. A. Cullen and Surgeon John H. Spurrier (regimental offi-
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cers), while Company E was captained by Franklin Swain (died of wounds August 23, 1864), and John Flee- hart; Lieutenants L. P. Aldridge, Oliver Richey, J. W. Tompkins, E. T. Allen, and Wm. J. Allen, with eighty privates. Rush county men were also in Companies B, H, I, and K of this regiment. Company K, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth regiment (one hundred-day men), Captain Jos. R. Silver and Lieutenant Albert C. Walton, with thirty-one privates.
The One Hundred and Forty-sixth and One Hun- dred and Forty-eighth were represented also. The Twen- ty-second battery, light artillery, was commanded by Captains B. F. Denning (killed in action at Kenesaw Mountain), and Edward Nicholson; Lieutenants James N. Scott, James W. Williamson, Alonzo Swain, George W. Alexander and M. E. Muse, with 168 privates. The One Hundred and Thirty-first regiment (thirteenth cav- alry) had thirty-three privates, but no officers. The Twenty-eighth United States (colored) represented the county with four privates. In addition to the above units the county is credited with 101 enlistments in other organizations.
DISTINGUISHED RECORD OF SERVICE
The troops of no other state were scattered so widely as Indiana troops; they having been engaged in 308 sep- arate conflicts and fought in seventeen different states In every one of these states from Virginia to Texas sleeps an Indiana soldier, and in most of them one from Rush county. At Atlanta, Indiana had forty-six regiments and nine batteries, Rush county represented by two regiments and one battery ; at Corinth, twenty-four regiments and eight batteries, Rush county represented by three reg- iments; at Chickamauga, twenty-nine regiments and eight batteries, Rush county by three regiments; at Franklin, twenty-one regiments and one battery, Rush county by three regiments ; at Gettysburg, six regiments,
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Rush county by three: Kenesaw Mountain, forty-seven regiments and one battery, Rush county by five reg- iments ; at Nashville, thirty regiments and nine batteries, Rush county by seven regiments; at Resaca, forty-one regiments and nine batteries, Rush county by four reg- iments; at Stone River, twenty-six regiments and five batteries, Rush county by five regiments; at Vicksburg, twenty-four regiments and one battery, Rush county by three regiments.
The records show the death loss in the field of Rush county troops to have been 178, but the total deaths during and growing out of service was not far from four hun- dred. Many men who were discharged for disability or wounds died at home, and this does not show on the re- ports of Adjutant Terrill. the post-war records of some 50,000 Indiana soldiers being missing.
Rush county furnished two brigadier-generals; Pleasant A. Hackleman and E. H. Wolfe (brevet), and Hackleman was the only man of that rank from Indiana to be killed in action. Lieutenant-Colonel Joel Wolfe was killed in action at Richmond, Ky., August 30, 1862, and Captain B. F. Denning was wounded at Kenesaw Moun- tain on June 26, 1864, and died July 3, 1864. So far as is known, these three men were the only commissioned offi- cers from Rush county to be killed in action.
The whole number of soldiers of the Civil war still living in Rush county, as reported by the Grand Army of the Republic at their last enumeration, was eighty-seven, and this number inehides Union soldiers from all states now resident in the county.
STORY OF BOUNTIES AND DRAFT
Every county in the state issued bonds to pay boun- fies to volunteers, after the beginning of 1863, as prior to that time the Government bounties of $100 had been suf- ficient to secure enlistments. Up to this time Indiana was far in excess of her quota under previous calls, but
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the drain on her industrial resources was such that in many counties the issuance of bonds became a necessity and were issued and paid in varying amounts from Starke county with $2,719 to Marion county with $1,337,199, or a total for the state of $15,492,876.00.
To avoid the draft many townships offered large bounties, which served to fill the quotas, but failed to strengthen the army, as hordes of the worst class of men from all over the world, deserters from the rebel army, and thieves and pickpockets from everywhere thronged the recruiting stations, enlisted, were mustered in, re- ceived their bounties, clothing and advance pay, only to cast aside their uniforms in a few hours and play the same game at some other recruiting station. This became intolerable, so much so that Colonel Warner, Seven- teenth regiment V. R. C., commanding the Indianapolis post, determined to break it up. A large prison, well guarded, was prepared and as they were rounded up they were manacled together in squads, and sent to the front. only again to desert, many joining the rebel army or guerrilla bands. After trial by court-martial at Camp Morton three convicted "bounty jumpers" were publicly shot on the parade grounds, and this served in great measure to lessen the evil.
Rush county paid in bounty $124,000
Rush county paid in relief . 18,099
Rush county paid in miscellaneous 600
Ripley township paid in bounty 13,300
Posey township paid in bounty 11.250
Walker township paid in bounty 6,400
Orange township paid in bounty 8,755
Anderson township paid in bounty 15,600
Rushville (including Jackson twp.) 6,000
Center township paid in bounty. 9,350
Washington township paid in bounty. 8,450
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