USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Early reminiscences of Indianapolis, with short biographical sketches of its early citizens, and a few of the prominent business men of the present day > Part 16
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It was during the time he was postmaster, and through his
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exertions, that this was made a distributing office, and also the express mail from Washington and Baltimore via the Na- tional Road through this place was established by Amos Ken- dall, then Postmaster General.
After he had quit the post office the second time he en- gaged in merchandising, but, owing to dishonest clerks and a temperament not suited to the business, he was not successful.
At that time he owned some very valuable city property, as well as the farm now owned by Calvin Fletcher, Jr., ad- joining the city on the Pendleton road ; he also owned the ground where that elegant dry goods mart, Trade Palace, is located, and many other pieces of city property, which would now make him very wealthy.
About the year 1847 he sold out his entire property and removed to one of the lower Ohio River counties in Kentucky, bought a farm and mill, and commenced merchandising again. His farm was stocked with negroes, and although he was raised in a slave State he did not understand the managing of them ; he thought, in order to keep them under subjection, it was necessary to flog them occasoinally, whether they needed it or not, to give them a proper appreciation of their true sit- uation and his authority. In consequence of this rigorous course the negroes set fire to his mill and store, and almost burned him out of house and home. He then, with his fam- ily, returned to Indianapolis, and for awhile kept the Capital House, which was noted for its fine table, for he had ever been a good liver and a bountiful provider for the culinary depart- ment of his family ; in living he never exercised any economy.
In 1853 he was appointed by President Pierce Indian Agent for Washington Territory, and with his eldest son, Andrew J. Cain, went there and remained some years, and somewhat recuperated his damaged fortune, and returned to his family and remained until his death in 1867. He died very suddenly and unexpected to his family.
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James M. Smith.
John Cain was a generous, warm-hearted man, devoted in his friendship, but equally bitter to his enemies; there was no duplicity or deceit in his composition ; there was no mis- taking his position on any subject; he never practiced dis- simulation in any way ; this, if a fault, was his greatest one, and he sometimes made an enemy by his plain, blunt manner of speaking.
As a husband and father he was ever kind and indulgent, and a bountiful provider for the various wants of a family. When I say no more hospitable man in his house ever lived or died in this city, I speak of personal experience of forty- one years, and of which many of the recipients yet living will testify.
He had a very good command of language, and possessed fine conversational powers. In person he was about five feet eight inches in height, a rotund form, inclined to corpulency, and a florid complexion ; in movement very quick and active for a person of his build.
Mrs. Cain is yet living, and a resident of the city, and, un- like most ladies, thinks the place of her husband can never be filled on this side the grave. As she was ever a devoted wife, so she is a weeping widow.
JAMES M. SMITH
Was a tailor by trade, a very clever man, but when drinking was quite overbearing and quarrelsome. He was a large, pow- erful man, without any surplus flesh. Mr. Smith was fond of a fight, but it was intimated that he liked to select his antag- onist. When drinking he stood upon his dignity, and some- times refused to recognize his best and most intimate friends, unless there was a chance for a quarrel.
About the year 1835 there was a Kentuckian, named Na- thaniel Vice, who lived a few miles south of town. IIe was not so large a man as Smith, but more active: he was built
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like, and as fleet of foot as a deer; he was never beat in a foot race, was never thrown in a wrestle, nor was he ever whipped in a fight. His success in the latter amusement was attributable as much to his activity as to his strength. He used a great deal of language found in the Kentucky vocabu- lary only ; in disposition he was something like Smith, i. e., quarrelsome when drinking, but, unlike him, he was willing to fight any person and under any circumstances.
One evening those two gentlemen met in front of Morely's saloon, that stood opposite the Court House, on Washington street. "Good evening, Mr. Smith," said Vice. "I don't know you," said Smith. " Ah, sir, you don't know Nat Vice, the great boa constrictor of the Universe; then I will intro- duce you to him." Simultaneous with these words Nat knocked him into the gutter, and then helped him up, took him into the saloon and they drank together as acquaintances, and Mr. Smith always recognized him as such afterwards.
In the year 1844 Mr. Smith went from his shop to his resi- dence at the usual time in the evening, in apparent very good health, and died within half an hour after he reached his house, supposed to be of disease of the heart.
The last I ever saw or heard of Nat Vice was on the levee at New Orleans. He was offering to bet he could out run, throw down, or whip any man in the Mississippi Valley, and I believe he would have won his bet.
JAMES MORRISON.
It is when I attempt to write a fitting tribute to the mem- ory of such a man as Judge Morrison, that I feel the magni- tude of the task I have undertaken, and my incompetency to hand down to posterity and future generations, that they may have a proper appreciation of his great legal ability, and his many moral and social virtues.
My acquaintance with Judge Morrison began when I was a
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James Morrison.
boy, and before he had reached the noonday of life. Forty years ago I was often his fishing companion upon the banks of White River and Fall Creek, he angling for the fine black bass with which those streams abounded at that time, and I for the tiny minnow he used for bait.
He was a great smoker, and carried a tinder-box for the purpose of lighting his cigars (this was before such a thing as locofoco matches was thought of). I have often been at- tracted to his place of concealment on the banks of these streams by the clatter of his tinder-box, or the curling smoke from his fragrant Hlavana, rising above the bushes. This was when the vanities and sorry conceits of the world were stran- gers to me, and when my youthful spirit had known but little of the evils of this inconstant world. It was upon the banks of these streams that I learned much of the true dignity of char- acter he possessed, and before either of us thought we would ever bear the relation of attorney and client to each other, which we did for years afterwards.
Although my hair is now silvered o'er, and my brow bears the marks of time, I have not outlived the memory of those happy days in the early history of this city ; the days of so much enjoyment that I passed when a boy, and the reflection of whose pleasures linger with me yet.
In the "Indianapolis Journal " of the 22d of March, 1869, I find the following announcement of his demise :
" The early settlers of the State, and the founders of our city, are dropping off in such close succession that we are warned of the near approach of the time when all shall have passed away, and the birth of Indianapolis have ceased to be a memory to any, and faded into history. Since the begin- ning of the year two have left us, and in the last decade they far outnumber the years. We cannot think but with profound sorrow of the inevitable hours when all the names so long identified with our prosperity and honored as the links that
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still bind the present to the past, have ceased to speak a liv- ing presence, and to offer a living example of beauty, of good- ness, and a well spent life.
" Among all that have left such sad vacancies, no one has filled a more prominent place than the Hon. James Morrison ; though for some years his failing strength and feeble health have secluded him from active life, his presence has been felt, his existence has been an influence, and his death is not so much the end of a flickering light as the extinguishment of a gleam that leaves darkness in its place.
" He died on Saturday evening, the 20th Instant, of pneu- monia, after an illness of several days."
From the " Indianapolis Sentinel," of the same date, I copy as follows :
" Judge Morrison was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, the birth place of Robert Burns, in the year 1796. His parents came to this country when he was quite young, and settled at Bath, in Western New York. He studied his profession with Judge William B. Rochester, a distinguished jurist of that State, and when admitted to the bar he emigrated to Indiana and located in Charleston, Clark County, where he practiced law for many years with the late Judge Dewey, who was one of the truly great men of the nation.
"He remained in Charleston about ten years, and a gentle- man who knew him during his residence there, says his devo- tion to his family (he was the oldest son) was most remarka- ble, and that he was their main reliance.
"In the winter of 1828-29, he was elected Secretary of State by the Legislature, and removed to this city, then a town of 1,100 inhabitants, January 1st, 1829. Subsequently he filled the offices of Judge of this Judicial Circuit, President of the State Bank for ten years, succeeding Samuel Merrill, Esq., Attorney General, the first to fill that office, and other trusts of less importance. So high an appreciation had the
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James Morrison.
members of the bar for his qualifications for the judgeship, that they presented him with five hundred dollars to induce him to take it.
" Of the Clark County bar he leaves but two survivors, we believe, Judge Thompson, now in the city, and Judge Nay- lor, of Crawfordsville.
" Of the Indianapolis bar of 1829, the year he became con- nected with it, he was, as we recollect, the last, not one now left. Harvey Gregg, William Quarles, Hiram Brown, Henry P. Coburn, B. F. Morris, Andrew Ingram, Samuel Merrill, Calvin Fletcher and William W. Wick, who were his associ- ates then, all passed away before he was called to his final rest.
" As we call the familiar names of those so prominent in the early history of the bar of Indianapolis, the convulsive throbs of many hearts will attest their worth and the appre- ciation with which their memories are still cherished. Yet the sadness with which we recur to the ties of early associa- tions, and the early friendship of the past thus severed, will give place to the ehcering thought that those endearing ties will he renewed, refined and strengthened in the new life upon which they have already entered.
"Judge Morrison was also identified with the history of the church in this city ; he was one of the first class that was confirmed here about thirty years ago, and the rite was admin- istered by the now venerable Bishop Kemper, of Wisconsin, who was then Missionary Bishop of the Northwest. For twenty-five years he was Senior Warden of Christ Church, in this city, and since the organization of St. Paul's Church he has filled the same office in that parish. He was educated a Presbyterian, but became a Churchman after thorough inves- tigation, and remained so with steadfastness through life.
"Judge Morrison was a man of decided convictions, strong prejudices, with fixed habits that only physical inability could
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Early Reminiscences.
change or overcome. He had opinions upon all subjects and questions to which his attention was directed, and, as would be expected from his peculiar mental organization, they were always positive even to ultraism. He was thoroughly a law- yer. His eminent talents and active mind were peculiarly adapted to the profession in which he attained such high rep- utation, only yielding active participation in it when compelled to surrender to the great enemy of man. He was learned and profound, and had thoroughly mastered the science of law.
" As a husband and father Judge Morrison was affectionate, devoted and indulgent, and he leaves a wife, sons and daugh- ters who will, through life, cherish the memory of his many virtues and unfailing affection and kindness."
I cannot add more than I have said in the beginning of this sketch, and what is said in these extracts from the "Journal " and " Sentinel," announcing his death.
" Friend after friend departs ; Who hath not lost a friend ? There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end."
WILLIAM H. MORRISON,
The younger and only surviver of three brothers so promi- nent in the early history of this city, was born in the city of New York. When a boy he came with his elder brother, the late Judge James Morrison (who was the subject of the pre- ceding sketch), to Charleston, Indiana, where he remained un- til his brother's election as Secretary of State and removal to this place in the year 1829. He was then quite young and a single man, and has remained a citizen since that time.
His first business, after acting for some time as his brother's clerk in the office of Secretary of State, was that of merchan- dising in connection with John G. Brown, then one of our prominent and wealthy citizens. Their house of business was on the northwest corner of Washington and Pennsylvania
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William H. Morrison.
streets, where for several years he was a successful and popu- lar merchant, enjoying the confidence of all who knew him. During this time he was a stockholder in and a director of the branch of the State Bank of Indiana in this city.
He possesses many of the fine traits of character so con- spicuous in his brother, Judge Morrison. Warm and devoted in his friendship ; and when the citadel of his heart is once gained and possessed by a friend, no effort of enemies can change it. He is also strong in his prejudices ; but if he finds himself in the wrong he is quick to make the amende honor- able, and set himself aright. He never suffers selfish or grov- eling feelings to mar the cordiality of affection or interfere with motives so upright and honorable.
Like his brother, he has contributed liberally, and without stint, of his means for the erection of churches of all denom- inations, and especially for the construction of those two beau- tiful temples of worship, Christ's and St. Paul's Episcopal Churches. I understand his house has been the home and stopping-place for ministers for several years.
Mr. Morrison has also contributed to the growth and pros- perity of the city by the erection of a fine residence on Cirele street. He also built that splendid business house on the northeast corner of Maryland and Meridian streets, known as '. Morrison's Opera House," at a cost of $65,000; but this fine building was doomed to destruction, and it was entirely destroyed by fire on the evening of January 17th, 1870, tak- ing fire about 9 o'clock, and while John B. Gough was lee- turing to a large and fashionable audience within its walls.
The smoke had scarcely disappeared from the smouldering debris before he had, with his accustomed energy, contracted for the rebuilding on the same site another fine business house. He is now President of the "Indiana Banking Company." I called at the bank a few days since and found him at his desk, giving to his business the same attention as was his wont
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to do some thirty years ago, and with the same dignified and courteous deportment so characteristic of him.
MAJOR ALEXANDER F. MORRISON,
The brother of Judge and William H. Morrison, was born in New York city, but with his brothers came to Charleston, In- diana, in the year 1818. He there learned the printing busi- ness. In the Legislature that convened on the first Monday of December, 1830, he represented Clark County, and while here made arrangements to commence in the spring the pub- lication of a weekly paper, to be called the " Indiana Demo- crat." In accordance with this arrangement Mr. Morrison, with his family, removed to this place early in the spring of 1831.
The " Democrat " was started in the interest of and sup- ported General Jackson for re-election to the Presidency. Mr. Morrison was a ready political writer, and made the "Demo- crat" a spicy paper. Its editorials would compare favorably with those of the city papers of the present day. He was very bitter toward his opponents, and his articles sometimes read as though he had dipped his pen in gall.
He was engaged from time to time in various kinds of bu- siness here during his life. He was one of the " bloody three hundred " that in 1832 went out to meet Black Hawk, but all returned without any other than their own scalps.
During the Mexican war he was a quartermaster in the army, and it was while there his already feeble constitution was greatly impaired. I do not think he ever experienced a well day after his return. His eyes, that were naturally weak, were almost entirely destroyed.
Mr. Morrison was a very kind, generous-hearted man to his friends, but very bitter to his enemies, or those he had rea- son to believe were such. In his social relations and inter- course with his neighbors, he was deservedly popular, and a
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Ebenezer Sharpe.
very hospitable man. As a husband and father, he was de- voted and indulgent, anticipating every want of his family.
Mr. Morrison leaves two sons, Will. Alex. and Charles, and also two daughters, Mrs. Allison and Mrs. Murphy, who, to- gether with their mother, yet reside in the city.
Major Morrison died in December, 1857, at the age of fifty- four, regretted by many old friends and acquaintance.
" Unfading hope, when life's last embers burn, When soul to soul, and dust to dust return."
EBENEZER SHARPE.
To this worthy old gentleman the writer is indebted for the most of what little education he has got. After the venera- ble James Blake had learned him the A B C's at Sunday school, in Caleb Scudder's cabinet shop, Mr. Sharpe learned him to put them and the balance of the alphabet together and make the b-a ba's, b-i bi's, b-o bo's and b-u bu's, and afterwards to spell b-a-k-e-r baker, c-i-d-e-r cider. Although I could spell the latter we got none of it, as Mr. Sharpe was by prac- . tice, as well as precept, a strict temperance man.
He came from Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, to this place in the year 1826. Shortly after he came he opened a school in the back part or school-room of the old Presbyte- rian Church, on the alley that runs north and south between Pennsylvania and Circle streets, north of Market.
Mr. Sharpe was a man of a fine, classical education, and was peculiarly adapted by nature and disposition for the pro- fession of a teacher, mild and genial in his manners, and be- lieved more in moral suasion to gain the respect and obedi- ence of his pupils than he did in the rod, although he some- times made a gentle application of the latter, never, however, without prefacing its use with a lecture.
He owned and carried an old-fashioned, repeater gold watch that struck the time very musically, by using a spring in the
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Early Reminiscences.
handle ; this he was frequently in the habit of sending to his friend, Humphrey Griffith, to compare the time, or to have it regulated ; by watching the boys he selected to carry it he found out they were in the habit of starting it to striking as soon as they had reached the outside of the school-house door. He watched the writer, who was also watching him, and did not touch the spring until out of his hearing; conse- quently he was always after that selected to carry the watch, but was always very careful never to touch the spring within a reasonable distance of the school-house, but enjoyed its mu- sical strains when distant. Mr. Thomas H. Sharpe tells me that he still has this watch.
Among Mr. Sharpe's pupils were Thomas A. and John D. Morris, Hugh O'Neal, Thomas D. and Robert L. Walpole. The former has risen to distinction in his profession, that of civil engineer ; the three latter might in theirs, had they paid that attention they should have done to the example and pre- cept of their worthy tutor.
I doubt whether there is a person in the State to-day con- nected with the cause of education, and our general system of free schools, that understands the practical part of a teacher, or that of the head of an institution of learning, as well as did Mr. Sharpe.
He was ever diligent at his books; his studies were often carried for into the silent watches of the night. He was one of the finest readers we have ever heard, his pronuncia- tion loud, clear and distinct; his emphasis imparted great force to the language. Nor can I forget his daily moral and religious instructions to his pupils, by which he gained their love and the esteem of their parents. It was evident, from the pains that he took in the instruction of his scholars, that he indulged the hope that their parents would some day reap the reward of his honorable labors in the prosperity of their children.
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Thomas H. Sharpe.
Often in the absence of a minister was he called upon by the congregation to read a sermon, which he would do, and impart to it quite as much interest as though it was original and the first time delivered.
He was Agent of State for the town of Indianapolis for several years before his death, and was then succeeded by his son, Thomas H. Sharpe, Esq., now one of the prominent bankers of this city.
When I recur to the scenes in the old school-house, where I spent a short portion of life's early years, I delight in tak- ing a retrospective view of those days when our never-to-be- forgotten teacher tried so hard to inspire us with the love of knowledge and literature.
Mr. Sharpe brought with him to this place a large family, but few of which are now living. He died in the fall of 1835, at the age of fifty-six,
" Pleased with the present, and full of glorious hope."
His was the largest funeral that had ever been seen in In- dianapolis at that time. I do not think there was a vehicle in the place that was not in the procession.
THOMAS H. SHARPE,
The oldest surviving son of the worthy gentleman who was the subject of the preceding sketch, came to this place with his father a mere boy, yet in his teens, but well qualified to assist his father, as he did, in training " the young idea how to shoot."
About the year 1831, he engaged with Arthur St. Clair as a clerk in the Land Office, and had almost entire charge of the immense sales of land in this district ; it was then his bu- siness qualifications were first developed.
After his father's death he was appointed Agent of State for the town of Indianapolis, a position previously held by his father.
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Early Reminiscences.
He was appointed teller in the branch of the State Bank of Indiana, and after the retirement of Judge Morris as its cash- ier, Mr. Sharpe was appointed his successor, and held the place until the affairs of the bank were wound up.
He then engaged with the late Calvin Fletcher in a private bank, and, although Mr. Fletcher is dead, he requested that the business of the bank should be continued by Mr. Sharpe, and without change, the same as if he was yet living.
This is one of the highest encomiums that could be paid to his integrity, worth and merit; for no person knew him so well as Mr. Fletcher; they had been associated in business near twenty years.
It is unnecessary to say that he now has the entire charge of one of the prominent banks in the city, and does quite as large a business as any of them.
Mr. Sharpe has quite a large family of children; in the person of one of them he has brought down to the present time the good name of his father in full, and I hope it will be continued to future generations.
When he first came to this place he was a very active young man, and prided himself on his fleetness of foot, and many was the race he ran with the young men of the place, and was never beaten. He yet steps with an elasticity that leads mc to believe he would be hard to beat.
JOHN G. BROWN
Came from Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, to this place in 1828. He had been used to negro slavery all his life, but was anxious to rid himself of the negroes as well as slavery, and for that purpose he emancipated his entire stock, both old and young.
But the negroes did not wish to part with Mr. Brown. He was scarcely settled in his new home in this city before sev- eral families of his former slaves were his nearest neighbors.
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Rev. Edwin Ray.
This circumstance speaks volumes in his favor as being a kind- hearted man and a christian, and requires no commendation from my pen.
He purchased of Harvey Gregg property on North Merid- ian street, where his son James and a daughter still reside. Another daughter is the wife of Stephen D. Tomlinson, an- other old and respected citizen.
Mr. Brown was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, and during his residence in this city the associate of Mr. Jas. Blake and James M. Ray in many benevolent and charitable organizations, and contributed liberally of his means for those purposes.
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