USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > Evansville > Evansville and its men of mark > Part 32
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On the first of October, 1873, Messrs. S. D. Terry & Co., became owners and managers of the COURIER, the newspaper, and German and English job office. The terms of the purchase have been stated.
The course of the COURIER has been marked out in the trenchant editorials that have already graced its columns. All our citizens seem disposed to treat it with the utmost respect.
Elisha Embree.
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LISHA EMBREE was the son of Joshua and Elizabeth Embree, and was born in Lincoln Co., Kentucky, on the 28th of September, 1701. When he was a small child his par- ents removed to the southern part of Kentucky, and in 1811 they removed to Indiana, and settled upon Marsh Creek in Gibson County, about three miles south-west of the site of the town of Princeton. About a year after their arrival in Indiana, the father died, leaving a widow and six children. The subject of this sketch while a boy and young man, worked as a farm laborer during the summer, thus earning sufficient to enable him to attend school in the winter. In this manner, and by means of diligent private study, he acquired what would be deemed a good english education. His chosen profession was that of the law, the practice of which he commenced in 1825. In 1827, he was married to Eleanor Robb, eldest daughter of Major David Robb, one of the pioneers of Gibson County, who in 1800, settled on White River near where the Town of Hazle- ton now stands, In 1833 he was elected to the Indiana Senate, defeating the Hon. George H. Proffit, and while serving in that body, he, almost alone, opposed the Internal Improvement Legislation of that period, which has since borne such evil fruit. In 1835 he was elected Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, to fill the vacancy caused in that office by the resigna- tion of the Hon. Samuel Hall, and in 1838 he was re-elected for a full term, making in all ten years that he occupied that position. In 1847 he was elected to Congress from the Fourth District of Indiana, his competitor in the contest being the Hon, Robert Dale Owen. He served in this ca- pacity for a period of two years, and according to the statement of Horace Greeley, in his Recollections of a Busy Life, he was
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the originator of the proposition to abolish the Congressional Mileage. In 1849 he was again a candidate for Congress, and was deteated by the Hon. Nathainel Albertson.
He was a Whig while the Whig Party existed, and during the remainder of his life he was a Republican in Politics. From the time of his marriage, so long as he lived, his home was at Princeton, Indiana, and here on the 28th of Feburary, 1863, he died during one of the darkest periods of this country's history. He died in full faith of a glorious immortality, and also with a firm belief that the bloody contest then being waged in our land would result in the triumph of Universal Liberty. As a lover of his Country he showed his faith by his works. His house was an asylum for the sick soldier. Much of his time during the last years of his life was spent with his sons in the Union Army, where he gave much needed assistance and care to the sick and wounded soldiers. It is supposed that his labors and exposure during this period shortened his life. In 1837 he joined the M. E. Church, of which he remained a con- sistent and active member until his death. He was the father of six children, two of whom died in infancy, and one, James T. Embree, who was Lieutenant Colonel of the 58th Indiana Reg- iment, died in 1867. His other children and his widow, Mrs. Eleanor Embree, are still living, and reside at Princeton, Indiana.
Of his qualities as a Lawyer, Judge, Legislator, Man and Christian, his cotemporaries, many of whom still live, can bear witness. He was a man of plain and simple habits, and disliked anything like show or parade, and would no doubt regard the act of one of his descendants furnishing the foregoing sketch for this book as a piece of unpardonable ostentation.
Robert Owen.
R OBERT OWEN, born in Newton, Montgomeryshire, Wales, on the 14th day of May, 1771, was the son of Robert Owen and Anne Owen, of Newton, Wales.
He was self made and self educated, while pursuing his occupation as salesman in London, and later as cotton spinner and superintendent of the mills at Manchester, England.
He purchased, along with several partners, the N. Lanark Cotton Mills in Scotland, originally built by his father-in-law, David Dale, at one time Provost of Glasgow, Scotland. In 1797 married Anne Caroline Dale, daughter of the above David Dale. They had four sons, who grew to manhood, and three daughters who attained maturity, besides other children, who died young.
Robert Owen's chief aim in life was to ameliorate the con- dition of the working classes, for which object he erected large school houses and other buildings at N. Lanark, and gave lec- tures, which developed that population so favorably that the mills were much visited by strangers. He then extended his field by holding frequent public meetings in London, Liverpool, and Manchester, advocating a system of co-operation, instead of the competitive system among the working classes, and the formation of communities comprising about 1200 persons, asso- ciated for mutual benefit commercially, mentally and morally ; the buildings to occupy a quadrangular form near the centre of the farming property ; which should furnish the chief materials for consumption in the community, His followers were termed socialists. His views were set forth, also, in various publica- tions, such as the Co-operative Magazine, and the New Moral World, which latter he continued to edit until a short time before his death. He also wrote his auto-biography when visiting in London, toward the close of his life.
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In 1824, hearing of New Harmony, Posey County, Indiana, where George and Fred. Rapp, and associates, had carried on something of a community system of property, he purchased the town and about 20,000 acres of land, inviting such persons as desired to test the social experiment, to settle there. The in- vitation brought about a thousand persons, many of them dis- interestedly anxious to give the system a fair trial, but too many, unfortunately, who only desired their own aggrandize- ment.
After one year of the so-called Perliminary Society, the ex- pense of which fell almost exclusively on Robt. Owen, the mem- bers resolved themselves into educational and agricultural communities, which were carried on about two years more. At the close of this period, it was found there were too many con- flicting interests and tastes, and there existed too much selfish- ness for success, at least until individuals could be trained to forego some individual advantages for the sake of social union ; hence the experiment at New Harmony was abandoned.
Robert Owen then returned to Europe and labored until his death, (attending a public meeting a short time before that event, where he was sustained by Lord Brougham, who had always been one of his friends), in developing his system among the working classes of England.
When in his 88th year, he found his end approaching, he went with a friend to his native town in Wales, where he had visited a few times, and dying tranquilly in the adjoining house to the one in which he was born, he was laid by his oldest son, (then on his way back to America from Naples) in the same grave with his father and mother. His friends and disciples joined in erecting a plain tablet to his memory, bearing the in- cription-
ROBERT OWEN,
THE PHILANTHROPIST.
Born 14 May, 1771. - Died 17 November, 1858.
The Clarion.
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N 1846, Mr. William Kurtz, serving as County Auditor, feeling the necessity of a local newspaper, undertook to procure the establishment of one, resulting in the issue of the DEMOCRATIC CLARION. In three months he was compelled to take hold himself and run the machine, or there would have been a collaps of the enterprise. Nothing daunted, he laid hold as Editor and Proprietor-mounted the tripod and run the paper continuously up to 1861, in the interest of the Democrat- ic party. When the war broke out, he hoisted the stars and stripes, changed its name to that of the PRINCETON CLARION, and continued to the close of the war, at which time he closed out the concern to the present proprietor, A. J. Calkins, Esq., who having fought through the war, issued it in the interests of the Republican party. Mr. Calkins is a practical printer of the first class, a good sensible editor, worthy gentleman, and a christian. The paper is doing well, has an increasing circu- lation among the members of both political parties, and is a very desirable medium for advertisers.
We might here remark "for the truth of history," that the CLARION it not the first paper that was started in Gibson County, but the second. The Chronicle, published by John F. Burton in 1845, was the first effort, and would have succeeded for one year had not too many of its subscribers backed out the first six months by saying that they "only subscribed for the paper to encourage it." Its expiring efforts were heralded by frequent issues of half sheets, terminating at last in column strips of old advertisements, and finally ending in a spasmodic removal across the Wabash River.
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The Mt. Vernon Republican
AS established in September, 1872, by Thomas Abbott, at present editor and publisher of the Harbinger, a denominational sheet, now printed at St. Louis. The early history of the REPUBLICAN is one of varying fortunes and con- stant struggle with impecuniosity and sterility of sense, in both financial and editorial management.
In November, 1872, it passed into the control of Messrs. Mason & Veatch, who at once adopted vigorous measures to place it out of the reach of financial reverses. Their policy was to make it a purely local paper, devoted to local interests, and such was their success, that in four weeks after taking charge of the paper, the subscription list was doubled, and by May 1st, 1873, the circulation of the REPUBLICAN exceeded the combined circulation of the other papers of the county.
The policy adopted by Messrs. Mason & Veatch has been rigidly adhered to, and the columns of the REPUBLICAN contain weekly letters from the different portions of the county, written by a carefully selected and well organized corps of correspond- ents. The REPUBLICAN was, I believe, the first newspaper in the State to make a feature of an "Educational Column." This column, edited by Prof. O. J. Snoke, principal of the city schools, is as ably edited as any school journal in the State.
In June, 1873, Mr. C. L. Prosser, known throughout the State as an able and vigorous writer, purchased the interest of Mr. Veatch in the office, and assumed the editorial control of the paper. Under the control and management of Messrs. Prosser & Mason, the REPUBLICAN will achieve a long career of prosperity and influence. Its proprietors promise an enlarge- ment and new outfit for the first number of 1874.
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ITS EDITORS.
C. L. PROSSER, Ε“tat 40, was born in Mt. Sterling, Ky., in 1833, but was grown in this city, his father, the late Thomas F. Prosser, having removed to this city in 1835. Mr. Prosser received his education in the city schools and from his father, who was a scholar of rare attainments. He early learned the cases in his father's printing office, the Courier, and is to-day the fastest compositor and the best printer in his county. His editorial life commenced very early, he doing all the editorial work on his father's paper before he was twenty years of age. He has been connected with the newspaper business all his life, the ruling passion being so strong in him, that while engaged in other business, he was a frequent and valued contributor to Forney's Press, of Philadelphia.
Up to the commencement of the Rebellion, he had been identified with the Democratic party, but when the time came to choose, he was found on the side of the Union, fighting its battles in Posey County with the earnestness and vigor peculiar to himself, and since then he has done yeoman service for. the Republican party.
As a writer of editorials, he has but few superiors in Southern Indiana. Copious in language, never wanting for a word to express his idea, with a tendency to the argument ad hominem, the blood never fails to follow the application of his editorial lash. Mr. Prosser is of slight, gentlemanly appear- ance, very courteous in his intercourse with others, and with great deference, apparently, to the opinions of others. He is a brilliant talker, and always has something sensible to say. He is the man to share his last cent with a friend, or to turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of an enemy, Enduring in his friendships, he is unforgiving in his enmities. With many bitter enemies, he has a host of warm friends in both political parties, who would " go their last dollar on him."
JOHN MASON-better known to the fraternity, as " Rev." John Mason-the local editor and business manager of the REPUBLICAN, is one whose life has been one of strange vicissi- tudes and stranger adventures. Born of poor but honest
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parents-I believe that is the correct phrase-at Iowa City, Iowa, the 14th of September, 1842, when that country was wild and unsettled, and the frontier of civilization, he was not nurtured in a tender school and is not a hot-house plant. He entered Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1857, and left it to enlist as a private soldier in the ranks of the First Iowa. After the expiration of three months for which he had enlisted,' and with which he made what was known as the Wilson's Creek campaign, under the lamented Lyon, serving the term of his enlistment, he was commissioned as Captain by the Governor of Iowa, before becoming eighteen years of age. A difference with his Colonel, Crocker, afterward Major General, caused him to throw up his commission, and after serving for awhile as vol- unteer aid on the staff of a General who shortly after retired, he entered the gun boat service, in which he remained until November, 1864, when he lett it to rejoin his old regiment at Atlanta. He was too late, and arrived at Cairo only to find that Sherman had " burned his ships behind him," and left for Savannah. He returned to Iowa, and for a few weeks was quiet. But with his strong Bohemian instincts, inherited, he could not remain quiet, and in the Spring of 1865, went to Mexico, where he remained about twenty months, and from where he returned, in common parlance, " busted."
Since that time, he has been newspaper correspondent, Press Agent for circus, school teacher and a dabbler in politics, and has at last settled down to his present business, at which he proposes to remain, with occasional intervals of travel, when he will combine business and rest from the ordinary duties of newspaper life. He is at present writing engaged in corres- pondence with two noted theatrical managers, to act as Agent for the Winter campaign of three months.
In person, Mr. Mason is not, perhaps, as handsome a man as his partner, but is a more decided favorite with the ladies. In disposition he is very hot tempered, but quickly appeased ; he carries anger as the flint bears fire. His religious convictions are rather unsettled, though he believes in a Supreme Being, and he is not adverse to making one in a circle of friends where the ruby is freely passed, and no one thinks of going home till the " rosy." His success in making friends is remarkable, and
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his genius for conducting a political contest, in a closely con- ducted district, is very rarely surpassed. He is one of those few men, that, no matter the amount of money he makes, he is always poor : he floats in a sea of impecuniosity, and will, at the time of his death, be dependent on his friends for a decent burial. While Mason remains, the REPUBLICAN will be wicked and prosperous.
Major John B. Stinson .
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OHN BRAZILL STINSON was born in Virginia, March 1st, 1787, of English parents. Elijah Brazill Stinson, his father, was a soldier in the Indian War of 1788, and made one of the little band under Col. Geo. Rodger Clarke that made its raid into Illinois, subduing Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes in Indiana, to the authority of the State of Vir- ginia, in 1783.
J. B. Stinson, the subject of this sketch, was raised in Virginia, and learned the cooper trade, that being his father's vocation. When he arrived at the age of twenty years, he concluded to come to the Indiana Territory, as he had often heard his father speak of the trip and country. He left home for that purpose, but stopped in Kentucky, having met some friends. He located in the region known as Sandy Ridge, Ky., and followed the cooper trade, making water vessels of all kinds, and at the same time farmed a little. He there met Miss Matilda Paine and they were married. He afterward moved farther down the Ohio River, near the Fort, which was in what now is called Henderson County. In 1809, he removed to Indiana Territory, at the foot of the coal hill just below the coal mines, and built a substantial log house. He did not live in peace long, as the Indians became so troublesome that the settlers thought best to remove their families to the Fort across the river, in Kentucky, until the Indians were driven away. This was about 1810, during the Winter, The river was frozen
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over with thin ice, and they could not take their stock ; but had to crawl on hands and feet, dragging their bedding after them with long poles, as the ice would not bear a loaded man, Mr. Stinson took his family to the "camp" he had built (a three sided house, with no floor, built of logs and brush) in the cane- brake, extending at that time some two miles over the point. He lived there, under the protection of the Fort, for two years or more, when he removed to his old place near the coal hill, and was living there when Gen. Jackson's fleet of "dug-outs" passed down to fight the battle of New Orleans, in 1814. He enlisted in the 10th Reg't of militia of Indiana Territory, and proved a good soldier. He was rewarded by being commis- sioned Captain of the 10th Reg't, on the 27th of June, 1814, by Gov. Thos. Posey, Commander-in-Chief of the Territory at that time, and did good service during the Indian troubles.
In 1818, Gov. Jonathan Jennings, Commander-in-Chief at Corydon, Ind., the Capital of the State, commissioned John B. Stinson Sheriff of Vanderburgh County, to serve until the next general election, his commission bearing date of the second year of Indiana as a state.
While serving as Sheriff of Vanderburgh County, he entered a tract on the pre-emption act, about 1820, out of town some two and a half miles. Moving his family to the new home, after his duties as Sheriff had ceased, he employed his time running a trading boat up and down the Ohio River for some years. Making a nice little fortune, he invested it in teams, and run them to and fro from the different trading posts through the State. He then removed to Evansville and opened a settlers' store, keeping everything that was needed by the hardy settlers around about.
In 1821, he was commissioned Major of the 10th Reg't of militia, of the State of Indiana, by Jonathan Jennings, Gov- ernor and Commander-in-Chief of Indiana.
During the Harrison's Indian War, he was a sturdy soldier and was well beloved by his men and comrades.
In 1830, he removed his family to what is now known as the Old Stone Quary, living there until he died.
J. B. Stinson was Probate Judge for several years ; also, Associate Judge with Judge Hall. For over thirty-four years
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he was an able and efficient minister in the 'General Baptist Communion.
He died in March, 1850, being sixty-three years and seventeen days old, and his wife died in 1863, thirteen years later, being seventy-two years of age.
There were thirteen children born to them, of whom seven are living, three boys and four girls, viz :
Berry T. Stinson, Benoni' Stinson, H. Clay Stinson, Mrs. Nancy Calloway, Mrs. Saleta Evans, Mrs. Fanny P. Green and Mrs. Missouri Stinson.
Evansville Home for the Friendless.
- HE name of MISS ELEANOR E. JOHNSON is inseparably associated in the minds of our citizens with this noble charity, better known to our community, for a few years past, under the name of the " Vanderburgh Christian Home."
Although not an old institution, it is established on a secure basis, and the work it has done and is doing in our midst, so commends it to the hearts of all right minded people, that it takes high rank among the charities of the city and indeed of the country.
The leading object of the Home is succinctly stated in the second article of the constitution of the association :
" The object of this association shall be to assist women who have wandered from the path of virtue and who are desirous of leading better lives; also, to aid those who are in circum- stances of peculiar temptation ; to surround them with? the blessed influence of the religion of Jesus, and to teach them the glad tidings of salvation."
That the church and society owed a duty to this unfortu- nate class of persons-often more sinned against than sinning -- referred to in this article, had long been recognized, both by Christians and well disposed persons outside the church, and the need of a home and systematised work, such as this associa-
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tian contemplated and afterwards effected, had long been felt, but without organized effort little could be accomplished, so until within a few years, except, by occasional individual effort, the work was left undone. In 1869, Miss Johnson, who had been for some years a teacher in the colored schools, under commission of the American Missionary Association of New York, by faithful, persistent effort, succeeded in effecting an organization for the purpose of founding a home. When the Association was regularly organized according to the laws of the State, and Trustees authorized to receive property, Mr. Willard Carpenter donated a house and lot situated on Ann St., capable of accommodating fiftv inmates. The property was regularly conveyed to the Trustees of the Association, and the managers at once commenced soliciting aid to furnish the Home, and provide a fund for current expenses. The Home was first occupied in May, 1870. Applications for admission had been made as soon as it was known that the house had been secured.
Miss Johnson, to whose energy and persistence the success of the project was due, was appointed Matron, and under her efficient and capable management, the great value of the charity was speedily manifest and the future success of the Home assured. It soon became apparent that among the inmates of the Home, there were some who would otherwise be charges upon the County Asylum. and the County Commissioners, in view of this fact, considered it nothing more than just that they should contribute something as an equivalent, to an institution which was actually caring for the poor as well as doing a much better work, viz : preventing pauperism. The Commissioners first appropriated twenty dollars per month to the Home, but afterwards increased the appropriation to fifty dollars, where it now stands.
The same considerations which had induced the aid of the county authorities, were also applicable to the city, and a numerously signed petition was presented to the City Council asking for assistance. Their claim was recognized, and in view of the peculiar character of the charity, as being largely devoted to the assistance and reclamation of fallen women, the Council passed an order donating to the Home the proceeds of all the
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fines imposed upon houses of ill-fame, and those arising from the patronage of immoral haunts. This not proving a desirable form of the gratuity, it was soon changed and commuted to a monthly subscription of fifty dollars. The people have gener- ously responded to the appeals for aid, and the Home, comfort- ably furnished, with a small but increasing revenue and a sure place in the hearts of the people, has more than justified its claim to existence, and, in the good it has already accomplished, given glorious promise of faithful, effective Christian work for the future. One hundred and ninety-six names are already recorded on its books as beneficiaries, who have received aid and comfort within its walls, and with increasing means the managers will open its doors still wider to the friendless and needy. In addition to his former generous gift, in 1872 Mr. Carpenter donated to the Association two and a half acres of land in the lower part of the city, upon which the managers will erect a new and commodious building some time during the coming year. The following well known citizens compose its present Board of Trustees : Willard Carpenter, Dan'l G. Mark, Christian Decker, J. W. Nexsen and Col. Wm. H. Hollinsworth.
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