USA > Indiana > Encyclopedia of biography of Indiana > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
college. Baldwin was the first to go to the president's room, asking for help to begin the Christian life. Then com- menced a friendship fraught with the greatest consequences to Baldwin. It can- not be incorrect to say that he idealized President Dwight, nor can it be hardly incorrect to say that he idolized young Baldwin. Certainly he made his revered friend and teacher the example whom he unconsciously as well as consciously im- itated. For Dr. Dwight to have done or said a thing was well-nigh enough for Baldwin. The strong personal influence of this great, true man followed Dr. Bald- win to the end of his life. President Bald- win was throughout a self-made man. His education was obtained through his own exertions. Though a scholar of the highest order, graduating with honors, his college course was broken by intervals of teaching which obtained for the young student the means with which to meet his slender expenses. Private tutoring, the position of assistant teacher in a boys' fitting school, and the principalship of the Academy at Fairfield, Connecticut, in turn gave Baldwin some conception of the application of knowledge even before the obtaining of his diploma. He graduated from Yale in the class of 1812, at the age of twenty-three, having lost but one year in outside work to pay his own way. De- termined to still be self-supporting and to complete his education for the minis- try, which he had chosen as his profes- sion, without charitable aid, he returned after graduation to Fairfield and contin-
227
BIOGRAPHY OF INDLLNA.
ned to act as principal of the Academy there. Here he continued for two years. adding golden opinions to those already won during his former residence before his graduation. In the fall of 1814, Mr. Baldwin entered Andover Theo- logical Seminary, completing his course in three years. From Andover he proceeded to New York, to place himself under the direction of a mission- ary society, with the thought of taking up home missionary work in neglected and sparsely settled portions of New York State. Passing through Fairfield on his way. he stopped to supply the pulpit which the celebrated Dr. Heman Hum- phrey had just left. So favorable an im- pression did he make that he was nrged to become a candidate for the pastorate. But Baldwin was not one, having put his hand to the plongh, to look back. He was appointed to mission work in New York City and at once entered upon it. In Mott and Mulberry streets, as they were in 1816, he held his first meetings. After a year, he was transferred to an- other section, lying just beyond the then limits of the city proper, known at that time as Corlaer's Hook. Here, for seven- teen years. Dr. Baldwin labored, build- ing on no man's foundation other than his own. As the community enlarged, three successive church buildings were erected until there were ample accommodations for the crowded congregations and the exceedingly large Sunday school. Dur- ing these years Dr. Baldwin grew into large influence as the outcome of char-
acter fully formed and work wisely and well done. In 1834 Rev. Edmund O. Ho- vey. one of the founders of Wabash Col- lege, was sent to the East on a two-fold errand, to endeavor to raise funds for the college and to attempt to find a president. After repeated inquiries in many direc- tions Dr. Baldwin was suggested to Mr. Hovey as the one best suited to bring new supporters, a larger life and a true success to the new college. Dr. Baldwin agreed to consider the subject. At the close of the year, feeling assured that his acceptance of the presidency would draw to the young college many new friends who were old friends to himself, that it would also attract to it very considerable sums of money which bade fair to place the enterprise where its future would be secure, Dr. Baldwin consented to accept the appointment. February 19. 1835. he notified his church of his appointment and acceptance, and forwarded his letter of acceptance to the college trustees. The spring and summer were spent in solicit- ing funds from leading centers in New England and from friends in New York. From New York and Brooklyn alone $20,- 000 were secured, a large sum for those days. Subscriptions from New England made up the handsome total of $28,000. September 1, the long western journer was commenced, which is graphically and most interestingly described by Dr. Bald- win in his diary. Precisely the middle of the following month, Crawfordsville was reached, and the new president took up his duties. From letters written to New
228
BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
York friends, after the passage of a few weeks, we are able to see the young col- lege through his eyes. He writes: "We have three professors, besides the presi- dent, engaged in instruction, and nearly sixty students. A beautiful site for our college edifice has been obtained adja- cent to the village. The first considera- ble building is now going up. There be- ing at present no class higher than fresh- man in college, I have been devoting my attention to the instruction of the stu- dents in Greek and Latin. I have also one class in English studies. Thus far everything proceeds with great harmony and the prospect of cheering success. Be- sides my week-day employments, I have a Bible lecture for the students on Sab- bath morning and preach to them at three P. M. in the church in the village." Dr. Baldwin's*inauguration occurred at the conclusion of his first year of residence, July 13, 1836, a year and a half after his call to the presidency. This event, of importance in itself, was still more weighty in what it signified. We may truly say that it emphasized in especial fashion the educational policy which has characterized Wabash from its first day to the present. A reading of the inau- gural causes surprise. One is not pre- pared for the broad, and, as we should say, modern principles of education which are here set forth. It is, though written so long ago, a document of the "new ed- ucation." so-called, while at the same time it is a strong plea for a high literary and classical training. President Baldwin
proposes to answer the query, What is a liberal education? He declares ed- ucation to be the development of man's powers. He pays his respects, in passing, to physical education, and laments its neglect. Mental educa- tion must be harmonious and symmetri- cal. The end is not the mere acquisition of knowledge. Development is by self- activity. Superior teachers, with "an electric power" are needed to educate. Efficient and useful habits, disciplined minds and trained characters-these are to be songht. He calls for large endow- ment. No college can be extravagant in offering the best. A true education is the same everywhere, in the West and in the East. Western colleges should be so thoroughly furnished financially that they may compete with the best in the East. The West demands the best culture, the most thorough development of manhood. No wise man will omit this development which the college gives to hasten on to the professional school. The best trained will fill the highest stations; the best col- lege is that one which so educates that its graduates attain the highest success in what they undertake. The classics and literature can never be omitted from such a generous culture. Such is a brief epit- ome of this remarkable inaugural. It is so modern that were it to be delivered to-day scarcely a line should be altered, not a thought should be omitted. The in- angnral was President Baldwin himself both in his theory and his practice. It reveals the greatness of the man. With
229
BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
a cast of religious experience which some might describe as of the days that are gone, in all the experiences, processes, methods of his mental life, he was a mod- ern of moderns, a true educational leader. President Baldwin united in himself the highest type of practical religion and the highest ideals of broad culture. In this, I estimate, is found the great glory of the man. He is seen putting these personal ideals into the life of the college; there was nothing too high for Wabash to strive after either in morals or in intel- lectual achievement, nothing too high for her students to desire to attain. The man- uscript records of the trustees from the date of President Baldwin's arrival in Crawfordsville until the time of his death, October 15, 1840, cover thirty-two closely written pages. It is evident, from their reading, that under Dr. Baldwin's guid- ance the affairs of the college moved on in a most orderly and successful man- ner. Three journeys to New York were, at the request of the trustees, performed by the president during the summers of 1837, 1838 and 1839. These journeys were rendered necessary because of the finan- cial exigencies of the college. In 1837 the president was authorized to borrow $2,- 000 at eight or ten per cent; in 1838 he was authorized to borrow $10,000. The Imsiness situation of the country was not only unsatisfactory but even distressing. Many friends of the college in the East, who were annual subscribers to the funds of the institution, found themselves, ow- ing to business depression, utterly unable
to meet their promises. In some cases disastrous failure had overtaken them. These facts-to say nothing of the terri- ble calamity of the burning of the new college building in 1838, which threatened to utterly wipe out the existence of the in- stitution-made the load of the president exceedingly heavy. In addition to these long journeys to New York and New Eng- land, Dr. Baldwin spent all the remain- ing available time in trips throughout In- diana. His vacations, even the shortest, as shown by his diary, were devoted to constant traveling. Continuously he was making addresses, preaching or present- ing the claims of the college. Everywhere the impression made was most favorable, but the wear and tear upon the physical man was too great to be long endured. A great blow came to the college Septem- ber 23, 1838. Dr. Baldwin was then in New York, whither he had gone to raise money. He had already been absent near- ly three months, and was just about to return. In the language of the old fac- ulty records the story may be told: "About two o'clock this morning the ery of fire was heard and by half past two the whole roof and fourth story of our beautiful edifice was in one complete blaze. Eight rooms were in a good mea- sure saved from the destroying elements. But the library, philosophical apparatus and the societies' libraries were entirely destroyed." The building was supposed to be fireproof, and no insurance had as yet been placed upon it. The loss amount- ed to $15,000. President Baldwin stayed
230
BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
in New York, called together the friends of the college, and those who had given before, gave again. Within a year the building was restored and again occupied. With the next commencement, Dr. Bald- win's public work in the college was com- pleted. The first class had graduated in 1838, consisting of two members. The year following a class of four had passed out. In 1840 six were graduated. On Sunday the president delivered his bac- calaureate. On Wednesday, commence- ment day, he spoke to the outgoing class upon "The Claims of the West upon the Services of Her Educated Youth," using as his first words these: "The parting counsel of friends is commonly held in grateful remembrance." The college year closed, and the president began his vaca- tion of toil. His diary shows him pass- ing from one point to another, speaking in the interest of education and the col- lege. When he returned home, he was stricken down with fever. His whole system was shattered, he had not the power to battle with disease, and the end soon came. President Baldwin received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from In- diana University, then Indiana College, .July, 1839. Dr. Baldwin's administra- tion, as the first president of Wabash Col- lege, was short. It covered less than six years; but for the college these years were momentous. During the closing days of 1837, he wrote to a tried and inti- mate friend: "I am very likely to fall a sacrifice to the labors and anxieties of my present situation." These words ;
were a prophecy. October 15, 1840, less than three years later, the prediction was fulfilled, and the noble and devoted first president of Wabash passed away, a lit- eral self-sacrifice to the college he so deep- ly loved and so self-forgetfully served. It is a marvel that Dr. Baldwin was pre- vailed on to enter upon the duties of build- ing up and administering the frontier col- lege. He had everything to leave-a church of which he had been the only pas- tor, which he had organized and built up during eighteen years until it numbered over six hundred on its roll of communi- cants and gathered in its Sunday-school a thousand pupils; friends true and tried who looked up to him with respect and affection; circumstances of comfort and surroundings of intelligence and refine- ment, the best that the country then af- forded. He had nothing to gain but toil in a new and untried field, struggles with great obstacles and difficulties, the glory of leadership in pioneer self-denial. The explanation is found in this sentence of his letter of acceptance sent to the board of trustees: "I have endeavored, by seek- ing direction at the Fountain of all wis- dom, to ascertain what is duty; and if I have erred in respect to it, I must still feel that a solemn impression of my obli- gations to God has dictated this decision." The words read like those of one of the old English Puritans, whose tenacity of purpose and sense both of divine owner- ship iu self and divine direction of self. President Baldwin in remarkable fashion shared.
The Century Publishing & Engraving to Chicago
J. M. Finch
23I
BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
FABIUS M. FINCH.
Hon. Fabius M. Finch, of Indianapolis, was born December 20, 1810. in Living- ston county, New York. When he was but four years of age, his parents, John and Mehitabel (Brown) Finch, broke up their home and set their faces towards the western wilderness. The first abiding place on their pilgrimage was a farm near North Bend, Ohio. This farm was adja- cent to that of William Henry Harrison, for whom, as presidential candidate in 1840, his old-time neighbor, Fabius, was proud to cast a vote, while, still true to the political principles early imbibed. Judge Finch, as a middle-aged man, voted for Benjamin Harrison, the distinguished grandson of the old General. The Finch- es tarried but a short time at North Bend. The frontier being moved westward by the Government's "twelve-mile purchase" of Indian territory, this enterprising fam- ily followed as far as Connersville, Indi- ana, the principal trading station of the annexed territory. But their sojourn here only awaited the further recession of the frontier, and in three years they were again pressing westward, this time in company with a dozen other families. Following the tortuous Indian trails through a dense forest, halting, as it were for breath, first at Muncie-town, then at Anderson-town, our plucky little band at length arrived at its prairie destination on the banks of the White river. Select- ing a pleasant and fertile spot-the site of the present town of Noblesville-they
began the task of settlement. They were in the midst of a savage community, but the Indians were peaceful and friendly, more so than the bears and wolves, which were a constant menace to their live stock. Of this infant colony, John Finch was from the first a controlling spirit. He cleared and tilled a large tract of the virgin land, built mills upon the river, and, upon the organization of courts for that section, he became Associate Judge of the circuit. By trade he was a blacksmith, and with a mental fiber strong and active as were his muscles, he laid hold of every problem involving the common weal. Whether in the court room, the smithy or the home, he stood as a pivotal figure about which moved the progressive element of the colony. Thus favorably environed, the youthful Fabius grew up, his receptive mind, alert to the discussion of vital questions that went on around him, carly becoming the store-house of much practical knowledge; and he was animated by an ambition to maintain the substantial footing in the community which his father had beld. While still a youth, he formed an ar- quaintance which had a determining in- fluence on his future career. His father's cabin often afforded shelter for the night to pioneer guests in their journeyings; and one such visitor- a young attorney named William W. Wick-formed two lasting attachments in this hospitable little home-one to an older sister of Fabius, whom he married, and the other to the boy himself. As a natural result of
232
BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
the friendship that strengthened between them, Fabius became attracted to the pro- fession of his fraternal patron, and, at the age of eighteen, he began the study of law in the office and under the tutelage of Mr. Wick. Three years of close applica- tion to his studies enabled him to pass a strict examination and gain admission to the bar of Indiana. As a favorable place in which to practice, he chose the then wide-awake little town of Franklin, in Johnson county. No sooner had he opened his office than, unlike the prover- bial experience of young attorneys, his practice came with a rush, placing him almost immediately among the very busy lawyers in the Circuit Courts of Johnson and Marion counties, where he won his full share of the laurel. In 1842, a va- fancy occurring on the bench, Mr. Finch was appointed judge by Governor Big- ger, and his election by the Legislature was confidently anticipated; but the swift reaction from Whig to Democratic pro- dominance in the Legislature in 1843 oc- casioned his retirement. In 1859, how- ever, he was, by popular vote, returned to the bench as Circuit Judge. Before the close of his term of office, in 1865, he removed to Indianapolis, where he has since made his home, and gained a wide reputation as the senior member of the firm of Finch & Finch. The firm still exists, having had the longest continuons life of any law concern in the State, or, perhaps, even in the West. But the Judge is no longer actively engaged in the courts. Some ten years ago an accident
befell him which resulted in serious in- jury, and this, rather than his advancing age, determined his withdrawal from the more arduous duties of the profession. For eighty-three years Judge Finch has lived in Indiana, his residence within that State being coextensive with its life as a member of the Union. Possessing the superb vitality of our old settlers, in spite of the hardships inseparable from life in a frontier district, Judge Finch has lived to see the soil of Indiana re- claimed from a "howling wilderness" and brought to a high state of cultivation; has seen populous and progressive cities spring up on the spots where once were Indian villages, these cities retaining in notable instances the name of the chief who held sway there, as in the case of Muncie and Anderson. The sense of citi- zenship of a man who has thus grown with the growth of his State must con- tain an element scarcely appreciable to one of less inclusive experience-a sen- timent akin to the parental solicitude and pride that watches the development of an uncouth, yet promising and cherished, child. Judge Finch was married to Miss Nancy Allen, of Brown county, Ohio, Oc- tober 1, 1835. Miss Allen was a sister of Major-General Robert Allen, of the Unit- ed States Army. Seven children have been born to Judge and Mrs. Finch. of whom two are living-Alice, and John .A., associated as junior partner with his father. During the Civil War, the eldest of this family, Heneage, served as quar- termaster of General Jolin Coburn's regi-
233
BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
ment-the Thirty-third Indiana Volun- teers, and this service cost him his life, he having died of illness contracted in the army. Judge Finch is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Indi- anapolis, and while at Franklin, he offi- ciated as one of the ruling elders in the New School Presbyterian church of that town.
DANIEL D. PRATT.
Hon. Daniel Darwin Pratt was born at Palermo, Maine, October 24, 1813, and died at Logansport, Indiana, June 17, 1877. His father was a physician and the son of David Pratt, a Revolutionary sol- dier of Berkshire county, Massachusetts. His mother, Sally Rodgers (Hill) Pratt was a remarkably brilliant woman and a Baptist of deepest piety. She early taught her son the principles of Christian- ity-principles which marked and gov- erned his whole after life. While Mr. Pratt was an infant, his par- ents removed from Maine to Madison county, New York, and there he grew to manhood. He first attended the public schools, then the seminary at Cazenovia, New York, and later Hamilton College, where he graduated in 1831. Directly after graduating he accepted a professor- ship in Madison University. He soon after began the study of law in the office of Calvin Fletcher, an eminent lawyer of Indianapolis. In 1836 he located in Lo- gansport when it was a mere opening in the wilderness. He soon gained promi-
nonce as a lawyer and rose to first rank in the profession. His sterling merits were soon recognized by the public, and in 1847, then a young man of thirty-three, he was nominated for Congress, but was defeated. In 1848 he was one of the presi- dential electors. In 1851-3 he was a mem- ber of the State Legislature and soon be- came the leader of the House. He was made secretary of the National Conven- tion at Chicago in 1860, which nominat- ed Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. During the war Mr. Pratt was a zealous and patriotic advocate of the Union cause. He was elected to Congress in 1868 and to the United States Senate in 1869. Upon the expiration of his term as Senator in 1875, he, at the solicitation of General Grant, took charge of the Internal Rev- enue Department. \ contemporaneous writer says of SenatorPratt: "At the time of his election to the United States Sen- ate he was recognized as the ablest law- yer before a jury, in Northern Indiana. Of him the late William Z. Stuart fre- quently remarked: That Mr. Pratt would develop more original views in a case he had studied, and maintain them with more authorities than any man he ever knew. While in Congress for six years, he was a member of both the claim and pension committees, and, for two years, chairman of the pension committee. Mill- ions of dollars were allowed or disallowed on his recommendation. So conscien- tious was he that Wendell Phillips once remarked: 'Pratt is the most absolutely honest man I ever know.' He was one of
234
BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
the most cheerful and genial of men, and in all his associations shed an influence around him which was like sunshine. He was patient, mild and forbearing, and never afflicted others with a recital of his troubles." He was twice married, first in 1839, to Miss Sophia J. James, who hore him four children, and who was the sharer of life's pleasures and toils uutil her death. His second marriage was in 1865 to Mrs. Jane D. Warren of Logans- port. The children are deceased except Mrs. Julia Pratt Huntington, a widow living in Boston.
JOHN COLLETT.
The late John Collett, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., of Indianapolis, Indiana, was of English extraction, and the history of the family on both sides of the Atlantic is touched upon in the sketch of his broth- er Josephus, which appears in another part of this book. His parents were Ste- phen S. and Sarah (Groenedyke) Collett, his father having been a pioneer surveyor who, with others, was employed by the Government upon the original survey of Indiana and Ohio. He was a man of po- litical prominence, and was serving in the State Senate of Indiana at the time of his death in 1843. John Collett, the eldest son in a family of eight children, was born January 6, 1828, at Eugene, county of Vermillion, Indiana. He was reared upon his father's farm, attending the schools of the vicinity until he had
outgrown them. In 1838 he entered the preparatory department, Wabash College, continuing his studies in the regular course until he was graduated in 1847, at the age of nineteen. In the meantime, the death of his father had left him with the double responsibility of an estate to manage and a large family which relied upon him as its male head. Hard as it seems that a boy of fifteen should feel upon his shoulders the cares that belong to mature life, it is undoubtedly true that in many instances such an experience has given an impetus toward industry and economy which, continuing in force through later years. has made the life a greater success than it would otherwise have been. Upon leaving college, young Collett devoted himself to the cultivation of the farm, the land responding to his competent and faithful attention by yield- ing him very gratifying returns. But not all his time and strength were thus ex- pended. While his hands grew rough with rural work, his mind was becoming more and more refined by study. He was an habitual burner of the "midnight oil," often, like Napoleon, limiting his night's repose to four hours. Upon his gradua- tion, he had received the degree of A. B., and twice afterward his Alma Mater con- ferred honorary degrees upon him-that of A. M. in 1852, and in 1879, in recogni- tion of his scientific attainments, that of Ph. D. Although never a medical practi- tioner, he was, also, in 1882, granted the degree of M. D. by the Central Medical College. Besides his studies and his man-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.