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Morton; assisted in starting the general hospital; was in charge of all unassigned troops in quarters in Indianapolis, and he established, and long had charge of the post hospitals at Camp Carrington and at Ekin barracks. He was the ranking surgeon in charge of the Fort Donelson prisoners while they were confined in 1862 at Camp Morton. No one ever con- plained of his treatment of these prison- ers. From 1861 to 1869 he was a physi- cian to the "Indiana Institute for the Deaf and Dumb." From 1863 to 1869 he was a member of the common council of Indianapolis, and took a leading part in its affairs. He was chairman of the "Committee on Re- vision of Ordinances," and as such made a complete revision of the city laws, which were then in great confusion. This revision was published in book forni by the city in 1865. From 1865 to 1869 he was chairman of the "Committee on Fi- nances of the Council," a position in- volving much labor and responsibility. He found an empty treasury and the city badly in debt, doing its business on de- preciated orders, twenty-five per cent. be- low par. Notwithstanding that about $500,000 had to be raised to relieve the city from draft, and to aid the families of soldiers in the field, these orders were soon brought up to par. Upon his retir- ing from the council. May 1, 1869, there were but $100,000 of debt and $260,000 in the treasury, enough to pay the debt and leave a large balance for the expenses of the incoming year. He was also chair-
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
man of the board of police and of the board of public printing. He also, in 1866, originated the plan set forth in an ordinance, which he presented, for the organization of the eity hospital; under this plan that institution has ever since been conducted. He also, in 1865, aided in preparing a law revising the city char- ter, and as affecting street improvements he procured the insertion of a clause as- sessing the cost of street crossings, against the abutting property, on the lines of the streets. This charter was passed by the Legislature, but two years after it was repealed on other grounds, no objection being made on account of this provision. This excellent feature of that charter was lately re-enacted by the Legislature of 1893. The world moves slowly, but it moves. Associated, by an act of the Legislature in 1873, with the late Governor Hendricks, and certain other State officers, he was made ex-of- ficio a member of a provisional board for building a "Hospital for Insane Women," with a capacity for 900 patients, which was to cost the State about $700,000. This board made him its treasurer and also a member of its building committee, in which capacity he did the State mueh valuable service. During Dr. Jameson's long service as commissioner of the Hospi- tal for the Insane, and subsequently as president of the boards, he persistently urged, through his annual reports and by personal solicitation, the need of bet- ter provision for the insane of the State, and it was measurably owing to his in-
fluence and to his untiring efforts that the Legislature made appropriations from time to time for the enlargement and final completion of this magnificent institution. When he became connected with the man- agement of this asylum in 1861 its ap- pointments were poor, with a capacity for less than 300 patients. When he retired in 1879 there was room for 1,400 patients, with every needed appliance. No man in Indiana ever labored so hard, or so effect- ively, as he for the help of the insane. In 1876 the expenditures and taxation of the city being unduly extravagant, he wrote a series of articles which appeared in the Indianapolis Evening News and which at- tracted much attention. He clearly dem- onstrated the feasibility of a large saving in the city's expenses. These communica- tions aroused the public, and led to a great reduction of the tax levy for the in- coming year. They also led to the forma- tion of a citizens' committee, of which he was chairman. to procure such limita- tions, by an act of the Legislature, as should put it beyond the power of coun- cils and school boards to levy taxes above a certain specified rate, nine-tenths of one per cent. for city purposes, and one-fifth of one per cent. for school purposes. This act also limited the amount of debt for cities to two per cent. of their taxables. This legislation was actively opposed by a gang of tax-eaters connected with the city government and with the school board, but, notwithstanding this, the bill passed. Since that time a part of this act has been incorporated in the constitu-
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
tion of the State. In this reform Dr. Jameson was the first to move, but he was subsequently greatly assisted by Wil- liam H. English, Albert G. Porter and other members of this committee. Neither the schools nor any of the city depart- ments suffered by this law, but they have grown better. Dr. Jameson took an ac- tive part in the discussion of the natural gas question and his timely and stirring appeals through the press on this subject had much to do with the successful es- tablishing of the Citizens' Gas Trust, which has since furnished cheap and abundant fuel for the people of Indian- apolis. He has been for thirty years or more a director of Butler University; was the sole agent for the sale of its large real estate properties in Indianapolis and for the construction of its principal build- ings at Irvington. He was president of the board of directors of this institution from 1872 to 1878. Dr. Jameson was the prime mover in the organization of the University of Indianapolis in 1895. This institution has met with flattering suc- cess from the start and consists of four departments, viz., the College of Arts, the College of Law, the College of Medi- cine and the College of Dentistry. It has nearly one thousand students and about eighty teachers and instructors. He is regarded as being well versed in all branches of medicine. In his earlier years, when specialists were not to be had, he was compelled to treat all kinds of ailments, but more recently he has preferred the general practice and has
willingly consigned to specialists such cases as pertain to their several branches; still he holds that the highest medical skill consists in the ability to treat a dangerous case of acute disease so as to give the patient the best chance for a speedy and safe recovery. As a practi- tioner he has been pre-eminently success- ful in obstetrics. He has also been con- sidered more than ordinarily skillful in the treatment of fevers and other acute diseases. He has been most happy in his home life., In 1850 he was married to Miss Maria Butler, the daughter of the late Ovid Butler, a prominent lawyer and the founder of Butler University. This union remains unbroken. He has two liv- ing daughters, Mrs. John M. Judah, of Memphis, Tennessee, and Mrs. Orville Peckham, of Chicago, and one son, Ovid Butler Jameson, a well known and suc- cessful attorney of Indianapolis, who, when quite young, represented Marion county in the State Legislature. Dr. Jameson continues in practice more from habit and temperament and the love of occupation than of necessity, as he has long enjoyed a well-carned competence. He has never lost a day from business ou account of sickness. He is a man of sound mind and body, strong will and pro- nounced individuality. He is still active and, for one of his years, very well pre- served. In manner he is quiet and unob- trusive, and in bearing kindly and agree- able. His standing as a physician is high, apart from which he is universally re- garded as a useful, enterprising citizen.
I. C accut
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
JOSEPHUS COLLETT.
To the older inhabitants of Terre Haute-to such as have grown with their city's growth and worn its welfare near the heart-few names in the list of its honored dead bear so gracious a sig- nificance as that of Josephus Collett. Antecedent Colletts are found through several centuries and in various lands, but always in those forward ranks by whose energies the world's progress is achieved and history made. The old En- glish stock from which Mr. Collett was descended on the paternal side is trace- able back to the reign of Henry VII., during which Sir Henry Collett twice served as Lord Mayor of London; and in this and the succeeding reign his son, Professor John Collett, figured as dean of St. Paul's church and the founder of St. Paul's school for boys. At the time of the Restoration the Colletts, feeling, as did many another family, insecure in Eng- land, went to Ireland and, in 1765, emi- grated thence to America, settling in Del- aware. Jolın Collett, a Revolutionary sol- dier and the grandfather of this subject, moved to Pennsylvania about 1780 and twenty years later, surveying and cutting his own road over the Alleghany Moun- tains, pushed on to Ohio, where in the in- fant settlements of Chillicothe and Co- lumbus he did sturdy work as a pioneer. He became one of the largest landholders in Scioto county and was intrusted with many high offices. His son, Stephen S. Collett, the father of Josephus, was born
in Pennsylvania and began life as a civil engineer, later engaged in mercantile pursuits, and finally turned his attention to farming. As a progressive citizen of Indiana, he gained political prominence, serving during several terms as Represen- tative, and afterwards being elected State Senator from Vermillion county. His death occurred at Indianapolis during his term of office as Senator. to the deep Te- gret of the entire State. The name of Collett has been conspicuous in the an- nals of this section of Indiana since terri- torial days, that of Josephus being hon- orably recorded in the earliest of its of- ficial State documents. The family of Groenedyke, also, of which thrifty Hol- land-Dutch stock the mother of Josephus Collett was born in New York, has been a prominent one in the history of Vigo county, where Sarah Groenedyke was married to Stephen S. Collett in 1821. This young couple made their home in Terre Haute for five years, then removed to Vermillion county. Josephus Collett was born in Eugene, Vermillion county, Indiana, August 17, 1831. He was the fifth child of a family of eight-three boys and five girls. His early years were passed quietly in his father's home. He attended the then primitive schools of Vermillion county until beyond their power of helpfulness, and did preparatory work for a collegiate course. At the age of eighteen he entered Wabash College, remaining a student there until his senior year, when the uncertain condition of his general health, combined with a severe
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDLINA.
nervous affection of the eyes, compelled him to give up the prospect of completing his classical studies and the satisfaction and prestige afforded by a college gradu. ation. The degree of master of arts, how- ever, was subsequently conferred upon him. After recovering his health he be- came interested in agricultural matters and for a number of years occupied him- self with farming, meeting with excep- tional success in this line and the kin- dred one of stock-dealing. Later he en- gaged in the mercantile business at New- port, Indiana, uniting with the ordinary functions of merchant those of pork- packer and grain operator on a large scale. His next venture, in what proved to be the line of his greatest business achievement, was railroad construction. At this time the mode of transportation in Vermillion county was crude and in- sufficient, and Mr. Collett set about its betterment with characteristic zeal. His difficulty in securing railroad facilities, however, led him to seek the advice of Chauncey Rose, an energetic and ex- teemed pioneer of Vigo county and an old friend of the Collett family. Mr. Rose heartily approved the project and rendered substantial assistance in carry- ing it into effect. Thus was built the Evansville, Terre Haute & Chicago rail- road, running the entire length of Ver- million county. Mr. Collett was made president and general manager, serving as such for ten years wholly to the satis- faction of the stockholders. The road was then leased to the Chicago & Eastern
Illinois Railroad Company, to which con- cern absolute control was transferred. Other lines which Mr. Collett built are as follows: The Nevada Central, span- ning the ninety-three miles between Aus- tin and Battle Mountain, of which he was owner and president until its sale. some years previous to his death; the ['tah & Nevada, running from Salt Lake City for thirty-seven miles along the southern shore of Great Salt Lake, he being president of this line until his death; the Rochester & Olean, in the northern part of Ohio, Charles Foster. afterwards Secretary of the Treasury, being associated with him in the enter- prise; the Genesee Valley, of New York; the Austin & Northwestern, of Texas, of which he was president and owner pre- vious to his sale of the property; the Otter Creek Valley railroad, running through Vigo and Clay counties in In- diana, and the Indiana Coal line. An- other road of which he was president was the Chicago & Ohio River, connecting Olney and Sidell, Illinois. Mr. Collett was a man in whom were strikingly united great executive ability and versa- tile capacity; and, although his most ex- tensive operations were in the construe- tion and management of railroads, he was the instigator of many and varied enter- prises in other lines; and the State or Territory was exceptional in which he did not at one time or another have capital invested. His largest property was a fourth interest in the Standard Wheel Company, the capitalization of which was
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
$2,000,000. Next in magnitude were his real-estate holdings in New York City, the Adirondacks, Chicago, Minnesota, Florida, Texas, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, and Coronado Beach at San Diego, the latter property having been sold a short time prior to his death. Al- though pursuing large interests in other portions of the country, his own home State was by no means slighted, he hav- ing large manufacturing and mining in- terests in Indiana, while the city of Terre Haute found in him a constant and vigor- ous supporter of nearly all its public enterprises. From his bounty he was a frequent and liberal contributor, the gift of Collett Park to Terre Haute alone be- ing an inestimable boon to the residents of that city. And the fact that the value of the environing property, owned by Mr. Collett, was greatly enhanced by the presence of that charming twenty-acre tract of lawn and grove in its midst in no way lessens the boon, but simply shows a rare combination of philanthropie mo- tive and shrewd business foresight. Mr. Collett was vice-president, then president, of the Rose Polytechnic Institute, with the development of which he had been identified from its inception and in which he always felt great pride. Other insti- tutions of Terre Haute with which he was responsibly connected were: Rose Orphan Home, Rose Dispensary, Terre Ilaute House Company, Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad, First National Bank, Vigo County National Bank and Indiana Book Concern. Although a man
of immense business capacity and achievement, he found considerable time to devote to literary and scientific mat- ters, his own acquirements being of no mean order, particularly in geology and archaeology, his collection in the latter branch, one of the most extensive in the United States, comprising 14,000 choice specimens. On the death of Mr. Rose there devolved upon Mr. Collett the re- investment of something like $525,600, endowment of the Polytechnic Institute, and he proved himself both wise and faithful in the administration of the trust confided to him. Doubtless one of the fundamental secrets of his vast suc- cesses as a financier lay in the fact that his vigorous integrity inspired universal confidence, enabling him to command enormous sums of money at any time, in the East or wherever he chose to raise it. The wide distribution of his business ne- cessitated much travel, and the later years of his life may be said to have been spent on the wing. His last trip was to the East. While transacting affairs in New York City he fell ill, but was after- ward brought back to Terre Haute, where he spent the last months of his life and died February 13, 1893. A hint of the esteem in which he was held was given in the splendid assembly at the ob- sequies, which included complete official boards of the various institutions with which he had been prominently con- nected, also the students of Rose Poly- technic Institute, who attended in a body. The beneficiaries of his immense estate
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
were many, both of relatives and of the public enterprises which he had fostered during his lifetime. Although an un- married man, Mr. Collett carried a heavy life-insurance. The surviving members of the immediate family are one brother and three sisters, as follows: Ste- phen S. Collett, of Newport, Indiana; Mrs. Crawford Fairbanks and Mrs. James H. Turner, of Terre Haute, and Mrs. Ellen Jones, of Newport. The loss of the de- ceased was deeply felt in Terre Haute and elsewhere; but there are no means of de- termining the degree of loss involved in the death of such a man as Josephus Collett. So vast a human force, crowned by a lofty integrity and a spirit of good will to men, defies all rules of measure- ment, even as do the sands of the sea
BLACKFORD CONDIT.
The ancestor of nearly all who bear the name of Condit in the United States is known to be John Cunditt. He came to America with his son Peter in 1678, and settled in the town of Newark, Essex county, New Jersey. "He was doubtless of English extraction, since the name has honorable mention in English history." His will is on file at the office of the Secretary of State, Trenton, New Jersey. One item is noticeable in which he be- queaths "to each one of his loving grand- children a Bible." Samuel Condit, the first grandson of this "John the Ances- tor," was born in Newark, New Jersey,
in 1696. He, too, was a landholder, hav- ing purchased a large tract lying between the Orange Mountains. To each of his five sons he gave a family Bible. This man built better than he knew, in that "his descendants have had a continuous representation in an official capacity in the church of Orange, for now, more than an hundred and fifty years." It is re- corded of him that he was "a sturdy Christian." He died July 18, 1877. For the above facts we are indebted to the "Genealogical Record of the Condit Fam- ily," published at Newark, New Jersey, in 1885. Blackford, the subject of this sketch, traces his lineage to the above John Cunditt, who was his great-great- great-great-grandfather. Rev. Aaron Condit, his grandfather, was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1765. He at- tended Princeton College, Princeton, New Jersey, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New York, January 7, 1790. His chief pastorate was at Han- over, New Jersey, which extended over a period of more than thirty-five years. On the 28th of April, 1794, he was mar- ried to Miss Mary Dayton, of Elizabeth- town, New Jersey. She was born in 1770 and died at Hanover, New Jersey, Febru- ary 23, 1820. She was esteemed as one of the excellent of the earthı. He died in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1851, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Daniel Dayton Condit, the father of Blackford, was born in Hanover, New Jersey, Octo- ber 21, 1797. On the 3rd of February, 1824, he was married to Miss Charlotte
Blackford bondil
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
T. Coon. While engaged in business in New York City, letters were received by the family, urging them to come to the "Wabash country" in Indiana. After a long and roundabout journey, they en- tered the State at Evansville, and came thence to Vincennes. There was a settle- ment of Jersey people in Sullivan county, north of Vincennes, among whom were several families from the home parish at Hanover, New Jersey. Here a hewed log house was built in the beautiful apple orchard of "Uncle Boudinot," for the re- ception of the family, until a permanent location could be determined upon. In this log cabin Blackford was born August 6, 1829. In 1831 the family removed to Terre Haute, then but a small village, but it could boast of the beauty of its location and the enterprise of its inhab- itants. The leading industries were pork packing and the shipping of the products of the country down the river to New Orleans. Mr. Condit's father, in connection with Mr. William 1. Thomp- son of New York City, engaged in ship- ping corn, pork and coal to New Orleans by means of flat-boats. They established a store on the northeast corner of Third and Main streets. For some years they were very successful, but in the end the business proved disastrous. In after years Mr. Condit senior worked at his trade; also in connection with his eldest son carried on a dry-goods store on West Main street. Ile died January 24, 1877. For his upright dealing and strict in- tegrity he was widely known and highly
respected. For the leading facts above we are indebted to the "History of Vigo County, 1880." From a tribute to Mrs. Charlotte T. Condit, the mother, we quote the following: "She possessed a natural thirst for knowledge, which increased with her years. While she enjoyed a liberal education furnished by the 'board- ing schools' of New Jersey, she began the study of Latin at the same time and in the same book with her eldest son. She admired the writings of Scott and Burns, but the Bible was her one book. She took occasion as opportunity offered to read the Bible on Sabbath afternoons to the hired help of the house, from the clerk to the stable boy." Mrs. Condit was born in Whippany, New Jersey, August 3, 1802. She was the half sister, on the ma- ternal side, of Isaac Blackford, who for many years was Judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana. Mrs. Condit died at Indianapolis November 9, 1881. As in- dicated above, Blackford Condit was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, August 6, 1829. In 1831 the family moved to Terre Haute, a village located on the east bank of the Wabash river, containing some five or six hundred inhabitants. The favorable geographical position of the town, being on the National road, the then great thoroughfare from East to the West, was soon discovered. Add to this the surpassing beauty of the situation, and we easily understand why talent and capital were attracted hither. The early history of the town is somewhat remark- able for the high standard of its pulpit
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
and bar, and for the moral standing and public spirit of its citizens. The town from the first was noted for its school ad- vantages. An unwritten chapter in the history of Terre Haute schools contains evidence that the Yankee school-master came here early and remained late. The first school attended by Blackford was taught by Phoebe Miller, a sister of Mr. Joseph Miller, a prominent business man ili the early days of Terre Haute. The school house was located opposite his residence on West Chestnut street. As described by Mr. Condit, "the school house was built of logs, with a puncheon floor, and the little knights and ladies of the order of A, B, C sat on wooden benches without backs, with their feet dangling towards the floor." He remem- bers attending another school, taught by a Mr. Beech, a Jerseyman, in the extreme south end of the village. The ambition of this master was to make good readers and correct spellers; while the pride of his scholar was to "go up" to the head of the class by "spelling down" his less suc- cessful competitors. . A more pretentious school was kept-schools were "kept" in those days-by an Episcopal clergyman, in the MeCall building, which still stands on the southeast corner of Third and Ohio streets. Here he was initiated into the mysteries of the Latin grammar and of algebra. He remembers attending still another school, known as a "High School," which, singularly enough, was located in the basement of the Congrega- tional church. Here, with others, he was
put forward in his studies, for the sake of the standard of the school rather than for the good of the scholars. In the mid- dle of the forties the family moved to a farm, some three miles north of the town, on the La Fayette road. To his school training Blackford here added a course in practical farming. As he afterward confessed, the running of straight fur- rows with the plow, for the sake of planting corn, and the building of wheat and hay stacks, required quite as much attention and calculation as the solving of algebraic problems. Finally, in 1848, he left his country home to enter Wabash College at Crawfordsville. After two years in the preparatory department he entered college proper and was graduated in the class of 1854. It was a trying change from the activities of boyhood and the work on a farm to the regular study hours of the college; and so it proved in his case. But as his purpose was fixed to study for the ministry, and as the way had been opened up to attend Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, by his uncle, Prof. Jonathan D. Condit, D. D., who occupied the chair of Sacred Rhetoric in the Seminary, health or no health, there seemed no stopping place. Accordingly, in the fall of 1854, he entered "Lane," and was graduated in 1857. Mr. Condit was licensed to preach in 1856 by the Presbytery of Cincinnati. Immediately after graduating he took charge of the Fulton Street Presbyterian church, in the suburbs of Cincinnati, for one year only, as it was his intention to
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