USA > Indiana > Encyclopedia of biography of Indiana > Part 36
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for the institution so near to his heart. At a very early day the trustees saw the wisdom of fixing Mr. Hovey permanently in a professorship. In 1834 they offered him the chair of the Natural Sciences, for which, however, he did not at that time feel ready. In 1835 they made him Pro- fessor of Rhetoric. In 1836 he was chosen as Professor of Chemistry, Miner- alogy and Geology. In 1871 the depart- ment was divided, and he remained as Professor of Geology until his death. But in a young Western college an in- structor was expected to do anything that had to be done. Hence Professor Hovey once remarked that he had taught every study in the college curriculum, with the single exception of the Calculus-done of course in room of other professors. But even this does not tell the whole story. From 1833 to 1839 he was the librarian. During his travels he obtained hundreds of volumes, thus laying the foundation of the present magnificent library. For the period of twenty-six years he was the col- lege treasurer, managing and turning over to his successor about $100,000, ac- cumulated amid difficulties that would have utterly discouraged most men. To these laborious and diversified duties must be added his personal superintend- ence of the buildings successively erected during his lifetime, and his painstaking care of their surroundings. Many minor matters were committed to him. For example, when a college band was formed, Mr. Hovey purchased the re- quisite musical instruments, in New
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York, and stored them in his attic during the long vacations. The ground original- ly given by the Hon. Williamson Dunn, and on which the frame edifice stood in which Professor Mills heard his first classes, proved to be unsuitable, and the trustees, in 1835, bought 160 acres from Major Whitlock for the round sum of $6,000. Before long, under Mr. Hovey's management, lots were sold at public anction, netting $9,000 inside of three hours, and leaving sixty acres as a col- lege reserve. Payments were in paper currency, and the contract called for "hard money." Accordingly, Mr. Hovey went to Cincinnati for the specie, which he brought home in six square boxes, whose contents he counted out, dollar by dollar, to satisfy the Major's ideas. Pro- fessors' lots were set apart from the col- lege reserve. No axe had yet marred the forest growth of walnuts, maples, beech- es, elms, and tulip-trees, matted together by enormous grapevines. The task of clearing the lots, and the college campus, was accomplished by the professors and students, who wisely let the best trees stand. The South Hall, costing $16,000 and holding $6.000 worth of books and ap- paratus, was destroyed by fire in 1838, with no insurance. Before the flames were ont generous citizens put hundreds of dollars into Dr. Hovey's hands, say- ing, "rebuild!" It was done and only one day was lost by the conflagration. The Hovey cottage was built in 1837, on lots bought from the college reserve. Now that the family that held it for more than
sixty years have recently sold it back to friends of the college, a presidential man- sion will occupy the site, and the cottage, removed to the garden, will continue to be used as a professor's home. Nature aided the owners in making the place at- tractive. Its hospitality was tested by hundreds of students, who sat at the table, sang hymns, and knelt in prayer in that Christian dwelling and then went forth to the ends of the earth bearing the impress their character had received from the family. Occasionally patrons of the college were guests. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Israel Williams, who en- dowed the professorship bearing their name, and who also induced their rela- tive, Mr. Chauncey Rose, to endow the Rose professorship of Geology. In all Mr. Rose passed $80,000 through the hands of Professor Hovey for various benefactions. Those who visit with de- light the Hovey Museum, and admire its 25,000 specimens of scientific interest, with subsequent additions, can hardly realize the patience and diligence of the man whose name it bears, and by whom the bulk of the collection was secured. He was a pioneer in Geology, amid rich fos- siliferous formations that fitted no known system. His correspondence with Silli- man, Dana, Shepherd, James Hall, Owen, Cox, Collet, and other scientists, would fill a volume. Hle and his son first ex- ploited the famous erinoid banks of Craw- fordsville, the best of which still belong to his son; and as worked by Corey, Brad- ley and Bassett their contents have en-
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riched the museums of this and other lands. Many geological excursions were made with classes and alone. It is a mat- ter of regret that Dr. Hovey's catalogue of 10,000 specimens of natural history. finished in his seventy-fourth year, is still in mannscript. This man of many cares found little time for authorship. He wrote a history of the college; published occasional sermons; wrote now and then for magazines and newspapers; and made a few contributions to the literature of the scientific societies of the country. Dartmouth College, his Alma Mater, at its centennial celebration, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Hovey was only one of that band of dis- tinguished and pious men who founded and built up Wabash College. He merits, however, the prominence given him in this biographical sketch. None of the pioneers who knelt in the new-fallen snow and prayed for the Divine blessing on the institution founded in 1832 loved it more devotedly than he. His pupils honored him as a conscientious and learned guide ; his parishioners and later hearers knew him as a fearless and faithful preacher of the Gospel; his brethren at Crawfords- ville revered him as one of the founders of Center Church, in whose sanctuary they have placed a memorial window in his honor; and all who saw him in his de- lining years could testify to his singular and saintly spirituality. His expiring ery voiced the ruling passion of his life, "God bless Wabash College!"' The funeral sery- ices were held at Center Church, and
every church bell in the city was tolled and all places of business were closed as the long procession wound its way to Oak Ilill, led by the officers and students of the institution. The text of President Tuttle's eloquent and memorable enlogy on this occasion, is also the epitaph on the tomb of Edmund Otis Hovey, "Faith- ful in the Lord."
ALFRED McCOY.
Alfred McCoy, who has been long and honorably identified with the banking in- terests of Rensselaer, Indiana, presum- ably gained his first proclivities for this industry from his father, Thomas McCoy, a pioneer banker of Columbiana county, Ohio, with his business and home estab- lished at New Lisbon, where Alfred was born in 1832. In his early youth Alfred McCoy developed a decided taste and cap- ability for business, and while yet in his teens, he was a wholesale grocery mer- chant in Cincinnati. At the age of twenty he purchased a tract of land in Hanging Grove township, Jasper county, Indiana. and moved to Rensselaer, where he has since resided, ever becoming more and more a valuable and valued citizen. In 1853 he founded the banking house of Thomas McCoy & Son, his father being associated with him. Since that date three changes have occurred in the man- agement and style of the firm: the first when Alfred Thompson was admitted as junior member, the firm name being
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changed to A. McCoy & A. Thompson; the second when Alfred Thompson sold out his interest to his brother, Thomas Thompson, the corresponding nominal change being to 1. McCoy & T. Thomp- son; and the third when the firm name became A. McCoy & Co., on the accession to the junior membership, in 1888, of Thomas J. McCoy, son of the subject of this sketch. Throughout the forty-six years of his residence in Rensselaer Al- fred McCoy has been a liberal contributor of both money and personal activity to- ward the building up of the small and un- important town to the brisk and thrifty city it now is. He has been a sturdy backer of all such improvements as could be made withont injustice to property owners, and an enthusiastic endorser of progressive movement, social and politi- cal. Mr. McCoy has stanch Republican principles, and dauntless courage in ad- vocating them. Unselfish in his devotion to the publie welfare, Mr. McCoy is at the same time always a careful manager of his business affairs, his keen foresight, great executive ability and knowledge of human nature combining to make him se- cure and prosperous in his dealings with men. He is rated as one of the wealthiest men in Jasper county, where he owns about 5,000 acres of farm land, besides valuable property in Rensselaer. Mr. Mc- Coy was the second president of the nar- row-gauge railroad known as the Indian- apolis, Delphi & Chicago-the first rail- road built through Rensselaer-which of- fice he held during the greater part
of its construction in 1877. His popu larity is not a local one in any nar- row sense of the term. Before the day of railroads in that part of the State, his business required him to spend much of his time in driving from town to town, buying and selling stock, and he is known and honored throughout a large section of the country. A few years ago the peo- ple of Marlboro abandoned that name and rechristened their town McCoysburg out of compliment to him. Mr. McCoy is es- sentially a plain, modest man, adverse to personal publicity; but noble traits and deeds defy the most humble desire for ob- scurity. In 1852 Mr. McCoy married Mary Jane Parkinson, daughter of John G. Parkinson, one of the earliest settlers of Jasper county, and granddaughter on the maternal side of General Simeon Kenton. Four children, three sons and a daughter, were born to them. Of these, two are now living: Thomas J., born April 13, 1856, and Martha, wife of William 1. Reinhart, a business man and resident of Buffalo, New York. Upon Thomas J. Me- Coy, referred to above, in connection with the firm of A. McCoy & Co., has latterly devolved a large portion of the bank business, his successful management of which is abundantly attested by its flour- ishing condition. Of a genial and sym- pathetic personality, he is a general fav- orite in business and social circles; and as a zealous Republican he exerts a potent influence on the political affairs of Rensselaer. While wholly free from office seeking ambition, he has been inde-
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fatigable in the campaign work of the Jasper county Republicans; and although on the stump he makes no pretensions to eloquent or ornate oratory, his straight- forward and interesting manner of speech will divert and convince where more flowery phrases might fail of a re- spectful hearing.
ALFRED THOMPSON.
Alfred Thompson was for more than forty years a leading citizen of Jasper county. He was born in Stark county, Ohio, October 15, 1829, and died in Rens- selaer, Indiana, March 3, 1896. He was third in a family of ten children born to David and Eliza (McCoy) Thompson, who removed from Stark and settled in Han- cock county, Ohio, when Alfred was four years old. The locality was then on the frontier and the country was covered with a dense forest. The few settlers endured all the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life, clearing the forests before cultivating the soil, and learning the les- sons of economy and self-denial in the rigorous school of experience. The sub- ject of this biography became familiar with hard work in early boyhood. His labor contributed to the common support of the family and in return he was clothed and fed and cared for by the fam- ily bounty. He received the rudiments of education in the home, around the fire- side, until the settlers were strong enough to support short terms of winter school
by their personal subscriptions. By dili- gence and application to his books in these schools he made such progress as to qualify himself for teaching them lıim- self by the time he reached the age of fif- teen, and was so employed each winter thereafter for the next six years. On reaching his majority he determined to learn the banking business, and with that end in view accepted employment in the private bank of his uncle, Thomas Mc- Coy, at New Lisbon, Ohio, where he re- mained three years. In 1853 he came to Rensselaer and entered the banking house of Thomas McCoy & Son, and from that time Rensselaer became his perma- nent home. After about seven years he formed a partnership with his cousin, Al- fred McCoy, under the firm name of .1. McCoy & A. Thompson, and bought the Rensselaer bank, of which Mr. Thompson continued to be a partner until 1881. He then sold his interest and retired to enjoy the fruits of his toil. In the meantime he had prospered greatly and built up a large fortune for that place. He invested judiciously in real estate, whose value in- creased constantly with the growth of population and the development of the re- sources of the country. Among his most valued possessions was a fine stock farm comprising twenty-five hundred acres, situated some four miles east of Rensselaer. This was his pride during the last fifteen years of his life, and its management afforded delightful recrea- tion after his voluntary retirement from more active business pursuits. His life
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for half a century had been characterized by the utmost activity, industry and at- tention to financial affairs, and it was a genuine pleasure to leisurely watch the growing herds grazing upon his own broad acres, and to realize that his pos- sessions had been acquired honestly with- out wronging any man. His remarkable success in business was due to sound, practical judgment, persistent industry, careful and methodical attention to every detail and the unbounded confidence of the community, in his capacity as well as his integrity. He was one of the active promoters and builders of the only rail- road constructed through the town of Rensselaer and furnished a considerable part of the money used in its construc- tion. His foresight and public spirit, re- enforced by his wealth, were of great service to his city and county. He was always frugal in personal habits but gen- erous in helping the poor. Although modest and retiring in disposition, he pos- sessed large executive ability. He prob- ably did not start in life with a definite purpose to accumulate a vast fortune, but his natural abilities trained to business and directed into commercial channels, his prudence and economy rendered ac- enmulations easy and made him the larg- est land owner in Jasper county. He had many times expressed his purpose to give up active business at the age of fifty, and he actually did retire at fifty-two. Mr. Thompson was a Republican in politics, a strong Unionist during the war, an active supporter of his party in important cam-
paigns, but never a candidate for political office. June 12, 1853, he was married to Mary E. Travis at Prairie Bird, Illinois, and the union was most fortunate, result- ing in building up a home characterized by love and trust-a home in which all the influences, garlanded by sincere affec- tion, worked together for elevation and improvement. Three children survive- Mrs. Florence Sears, Mrs. Ora Ross and Delos Thompson. The son is recognized as one of the able business men of Rens- selaer, well equipped to manage and in- crease the large estate left by his father.
EUDORUS M. JOHNSON.
Indiana is indebted for the name of Eudorus M. Johnson on the list of her cherished sons to his grandfather, Pleas- ant Jolinson, who, as a youth, came and established a family home in this State. Pleasant Johnson was a Virginian by birth, his life dating from the year 1795. His son, Sylvester, father of this subject, was born in Indiana, and has during his mature life been identified with the edu- cational, industrial and political affairs of Wayne county. He early became a school teacher, and earned a local reputa- tion for the excellence of his work as an educator. His devotion to the cause of learning has been life-long, and for many years he rendered faithful service to that cause as principal of Dublin Academy. He has also given much attention to hor- ticulture, becoming so expert in his un-
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derstanding of this branch of industry that, in 1893, he was appointed and of- ficiated as a judge of fruits at the World's Fair in Chicago. From 1863 to 1872, he held the office of county auditor, residing during these nine years at Centreville, the county seat. Upon the expiration of his incumbency, he moved to Indianapolis, and his later years have been peacefully passed in the charming suburb of Irving- ton, which he, himself, laid out, and from which, as he has watched its growth, he has reaped an increasing harvest of hon- or and satisfaction as its founder. In early life he married Rachael Miner, and to them was born, on March 27, 1849, the son whose life this sketch is to consider. Eudorus Miner Johnson grew up in his native village of Dublin, in Wayne coun- ty, fitting himself for college in the home academy, which had by this time gained an extended reputation as a preparatory school. When ready for higher work, he entered Earlham College, at Richmond, Indiana, from which institution he graduated in 1870. This was two years before the end of his father's terui of office at Centreville, and the boy found his first business opening in a clerkship under the paternal anditor. Being gifted with the mathematical order of mind, and fresh from the discipline of college, he found his duties both easy and agreeable, and had soon acquired great proficiency as an accountant. He left the office with his father, however, and came with him to Indianapolis. In 1875, W. K. Sproule became county anditor, and Mr. Johnson
received the appointment of deputy, serving as such for four years. During the last year of his term, on November 28, 1878, he was married to Miss Minnie Leitch, of Vicksburg, Mississippi. A few months afterward, upon the death of her father, Dr. Leitch, Mr. Johnson removed with his young wife to Vicksburg, in or- der to attend to the settlement of the Leitch estate, and his southern sojourn was extended to five years. In 1886, Thomas Taggart was elected auditor for Marion county, and Mr. Johnson was again made deputy, this time serving for eight years. At the expiration of Mr. Taggart's term as auditor, he was elected mayor of Indianapolis, and Mr. Johnson became city comptroller, in which post he still serves. In politics, Mr. Johnson has always cast his influence with the Demo- crats; and in March of 1898, he received at their hands the unanimous nomination for the office of county auditor; but, notwithstanding he led his ticket by many hundred votes, the defeat of his party involved his own. The career of Endorns Johnson has been un- usually free from the sharp struggles with poverty and vicissitudes of fortune that give color to the life records of many of his contemporaries in Indiana-ad- verse forces to which we credit the strengthened characters of those who suc- cessfully combat them, yet would fain spare our own sons! It is said that the happiest lives are those which have no history-an adage which seems paradoxi- cal when looked at closely; for is it not
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the happy who have the most abundant life, and, therefore, the most abundant history? But theirs is the life of inward experience rather than of outward event, and can be rightly recorded only in anto- biography. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of three sons, Sylvester, Chil- ton and Endorus M., Jr.
ALMUS E. VINTON.
Almus Engene Vinton, one of the early residents of the city of Indianapolis, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 9, 1821. He was married to Miss Theresa Stallo in 1846. After various changes in resi- dence, he finally moved to Indianapolis from La Fayette in 1850, at a time when it was necessary, owing to the lack of rail- roads, to bring his family by private con- voyance. The remainder of his life was passed in Indianapolis, where he died June 21, 1870. Here he became engaged in the manufacture of agricultural im- plements and machinery, with Mr. L. W. Hasselman, a friend of his boyhood. This business, which had been estab- lished by Mr. Hasselman as the Wash- ington Foundry, they condneted until 1865, under the firm name of Hasselman & Vinton; Mr. Vinton then retired and the business was merged into the Eagle
Machine Works. Mr. Vinton was of New England ancestry, both his father and mother being natives of the State of Mas- sachusetts. He was a man of very pro- nounced characteristics. Of a clear,
quiek and discerning judgment, he de- manded of himself and all those with whom he had to do, whether in business, family or social relations, absolute direct- ness and honesty of purpose. He had no patience with that which savored in the least of variation from the straightest line of rectitude. For technicalities and quibblings, legal or otherwise, he had the greatest contempt. These qualities were so impressed upon all who came in con- tact with him, that it was a remarkable person indeed who ever attempted in any way to impose upon him. Even in youth, he acquired from one who had occasion to know him well, the nick-name of "Gim- let Eyes," from a habit he had of fixing so keen a glance upon any one with whom he was talking, as to be almost discon- certing. It would have been almost im- possible for any one to tell Mr. Vinton a lie, because the liar would have felt that this penetrating gaze would go to his very heart and motive. He was appreciative of good wit and humor, and not entirely devoid of them himself. He would often originate or adopt phrases which struek him as being particularly telling in the description of character, and he would apply them so aptly that they stuck for- ever in the memory of a hearer. Of per- sous who were accounted peenharly and perhaps excessively shrewd in their deal- ings with their fellowmen, he would often say: "Mr. So and So has eaten too much 'Fox Meat.'" Then again, in regard to a person who had held public office or ap- pointment so long as to feel that he had
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earned perquisites which were largely a matter of favor, he would say: "It is not well for any man to feed too long at the public crib." He had a high idea of the demands of good citizenship and was public-spirited in the best sense. He was one of the incorporators of Crown Hill Cemetery, and one of the charter mem- bers of the Library Association, out of which grew the present Public Library. A Republican in politics, he was intense- ly loyal at all times, and particularly so during the Civil War. He never had the least aspiration for public office; always said if he had, he did not think he could "eat the dirt" necessary to secure an office. He was ineligible to service in the army, but volunteered as one of the "hun- dred days men" who banded together at one time. He was very highly esteemed by Governor Morton, for whom he went several times, during the Civil War, on confidential missions, to bring back val- uable expert testimony. In literature, he was fond of the best sort of books, his tastes being for history and fiction. Mot- ley. Prescott, Dickens, Scott, Thackeray and Bulwer were his favorite authors. He was fond of hunting and fishing, and his return from an annual trip with his great hunting coat laden with qnails enough for all his friends was a great family event. One of his diversions was playing cards. His favorite games were euchre. poker and seven up, and with about twen- tv choice and familiar spirits, who called themselves "The Tigers," one evening out of every week was passed; a time of socia-
bility and good cheer, the memory of which would not be readily abandoned by any one of the jolly participants. When a boy about nine years of age, he had ex- perienced the questionable joy of learning to play cards secretly, sitting on a pump- kin behind the stable in the alley. He resolved that his own boys should not be obliged to resort to that method, and as fast as they were old enough, he taught them the games himself, and spent many a winter's evening at a round table with the three, much to their edification, and doubtless to his own martyrdom. When abont forty-five years of age, he re- tired from active business, and bought for himself what was then a country place of about four acres, but which is now in the very center of a beautiful residence part of the city, the homestead being now the home of his daughter, Mrs. Henry D. Pierce. Here he gratified his natural taste and inclination, in laying out and embellishing the grounds and conducting a well equipped farm on a small scale, There were pigs and chickens, and cows and horses; lawns and fruit trees and gardens; grape arbors and flowers. He was fond of having a work bench, having learned in his youth the trade of car- pentry. This perfectly equipped bench, with every tool in its exact place, and each of the most approved sort and in most perfect condition, stood in the carriage house for years, al- ways at his command. During all these years, so greatly were his or- derly habits and requirements respected,
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