USA > Indiana > Encyclopedia of biography of Indiana > Part 12
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justment was invariably accomplished by a single visit, all the firms for whom he acted investing him with full authority to draw on them at sight for the settle- ment of claims where his decision fell in favor of the opponent; and the fact that adverse decisions were universally ac- cepted unquestioned proves the entirety with which he inspired confidence. There was another and less simple class of cases with which he had often to deal- fraudulent ones. In these, however, as in the others, he acted as both judge and jury in behalf of his companies, but his verdicts were always cheerfully accepted as final. While this contact with villainy was painful to him the righting of wrongs was a deep satisfaction; and he felt his work to be so honorable that he would rather be an insurance expert than Governor! During all of these years he reserved one-third of the time for Sun- day-school work; and in severing himself from the insurance business in 1883, al- though retiring from secular activity, his devotion to church and Sunday-school continued. His interest in this direc- tion is almost lifelong, his musical taste and acquirements making his services valuable even as a child. At eight he was chorister in Sunday-school; at eleven began playing the violoncello, an accom- plishment acquired by himself on his fa- ther's instrument. At nineteen he be- came superintendent of a Sunday-school in Cooperstown, a small village near his native town of Ardmore, and he has ever since been actively engaged in the good
work. In 1865 he, with others, estab- lished the Indiana Sunday-school Union, of which he was for many years president and always a working member, while in each of the ninety-two counties of the State he has organized conventions and institutes, and in many of them con- ducted normal Bible classes, at the same time visiting and filling appointments in various parts of the East, South, and West. His work he classifies as fol- lows: convention (organization), insti-
tute (teacher-training) and normal (analysis of the Bible). In 1867 he participated in the founding of the Tippecanoe County Sunday-school Union, over which he presided for nineteen years and was then elected for life. From 1881 to 1890 he was an active member of the Executive Commit- tee, International Sunday-school Associa- tion, declining re-election to that posi- tion. For twenty-two years he gave in- struction in the Sunday-schools of two colored churches of La Fayette-twice on Sunday and frequently during the week, and his thoroughness in Bible teaching is well illustrated in the ability of these colored classes to recite from memory the complete line of patriarchs, judges, kings of Judea and Israel from Adam to Christ, giving dates and ages; also to give the entire geography of the Old and New Testaments. These lessons they outline on the blackboard, an interesting feature of Mr. Levering's method of instruction being his free-hand crayon drawing. Through this systematic chart work, eye
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1
and hand, as well as brain, are educated and facts are fixed ineffaceably in the mind of the student. Mr. Levering has gained a reputation, from authentic sources, of having a more extensive Sun- day-school history than any other person in the country, and, thus constantly en- gaged in church work, he has seen much of the deplorable antagonism of sects and factions. Pained by this conflict, he many years ago abandoned the field of his denominational work, although a large one, becoming a pioneer in the noble cause of Christian fellowship, and he has been a powerful promoter of co-operation in religious work. Throughout this work, done purely for its own sake, he declined compensation, himself defraying his traveling expenses. Another evil against which he has exerted a potent influence is intemperance. In early youth he was moved by the eloquence of Thomas P. Hunt, the hunchback orator, to join a temperance society in Phila- delphia. Although so young, his devotion to the cause proved lasting, and he has since been interested in a number of tem- perance organizations. It was he who established the Cadets of Temperance in La Fayette in 1861, securing a member- ship of one hundred and twenty boys, who grew to manhood with him. Mr. Levering has been an associate member of the Victoria Institute or Philosophical Society of Great Britain for the past four- teen years, and for many years a life di- rector of the American Bible Society of New York. In the early days the Lever-
ings were said to be "all Baptists and Democrats." On the slavery question, however, their sympathies were with the Republicans. In polities, as in religion, Mr. Levering is liberal and progressive. For more than thirty-five years he has never voted for party's sake, but has looked to the characters of men. "Polit- ically I am a man whom nobody owns," he says, and may be proud to say. For nearly half a century he has belonged to the order of Odd Fellows, latterly. however, not as an attending member. Mr. Levering feels the deepest respect for thrift and honesty, in however lowly a station they may be found. "Create a de- mand for yourself" and "pay no atten- tion to getting rich; work like a beaver and take care of what you get" are favor- ite mottoes of his, given alike to the high- born youth, the most ignorant of his col- ored pupils or the raggedest urchin of his temperance band. When asked if he is not proud of what he has accomplished he replies, "No-but thankful." He sometimes feels that this world is Heaven enough. He says:
"I have had a happy life. I have never danced a step, never smoked a cigar nor drank a glass of liquor; never used pro- fane words; never knew one card from another; never had a billiard que in my hand- still I have had a good time. And. though I have always worked hard, not eight hours, but sixteen per day, work has been my means of enjoyment. Have never sought to be rich-just to have a competency and do what I could to assist others to bear their burdens; to show them how to help themselves; to stop drinking and extravagance and encour-
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
age them to save their money and invest in homes."
As showing the thoroughness and sys- tem practiced by him it is interesting to note that he has copies, in three series, of all the letters written by him during forty-two years, while all received in that time are bound in books and indexed. Mr. Levering was first married in 1848 to Miss M. Irene Smith, of Philadelphia. Their two children are Mortimer and Eleanor Lulu, wife of Professor Chas. R. Henderson, D. D., Chair of Sociology, University of Chicago. Mrs. Levering died in 1854. His second marriage, which occurred in 1856, was with Miss Annie Taylor, of La Fayette. The one child of this union is Annie May, wife of Alfred H. Diver, of La Fayette. The second wife died in 1867, and two years later he was united to Anna Levering Latch, daugh- ter of Francis H. Latch, of Philadelphia, who dwelt in a fine old mansion in the highlands near the Schuylkill for fifty years. There are no children of the pres- ent marriage. Significant of the beauty of Mr. Levering's domestic life is the fact that for forty years not an angry word has been spoken in his home, while in social circles he is one of the most genial and open-hearted of men. So becomingly does he wear his more than three score and ten years that they seem to sit upon him as ornaments. Upon his face, in con- versation, is reflected the flash and play of the enthusiastic and youthful spirit within. Such a face may be imagined to
have inspired those beautiful lines of Robert Browning's:
"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be-
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand Who saith, 'A whole I planned;
Youth sees but half: trust God, see all, nor be afraid" "
HENRY T. SAMPLE.
For more than half a century the late Henry Taylor Sample was an honored citizen of the State, esteemed and loved by all who knew him. He was born near Middletown, Butler county, Ohio, Sep- tember 29, 1805, and died at La Fayette, Indiana, February 19, 1881. His parents were John Sample and Ann Taylor. His father was a manufacturer of flour and one of the pioneers in his section of Ohio in building and operating what were then known as grist-mills. His first mill was near Middletown, in Butler county; his second was on the Big Miami river, in the northern part of the same county, at Colerain; he then removed over the bor- der into Randolph county, Indiana, where he erected a mill on White river, and also opened up and cultivated a farm. Henry, the subject of this biography, either in- herited or acquired very early a commer- cial instinct, and during his minority en- gaged in selling the products of his father's mills and farm to the settlers in the interior of the State. Many of the
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products were transported in flat-boats down White river and sold to the settlers in what was known as the New Pur- chase, which included the present site of Indianapolis. He also was one of the pioneers as a boy in extending the trade along the Mississinewa river into the country of the Miami Indians and to the settlers along the Upper Wabash. To reach the Mississinewa it was necessary to carry the flour and grain and vege- tables and lumber by wagon a distance of eight miles. In 1825 his journey was ex- tended as far down the Wabash as La Fayette, the site of which had been sur- veyed and platted a week before he ar- rived. In 1826 he married Miss Sarah Sumwalt and two or three years later settled in the new town of La Fayette. He had already gained a large experience in trade and was skilled in the tanner's art. He therefore opened in La Fayette a tan- nery, which he conducted with gratifying success until 1854, in connection with other business enterprises of great value. As early as 1833 he began the slaughter of hogs and nine years later formed a partnership with the late Joseph S. Hanna in the business of slaughtering and packing both pork and beef on a more extended scale. The firm of Sample & Hanna soon won a high reputation, which extended from the markets on the eastern seaboard to New Orleans, where many of their products were sold. Mr. Sample himself made several trips with cargoes of pork and lard on flat-boats via the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi rivers
to New Orleans, where the cargoes were sold at a good profit. By his integrity and the honesty of his dealings he gained the confidence of all classes of citizens, and especially of the farmers and stock growers, with whom he had most of his dealings. All of them reposed such confi- dence in him that in times of panic they would place their surplus money in his hands and take his receipt for the same rather than risk it in the banks. He was during all of his successful business life a friend of the poor and those who were obliged to earn their living by toil. He never forgot his own humble boy- hood and was always willing to lend a hand to the worthy who were struggling to better their own condition. In 1858 he purchased a large tract of land on the Grand Prairie in Benton county, which he converted into a fine stock farm. The management of this farm, and the rais- ing and marketing of cattle was very congenial to his taste and yielded large profits on the investment. Mr. Sample's judgment appeared to be unerring and he was possessed of that peculiar fore- sight which is essential to success in commercial and manufacturing enter- prises. He counted the cost and weighed the chances before embarking in a new business, and everything he undertook was managed with such ability and con- servatism, with such energy and persist- ence, with such accurate forecasting of the results, that no enterprise managed by him ever failed. Whatever he under- took in the way of business, whether for
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personal gain or the public welfare, pros- pered. As a natural sequence to this sa- gacity, executive ability and careful at- tention he built up a fortune which was ample for himself and family. Unfortu- nately, after fifty years of almost unex- ampled prosperity and uninterrupted suc- cess in the various industries and com- mercial enterprises with which he was actively connected, he was induced to largely invest in manufacturing enter- prises with which he was not actively connected. These investments proved disastrous and he lived to see the accu- mulations of more than half a century swept away. In early life and so long as that party maintained a distinctive or- ganization Mr. Sample was a Whig, and, with the majority of the members of that old party, he entered into the Republican party at its birth and remained a member of it until the close of his life. He was never an aspirant for public office or even active in the management of politics, and his only official service was in the com- mon council of La Fayette. His acquaint- ance with the farmers generally and their high regard for him caused his election to the presidency of a county fair organ- ized in 1867, which remained in existence for three years. This little pioneer or- ganization was the forerunner of the Tip- pecanoe County Agricultural Associa- tion, which has grown to be the largest association of its class in the State of Indiana. Much of its growth and pres- tige are due to the wise and efficient ex- ecutive administration of Mr. Sample,
who was its first president and its only one to the time of his death. For the last eight years of his life he was a member of the State Board of Agriculture, in which his counsel was always sought and accepted as of great value to the society. His marriage in early life was happy and for a period of fifty-five years the bonds of that wedlock held the husband and wife in loving companionship. They were similar in their tastes, their moral char- acter and their religion, both being ear- nest and sincere members of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, and both enjoying the work of relieving the distressed and making the world around them brighter and happier by dispensing charity with open hands. They had eight children, three of whom died in infancy. Of the remaining five John Godfrey and Boyes Taylor died after reaching maturity; Isa- bella Dunbar is the widow of the late Henry Taylor, whose biography is pub- lished in Volume 1 of this work; Robert William is a banker in La Fayette; and Sallie A. is the widow of the late David McBride, of the same city. Henry T. Sample was not only a man of large ex- ecutive ability, but a man of unusual intellectual strength. His physical pro- portions were also large, his height be- ing six feet one inch and his weight two hundred and twenty-five pounds. He pos- sessed a kindly disposition, inviting com- panionship, and his ministrations to others who needed help were the source of joy and happiness to himself. His business transactions extended over a
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large area of country, embraced a great variety of commercial business as well as agricultural and industrial products, and through it all he was the same honest, upright, noble-minded man. The affec- tionate reverence for his good deeds still lingering in the hearts of the people among whom he lived will not permit the memory of his life to perish from the earth.
SAMUEL P. BAIRD.
Baird is a good Scotch name, standing for integrity of character, honesty of pur- pose and rectitude of conduct. The first representative of the family in America was John Baird, who emigrated from Scotland and settled in Monmouth coun- ty, New Jersey, in 1683. He was in good circumstances and bought in the Jersey colony a large tract of land, on which he erected a house called "Yellow Hall." This house is still standing, its durability fairly suggestive of the firmness of Scotch character and its construction representing some of the quaint ideas of early colonial archi- terture. "The Hall," with its ad- jacent grounds, remained in posses- sion of the descendants of its builder for many generations, although the family began to scatter about the close of the eighteenth century. In 1814 JJames Baird, one of the grandsons of John, the original emigrant, came West with his wife and family and settled on the frontier in War-
ren county, Ohio, where he and his sons cleared and cultivated a farm for many years. One of the sons was Zebulon Baird, who married Martha M. Probasco, daughter of Rev. John Probaseo, of Leb- anon, Ohio, removed to La Fayette, Indi- ana, in 1838, and subsequently became one of the great lawyers of the State. His biography is published in this volume. Samuel Probasco Baird, the subject of this sketch, is the son of Zebulon Baird and Martha M. Probasco. He was born in La Fayette and has lived there continu- ously except during the period of his en- gagement abroad in the service of his country. He was educated in the com- mon schools and private schools of La Fayette until 1861, when he entered the United States Naval Academy at Annap- olis, remaining there four years. . In 1865 he was graduated with honor and became a full-fledged midshipman in the Navy of the United States. The following year he was ordered for duty as a midshipman on board the United States ship Pensa- cola, commanded by Captain John L. Worden of Monitor fame. The Pensacola sailed from New York for the North Pa- cific Station, and, after visiting the most important seaports on both coasts of South America, arrived at San Francisco in 1867. Here Mr. Baird received his commission as ensign and was detached from the Pensacola and ordered for duty as an officer of the deck on board the United States ship Resaca. Within a few months he became navigating officer of this ship and in less than a year its ex-
I.P. Braind.
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ecutive officer, and while on duty aboard the Resaca he was promoted from ensign to master and from master to lieutenant. During this period the Resaca was em- ployed in cruising along the west coast of Mexico, and, having seen much hard service, she was ordered to Mare Island Navy Yard, San Francisco, for repairs. Soon after her arrival at the yard her commanding officer was granted leave of absence and Lieutenant Baird was left in command. The executive officer of a man-of-war is always held responsible for the general condition of his ship and the discipline and efficiency of its officers and crew. Although Lieutenant Baird was the youngest among all the executive officers of the fleet, both in years and length of service, yet his ship and crew were always considered in every respect equal to the best. In July, 1869, Lieutenant Baird was ordered East, and, after a short leave of absence, was as- signed to duty at the Boston Navy Yard. Subsequently he served at Mound City, New Orleans and Key West on iron-clad duty. In 1871 he was ordered to the United States Naval Academy as in- structor in seamanship and naval tactics at the request of Admiral Worden, who was then superintendent of the academy and had been captain of the Pensacola when Mr. Baird served on her as midship- man. After filling the position one year he obtained a leave of absence and soon afterwards resigned his commission as lieutenant in the navy in order to take up the practice of law in La Fayette. Mr.
Baird had long contemplated this step and for several years before resigning de- voted to a study of the law all of his time not required for the performance of his official duties, and in this way quali- fied himself for admission to the bar. He had become convinced that the active pursuits of civil life, in a congenial pro- fession, would be preferable to the duties of an officer of the navy in time of peace. He entered upon the practice of the law as a partner and under the guidance of his father, and to the instruction thus received at the threshold of his career as a practitioner Mr. Baird ascribes a large measure of his success at the bar. After the death of his father in 1877 he prac- ticed alone for ten years and then formed a partnership with W. DeWitt Wallace, which continued until the latter was elected Judge of the Superior Court in 1894. Since that time he has carried on his practice alone. Mr. Baird has de- voted himself to the law without reserve and has neither held nor sought political office. His practice has been principally in the courts of Tippecanoe and adjoin- ing counties and in the State Supreme Court. In the management and trial of cases he has been associated with or pit- ted against the leading lawyers of Indi- ana and adjacent States, and he has been engaged as counsel in most of the impor- tant litigation in his section of the State during the last twenty years. He has been successful and is achieving success as well as distinction in his profession. He possesses the lawyer-like qualities of
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mind and has ever since entering the pro- fession applied himself diligently to the problems of the law. His personal char- acter is irreproachable. The ownership and superintendence of a valuable farm afford him diversion and recreation, even if such indirect prosecution of agricul- tural pursuits is not attended with large profits in cash dividends. In 1881 Mr. Baird married Miss Elizabeth D. Roches- ter, daughter of the late William K. Rochester, Esq., of La Fayette. They have one child, a son, Rochester Baird, and the household is a very happy one.
RICHARD B. WETHERILL.
Dr. Richard Benbridge Wetherill was born in La Fayette, Indiana, January 10, 1859, the son of Professor Charles Mayer Wetherill and Mary Coleman Benbridge. He is a lineal descendant, in the eighth generation, of Christopher Wetherill, the original emigrant, a Quaker, who came from East Riding, York county, England, and settled in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1683. This Quaker emigrant, founder of the family in America, and one of the original proprietors of the province of West Jersey, was himself a man of large abilities and strong character, and some of his descendants were distinguished for patriotic public service, others won high reputation in scientific and professional pursuits. One of these, Samuel Wether- ill, was a Quaker preacher in Philadel- phia at the opening of the Revolutionary
war and was expelled from the Society of Friends for advocating resistance to the Crown. Thereupon, with sixty other members of the meeting who entertained similar views, he founded the sect of Free Quakers, who were known during the war as "Fighting Quakers." After the independence of the colonies was achieved the Legislature of Pennsylvania conveyed to the Free Quakers a plat of ground in the city of Philadelphia for the purposes of a church and burying ground, as they were not allowed any rights in the mother church. The property then conveyed is still held by the Free Quakers. The membership of this society is at present composed largely of mem- bers of the Wetherill family, including the present Dr. Wetherill. Professor Charles Mayer Wetherill, the seventh generation in descent from Christopher, was born in Philadelphia in 1825 and spent his boyhood in his native city. He was educated in the University of Penn- sylvania, from which he was graduated in 1845 with the first honors of his class. In 1847 he went abroad and studied for eight months at the College of France, in Paris, going thence to the University of Giessen, Germany, where he pursued organic chemistry under Justus von Lie- big. He was graduated from this uni- versity, receiving the degree of Ph. D. in 1848. He was appointed by President Lincoln the first chemist of the Agricul- tural Department at Washington, where he remained about one year. In 1866 he was elected professor of chemistry in Le-
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high University, at Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania, and filled the chair until his death in 1871. His chemical books were be- queathed to the library of the University of Pennsylvania, he having been elected to the Chair of Chemistry in that institu- tion shortly before his death. In 1853 the New York Medical College conferred on him the honorary degree of M. D. He was a member of the American Philo- sophical Society and other scientific as- sociations, both in the United States and Europe. His investigations are reported in forty papers in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, American Journal of Science, and in the transactions of the several societies in which he had mem- bership. Dr. Wetherill, the subject of this biography, is also a descendant of Jacob Morgan, an officer in the French and Indian War, who was commander of the Second Battalion, Pennsylvania Troops, which captured Fort Duquesne November 25, 1758. His mother's family was also of English origin. She was the daughter of Thomas Truxtun Benbridge, who removed from Philadelphia and set- tled in La Fayette, Indiana, in 1827. Her great-grandfather was Commodore Trux- tun, whose gallant conduct was recog- nized by Congress in the award of a gold medal, for capturing the French frigate L'Insurgente, February 9, 1799. Dr. Wetherill's elementary and preparatory education was acquired in the public schools of La Fayette, which he attended until 1876. He then entered Lehigh Uni- versity, where he pursued a scientific
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