USA > Indiana > Encyclopedia of biography of Indiana > Part 17
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was of the most philosophical cast. IIis society was sought by all who were strug- gling against the disconragements of pio- neer days toward information and cul- ture. Ilis useful life was closed in com- pany with the noble wife of his youth, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Albert Henderson. Their bodies rest in the cem- tery at La Fayette, Indiana.
[From an address on "Medical Men and Med- ical Practice in the Early Days of Indianap- olis," by Wm. H. Wishard, M. D.]
GEORGE MERRITT.
George Merritt's ancestry has been traced back, through England, to the Mer- rittes of Normandy. His branch of the family emigrated to America about 200 years ago, landing at Quebec. As far as known the family belonged to the Society of Friends from the foundation of that sect, and were a part of that well-to-do middle class of citizens upon which de- pends the strength and stability of our Republic. George Merritt was born in Saratoga county, New York, on the twenty-second day of the eleventh month. 1824. His parents were Joseph and Phebe Hart Merritt. With their nine children. of whom George was the seventh, they emigrated to Michigan in 1836. They journeyed westward on the Erie Canal one whole week, and the ox-team trans- portation from Detroit to Battle Creek, Michigan, consumed ten days for the trip which now requires but three hours.
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George Merritt's growing years were spent in the general labor incident to clearing and cultivating a large farm in a new country. At the age of twenty-one he went to Ohio, where, under the direc- tion of an uncle, he learned the business of woolen manufacturing. In 1851 he started in this business for himself, near Xenia, Ohio. Here, in 1852, he married Paulina T. McClung, daughter of John S. and Hannah Kinnear McClung, from Rockbridge county, Virginia. Mrs. Mer- ritt's ancestors were of Scotch-Irish de- scent and were people of acknowledged ability and sterling integrity. In 1856 Mr. Merritt removed to Indianapolis, be- coming the senior partner of the firm of Merritt & Coughlen, woolen manufac- turers. An account of the fortitude of those two young business men un- der the reverses of fires and other disasters, their indomitable pluck and their rigid economy, would make stim- ulating reading for the young peo- ple of to-day. The firm of Merritt & Coughlen became one of the prominent features of Indianapolis business life. The partnership continued uninterrupt- edly for twenty-five years, when Mr. Wil- liam Coughlen retired and Worth Mer- ritt, Mr. Merritt's eldest son, became partner in the firm which has since con- tinued under the name of Geo. Merritt & Co. Mr. Geo. Merritt, who is now seventy- four years of age, still retains an active part in the management of the business. For many years he has been an energetic member of the National Association of
Manufacturers and of the American Pro- tective Tariff League, and he has always been a stanch advocate of the principles of protection for American industries. Mr. Merritt has also been actively identi- fied with many enterprises in the city of his residence. In 1864 he was one of the incorporators of the Indiana National Bank and has always been one of its di- rectors. During the twelve years he served as a member of the Board of School Commissioners, he was most of the time the efficient chairman of the finance committee. By his indefatigable efforts and liberal donations throughout its experimental stage, manual training was introduced into the high school. He has always been trustee for what is known as the "Gregg fund"-a bequest to the public schools of Indianapolis. When, by his careful management, the original $10,000.00 became more than doubled, a committee, of which he was a member, was appointed to expend the income in the technical education of teachers in various lines. In many ways the thought and care given by George Merritt to the improvement of the public schools of In- dianapolis have helped to place them where they now stand-at the head of the schools of America. During the war of the Rebellion, Mr. Merritt was a strong and vigorous supporter of the Govern- ment, and a trusted adviser of Governor Morton, but his education and all the traditions of his Quaker ancestry made it impossible for him to place himself in a position to take the lives of his fellow
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men, even in a just war. Hence he im- mediately offered his services to Governor Morton for any place where he could be instrumental in saving the lives of our wounded soldiers. As a member of the Indiana Sanitary Commission, he gave freely of his time and means, being al- most constantly employed in conducting corps of surgeons and nurses, with sani- tary supplies, to the various battle fields and hospitals. His many experiences, at the front, with the dying soldiers in their agonizing anxiety for their families, en- listed his sympathies, and at the close of the war, in connection with Miss Susan Fussell, he established a home at Knights- town, Indiana, for a limited number of soldiers' orphans, where liberal provision was made for their training until able to help themselves, Mr. Merritt bearing the necessary expenses involved. Miss Fus- sell was a lady of refinement and educa- tion who had volunteered her services as hospital nurse during the war, and was eminently fitted for the task entrusted to her. Mr. Merritt was first to advocate the "Cottage Farm" for the State Sol- diers' Orphans' Home, believing that this approach to family life was best for the children, and also hoping to thereby fur- nishi employment for soldiers' widows. Largely through his exertions a bill passed the Legislature whereby orphan children in poor-honses were established in families under the care of matrons. Mr. Merritt is greatly interested in the free kindergartens of Indianapolis, and for some years has maintained, at his own ex-
pense, a kindergartner in charge of the play grounds of Military Park. The city of Indianapolis is indebted to him for se- curing the use of these State grounds for park purposes, and for the personal care and attention he has continuously given to their improvement.
General John Coburn says of Mr. Mer- ritt:
"He is eminently a public-spirited man. All matters tending to the improvement of society interest him. His private charities are without number. Few men who have lived in this city have done more than he in aiding the poor and helpless. Whatever he has done has been without ostentation of any sort. He is a modest, quiet, unassuming man who lias a constant eye upon the means of helping the weak and unfortunate. It may well be said of him, that he is a model Christian gentleman-a plain, manly, strong and kind type of the true and intelligent American."
It is the pleasure of Mr. Merritt to ac- knowledge that throughout his married life his plans have been furthered by the sympathy, advice and assistance of his competent and conscientious wife. Their children are Jeannette, who died some years ago; Worth, who is co-partner with his father; and Ernest, who oecu- pies a chair of physics at Cornell Univer- sity.
DAVID P. VINTON.
Hon. David Perrine Vinton of La Fay- ette, Indiana, was the son of Boswell Merrick and Hannah (Davis) Vinton, and was born in Miamisburg, Ohio, November
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18, 1828. His father died in 1833, and his mother afterwards married Joseph Hubler, and with them he came to La Fayette in 1841. For many years his step- father and older brother, Almus E. Vin- ton, carried on a foundry and machinist's business in La Fayette, and with the ex- ception of several winters, when he was attending school, David P. worked in the different departments of the shop. In 1848 he entered South Haven College at Hanover, Indiana, where he remained un- til December, 1851. In the spring of 1852 he became a law student in the office of Messrs. Behm & Wood of La Fayette, was admitted to the bar in 1854, and soon after opened an office in La Fayette. He was city attorney in 1855, and again in 1861, and in the latter year was appointed by Governor Morton, Judge of the Com- mon Pleas Court, and at the expiration of the term of appointment was elected to the same office. The circuit then in- cluded the counties of Tippecanoe, Ben- ton, White and Carroll. He held the office six years, and in 1867 was ap- pointed by Governor Baker, Judge of the Tippecanoe Criminal Court, and in the following fall was elected to the same office, which he held until 1870. At the general election of 1870 he was chosen for the position of Circuit Judge and resigned that of Criminal Judge. In 1876, and again in 1882 and 1886, he was elected to the Circuit Judgeship, in which position he served until 1892. In March, 1865, he received a commission from President Lincoln, appointing him Associate Jus-
tice of the Supreme Court of the terri- tory of Mexico, but declined its accept- ance. He died in February, 1895. Judge Vinton was recognized as one of the ab- lest and most profound jurists on the bench in Indiana. He was thoroughly con- versant with the law; deliberate and care- ful in his decisions. He examined and discussed thoroughly every legal ques- tion, and rarely erred in his opinions. Nature endowed him with a superior mind, which was developed by culture and experience, and in his mature years he was one of the brightest lights of the legal profession in the State. Judge Vin- ton was never a politician and was never actively identified with either political party. He never sought office and was elected to the positions he held without regard to party affiliations. Socially he was a courteous, dignified gentleman of the old school. His high character as a judge, and unblemished private life, en- deared him to all who knew him.
CHARLES L. HENRY.
The subject of this sketch is a native of Indiana and has been a resident of Madison county since he was three years of age. His paternal lineage is Irish. His father, George Henry, one of the four sons of Samuel Henry, was born in Sligo, Ireland, in 1804, and passed the first twelve years of his life in that land. In 1818 Samuel Henry emigrated with his family to America, settling first in Vir-
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Charles L. Henry.
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ginia and later moving to Kentucky. A few years later he crossed the Ohio river and made a permanent home in the beautiful hill country of Switzerland county, Indiana, where he died at the ripe age of ninety-nine years. George Henry early in life learned the trade of cabinet making, and when still a young man married Leah Lewis, of Greenbriar county, Virginia. Soon after this he bought a tract of land near what is now the town of Eden, in Hancock county, Indiana, where he lived until 1852. George Henry was a broad- minded liberal man, and held a position of great influence in that part of the State. being several times chosen to represent his district in the General Assembly, to serve as Associate Judge, and to fill other offices of trust and dignity. In 1852, wish- ing to secure better educational facilities for his children, George Henry sold his Hancock county farm and bought a new homestead at Pendleton, Madison county. Here he conducted the manufacture of furniture in the village, and looked after the management of an adjoining farm, which he had purchased. He died in Jan- uary, 1856, at the age of fifty-two. His wife lived six years longer, dying in Oc- tober, 1862. Charles L. Henry was born July 1, 1849, while the family was still living at the old home in Hancock county, and was only three years of age at the time of removal to Pendleton. His youth- ful days were passed in much the same manner as those of other boys in the rural communities of those days. His father
was anxious to give all the children a good education, and Charles L. was early introduced to the studies of a country school. When not busy with his books, he assisted in work on the farm. That he was an industrious student is evi- denced by the fact that he was able, when only fifteen years old, to enter Asbury (now De Pauw) University at Greencastle, Indiana. It was the young man's ambi- tion, and the intention of his father, that he should take a full course of study in the university, but his eyes became af- fected with an annoying temporary in- firmity, and to save his sight, he was com- pelled to withdraw while yet in the sopho- more year. After several years of partial rest, during which he did work on the farm, and advanced himself by judicious reading, Charles L. Henry, in 1870, took up the study of law in the office of Hervey Craven, at Pendleton, Indiana, in the meantime becoming a student in the law department of the Indiana University at Bloomington. He graduated in 1872, and at once secured a partnership with Mr. Craven, with whom he held a good prac- tice until the latter was elected to the bench in the fall of 1873. This necessitated a dissolution of the firm, and Mr. Henry continued the prac- tice alone until 1875, when he be- came associated with Joseph T. Smith, of Anderson. Indiana, and a few months later he removed to that city, where he has ever since made his home. In 1877 Mr. Smith went to Kansas to live, and Mr. Henry conducted his business
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alone until June, 1879, when William S. Diven became his partner. In 1881 Mr. Henry and Henry C. Ryan formed a part- nership, which was continued until 1887 as Henry & Ryan. Following this he was associated with Edgar E. Hendee for a year, under the firm name of Henry & Hendee. During the next seven years he practiced his profession alone. The pres- ent successful firm of Henry, McMahon & Van Osdol, was formed in 1895, Mr. Henry's partners being E. B. McMahon, and James A. Van Osdol. Charles L. Henry has always ranked as one of the leading and most successful lawyers of central Indiana. He is an untiring work- er in the preparation of a case, and when the time for trial comes he is al- ways ready for action, and generally sound on his points of law. He is of ag- gressive, forceful mold, and this charac- teristic marks his course at the bar, but at the same time he is considerate of the rights and feelings of others, so that, while he tries his cases with a determined vigor, he makes few enemies. Mr. Henry has always been a staunch Republican, and is a man of influence in the councils of his party. Early in his political career he was elected to the State Senate, serv- ing from 1880 to 1884, and acquitted him- self with great credit. In 1894 he was elected to Congress from the old Seventh District, consisting of Madison, Hancock and Marion counties, and in 1896 was chosen as representative from the newly formed Eighth District, consisting of Madison, Delaware, Randolph, Jay,
Blackford, Wells and Adams counties. It was proposed to renominate him in the fall of 1898, but nearly a year before he notified his party friends that he would not be a candidate for re-election, as his large and growing business interests de- manded his entire attention. Mr. Henry is a successful politician. He is quick in forming opinions, active in party move- ments, a good organizer and a clever speaker. He is eloquent, logical and en- thusiastie when addressing either a po- litical gathering or a jury. Mr. Henry is general manager, and principal stock- holder in the Union Traction Company, which operates the electric lines in the city of Anderson, connecting that city with the cities of Elwood and Alexandria and the towns of Summitville and Orestes, furnishing passenger transporta- tion to an aggregate population of more than 40,000 people. In religious faith, Mr. Henry is a Protestant. He has been for many years an active and honored mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is prominent in the work of Christi- anity. He was married in September, 1873, to Miss Eva N. Smock, daughter of William A. and Lovia P. Smock, of Green- castle, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Henry have five daughters and two sons, viz .: Edna G., Atta L., Alice C., Edith S., and Leah E., and George S. and Lewis W. Henry.
JOHN R. WILSON.
John R. Wilson, of Indianapolis, was born in Cumberland county, Virginia.
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March 16, 1851. His parents were John R. Wilson, a Virginian of Scotch lineage, whose ancestors settled at Williamsburg, prior to the American Revolution, and Cornelia Fuqua, a native Virginian, of French-Huguenot extraction, whose im- mediate ancestors settled near Richmond. His great-grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution, and his grandfather served in the War of 1812. John R. Wil- son is a lawyer by heredity, no less than by reading and practice. His father was a successful practitioner; his paternal grandfather won distinction at the bar and on the bench, serving for a number of years as a member of the judiciary of Virginia. His maternal grandfather was also a lawyer and made the profession his life work. It would, therefore, have been surprising if the inclination of Mr. Wilson had not been toward the law, and still more surprising if he had failed to be suc- cessful in practice. He was carefully edu- cated, first at a private school, where he remained until fourteen years of age; next he attended Estell's Academy at Lexington. At the age of sixteen, he matriculated at Hampden-Sidney College, whose regular curriculum arranged for a period of four years; he completed the course in three years. Having graduated from this institution he entered the law office of his father and pursued a course of reading for a term of two years. Dur- ing a part of this period he was also en- gaged in clerical work in the office of the county clerk, and at the close he entered the University of Virginia, in which his
studies were continued for another year. By this time he had acquired a pretty thorough knowledge of the text books and was qualified for practice under the common law. In 1873 he came West, set- tled at Indianapolis, and entered a law- yer's office as a student, in order to ac- quaint himself with code pleading. The following year he commenced the prac- tice which he continued without inter- ruption for a period of fourteen years- until 1888. In the meantime, he served one term as a member of the State Leg- islature. In 1888 he was nominated in the Democratic State Convention as the party's candidate for attorney general, but the entire ticket was defeated in No- vember. Soon afterward, on the 4th of February, 1889, he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of the clerk of the courts of Marion county, holding under such appointment about two years. In 1890 he was elected to succeed himself for a full term of four years. Upon re- tiring from the clerk's office he resumed the general practice of the law, in which he has since been actively and continu- ously engaged. He has always been an attentive student, devoting himself stren- uously to the mastery of the principles, as well as the problems, of the law, and is therefore much more than a case law- yer. He owns a choice library and reads the books. He is widely read in the whole range of English literature. His mind is keenly analytical. As a public speaker and as a writer his style is forceful and logical; his words are carefully selected
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from an ample vocabulary; his sentences well rounded and complete. He is a lec- turer on Real Property and Constitutional Law in the Indianapolis Law School. Mr. Wilson is a gentleman of scholarly at- tainments and refined manners, whose abilities and integrity of character are most appreciated by those who know him best. He was married in 1879 with Miss Nellie Duncan, daughter of Robert B. Duncan, of Indianapolis, and by the union has one daughter.
WILLIAM H. WISHARD.
William H. Wishard, M. D., of Indianap- olis, Indiana, eldest son of John and Ag- nes Oliver Wishard, was born in Nichols county, Kentucky, January 17, 1816. His biographer, Dr. A. W. Brayton, referring to his ancestry, writes as follows: "The Wishard or Wishart family were Scotch dissenters and when the persecution oc- curred the family moved to the North of Ireland and later to the American colo- nies, settling in Delaware." Dr. Wishard is a descendant of the family to which George Wishart, the Scottish martyr, be- longed. Dr. Wishard's grandfather was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, taking part in the memorable battle of Brandywine. The family subsequently settled in Pennsylvania and in 1793 re- moved to Kentucky. The father of the subject of this sketch emigrated to Indi- ana, settling on the "Bluff" road, ten miles south of Indianapolis, where his
family pitched their camp on the evening of October 26, 1825. Only one year be- fore this date the seat of State Govern- ment had been transferred from Corydon to Indianapolis. The wolves still howled about the settlers' camp. The embryo doctor was then in his tenth year and, being the eldest son, took a man's part in pioneer work. His educational advan- tages were limited to a few months of winter school in a log school-house. Thir- teen years passed in the comings and go- ings of early Indiana farm life-a life of monotony and hardship, but not with- out its pleasures and its sterling educa- tional advantages. There is no better school than a pioneer farm to develop the sturdy physical, intellectual and moral characters of an individual, only provided that the home and social envi- ronment is pure and wholesome. Having passed the early years of manhood in building up the fortunes of his family, Dr. Wishard at the age of twenty-two years commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Benjamin S. Noble (a brother of the late Governor Noble of Indiana) of Greenwood, Johnson county, and entered into partnership with him on the 22d day of April, 1840, and so continued until 1852 when Dr. Noble removed to Iowa. Dur- ing the early part of this period Dr. Wish- ard resided and practised at the Bluffs near Waverly, a few miles southwest of Greenwood, but the partnership with Dr. Noble was still maintained. There were few physicians in the country at that time and the temporary change of location was
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An H. Wishand Mor
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done in order that Drs. Noble and Wish- ard might more easily cover a large ter- ritory. Dr. Wishard attended his first course of lectures at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, in 1843, and was graduated at the Indiana Medical College at La Porte, Indiana, in 1849. He again attended the Ohio Medical College in 1852, and received an Ad Eundem de- gree from the Medical College of Indiana at Indianapolis in 1877. In the first twen- ty-five years that had passed since the emigration from Kentucky the country had greatly increased in wealth and popu- lation. The Ohio river was still the great channel of communication with the East, but in the fall of 1847 the first through train from Madison passed through Greenwood to Indianapolis. Dr. Wish- ard was one of the passengers. Upon its return in the afternoon of that notable October day, he occupied a seat with the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, who had re- signed his pastorate of the Second Pres- byterian church of Indianapolis, and was on his way to take charge of Plymouth church, Brooklyn. In the fall of 1860 Dr. Wishard removed to the farm which his father had purchased from the Gov- ernment at the time the family came to Indiana. The farm is located five miles west of Greenwood in the northwestern part of Johnson county near the present village of Glenns Valley. He still con- tinned to practice medicine, although a considerable portion of the succeeding four years was spent in the army. Dur- ing the war of the Rebellion, Dr. Wishard
served parts of four years, as volunteer surgeon-from 1862 to 1865-in all, two years. One incident of this service is too important, because of the great good it accomplished to our sick and wounded volunteers, to allow it to pass into oblivi- on. It was evident after the surrender of Vicksburg that there were no adequate provisions for the care on the field or in the hospitals, or means of transporta- tion to Northern hospitals, of the dis- abled, suffering and homesick soldiers. By the request of General A. Stone, quar- termaster-general of the State of Indiana, Dr. Wishard collected all the facts as to the number of sick and wounded troops in the Department of the Mississippi after the surrender of Vicksburg, and also de- termined the absolute inadequacy of transportation facilities for their removal to northern hospitals. This accurate re- port enabled the famous War Governor of Indiana, the Hon. O. P. Morton, to ob- tain through the War Department, backed and urged by President Lincoln, the celebrated order to remove all sick and wounded troops from the front to the northern hospitals. Dr. Wishard was at Vicksburg during the entire time of the siege and marched into the city with Grant's victorious army on the morning of July 4, 1864. On the same day Gen- eral Stone reached Vicksburg with a let- ter from Governor Morton, to Grant's chief surgeon, requesting permission to remove sick and wounded Indiana sol- diers to northern hospitals. The request was not granted, and the surgeon told
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