USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time > Part 24
USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time, centennial ed. > Part 24
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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
Mr. Henderson was a man of indomitable energy, great initiative, and extremely enterprising for the times. Old settlers are fond of telling how he and his workmen built a house for a farmer near the Wabash while obliged to wait for the river to rise, so they could proceed on their journey to New Orleans with a flotilla of lime boats and lumber with which they had started to market.
He was a man of commanding presence, and noble bearing, with the manners of the old time. He had a very keen sense of humor, without any of the buf- foonery of the border. While making no pretensions to oratory he was an excellent speaker and presid- ing officer, to which duty he was often called in his community.
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In 1844, he married Lorana, the daughter of Dr. John Lambert Richmond, one of the pioneer surgeons of Indianapolis. Dr. Richmond was a very original man, of great talent, and possessed a mind enriched by years of study and investigation. In this union of Southern and Northern families, on Indiana soil, the life of Mr. Henderson is again typical of the West. Lorana Richmond was of New England-New York parentage, and of English descent, with an historic ancestry from the days of the Conqueror to colonial settlement, and through Revolutionary service in Massachusetts and New York. The marriage was an ideal one, uniting two persons who had the same noble aspirations and aims in life. She was a woman of rare judgment, wide reading, conservative temper- ament, and graciously hospitable. The home which these young people set up was ever full of good cheer and hospitality. Visitors from far and near, relatives, pensioners, ministers, educators, and lecturers of note filled the house at different seasons and on various occasions. In the town, Albert Henderson and his helpmeet were always identified with the charities and philanthropic endeavors. By her kindly min- istrations, her baskets of food, and beautiful flowers, and the sheltering home offered in time of need or sorrow, his wife was as his other self in helpfulness in this community.
In the church it was Deacon Henderson, and he was ever the "right-hand man" to the minister. Educational advantages for every child was his life maxim. He maintained a private school for his own family and the immediate neighborhood. While he was a young man, and before he had children of his own, the great struggle for free public schools through-
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out the State came up, and Mr. Henderson was one of the staunchest supporters of Caleb Mills and his coterie of helpers, in their long agitation for enact- ments to further universal education. These friends of free schools, in his district, called conventions, and organized a circuit of county meetings, over which he presided and which he also addressed. This group of men won their victory with the adoption of the new State Constitution in 1851, and continued to agitate for increased facilities.
In the early days the use of alcoholic drinks in the West was very general and was clearly leading into widespread drunkenness, most threateningly disastrous it seemed to the minds of temperate citizens. From this foreboding sprang the "Washingtonian movement," which swept the country. Mr. Henderson cast his influence with the movement and, being a staunch teetotaler during his life, always co-operated fearlessly with the temperance work.
Covington was a very thriving town in those days, with the lively commerce of the new canal and river, and far eclipsed the capital of the State in business prospects. In the village there was a brilliant coterie of young men, who had settled there because of the flattering business outlook. Many of them became famous afterwards in State and national politics. Such men as Senator Edward Hannegan, Judge Ristine, Daniel Voorhees, David Briar, Daniel Mace, and Lew Wallace resided in the town, with many others equally honorable, but who attained less fame. Mr. Henderson was associated with these men in a lyceum and literary club, with the object of sharpening their own wits, in tilts against each other, and for the purpose of bringing noted lecturers to the town for
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the benefit of the general public, and to sustain a town library. Like other pioneers he was deprived of early advantages, except for the winter term of the district school, but he never lost a moment's oppor- tunity to improve himself. He kept up his studies until long past middle life; poring over books of history, biography, travel, mathematics, philosophy, and science, making his own crude experiments in physics and chemistry by improvised methods, like Isaac Watts with his teakettle. He was up before daylight, for the real study was during the morning hour. His children never remember having seen him abed, in all their earlier years. The training which this kind of thoughtful struggle for knowledge gave him was a thoroughness of education seldom attained in the schools. As was said of another, "he himself disclaimed credit for being what is called a self-made man. It is true that he had his own way to make, but he began with all the benefits of good ancestry, and he was, in his phrase, born into an intellectual atmosphere." His family on both sides had cared for the things of the spirit, and for learning. Their advantages were only those of the frontier, but the love of nature and of books was their continuous heritage in each generation.
There was something almost pathetic in the quench- less thirst for learning and vast respect for education which this man and others of his type had throughout life. Judge Darrow says of his own father, in his great solicitude for the education of his children: "I could not know why my father took all this trouble for me to learn my Latin grammar, but I know to-day. I know that it was the blind persistent effort of the parent to resurrect his own buried hopes in the greater
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opportunities and broader life that he would give his child."
The early and continued care of others hampered Mr. Henderson's personal undertakings. Throughout life, he kept his own ambitions within possible attain- ment, consistent with his duties to those in his care; but for his children and his wards, his own sacrifices made it possible for them to have advantages that he had missed. He carried his youngest brother and five other youths in a wagon, overland, to Franklin College, and installed them there for their " schooling," the best to be had in that day. For many years he contributed to this school, and was a member of the Board of Trustees until his death.
Like many of the pioneer boys brought up in the country, he had a knowledge of trees and woodcraft, all sorts of wise intimacies with nature, a practical knowledge of live stock and crops, which made him a successful farmer, although an "absentee." He had a genuine love of the soil and all growing things. Until his last days he took great pleasure in making children acquainted with trees and shrubs, with the flavor of wild strawberries and the tang of the wild grapes. To take a group of little ones to the woods for a nutting expedition, or for spring flowers, to show them where to find paw-paws and his favorite black haws, to let them wade in the creek, and learn the habits of birds-all this was a perennial source of joy to him and to them. He could not bear to have them grow up without the close contact with nature which had been the joy of his youth.
Next to his care for his father's and afterwards his own family, and wards, Mr. Henderson took a most vital interest in civic and state affairs and was
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a man who made known his convictions by his efforts to better things always. He exerted his energies to influence others, who were bound by narrow views, prejudices, and indifference in educational and civic affairs. He was of Southern family and their dislike of slavery, which had impelled them to leave that environment, and journey to free soil, had descended to him; but in early life he was a Democrat in pol- itics. The struggle over the extension of slavery was approaching. His father-in-law, Dr. Richmond, who had retired from his medical practice at Indianapolis, and was living with him, was an ardent colonizationist, and a member of the circle who carried on the "under- ground railway." He would often say, after reading the discussions in Congress, "I shall not live to see it, but the storm will be upon us soon." It came within a half-dozen years. Together, the old and the young man discerned the cloud that was settling over the nation. In the new alignment of forces, those Dem- ocrats who regarded slavery with horror joined the new Republican party, as did Governor Morton and many leaders of men. Sorrowfully Mr. Henderson left the party of his youth, and voted with the new one looking towards the abolition of slavery. By this time national events moved rapidly towards the crisis of '61, and the future confirmed him in the stand he had taken.
From the time Sumter was fired upon, through all the years of that sad war, Mr. Henderson, with the men and women who held to the staunch principles of universal rights, saw troublous times in Indiana. These men who held for the Union were the strength and support of their great war governor. They were tireless in their efforts to uphold his hands and give
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him the encouragement he so much needed. These citizens gave their personal services, forwarded sup- plies, donated quantities of food, clothing, delicacies for the sick, books, and hospital necessities. Every passing regiment on its way to the war was fed; and men went to the front to bring back the wounded to be cared for at home. The largest part of this labor of love was done at the capital, but every county and town constantly contributed men, women, and funds for the work. In the central and southern districts of Indiana many of the people were of Southern ex- traction, and, naturally perhaps, sided with the South. Loyal men, who had been lifelong Democrats, like Mr. Henderson, now devoted much of their energies towards reclaiming this element to loyalty. Knowing many of them personally, their family history, and their previous record, he went to scores of them during the darkest days of the war, trying to persuade them to see the right, denouncing their disloyalty and dispersing their mistaken following. Mr. Henderson, and the men of like convictions, would ride all night to disband a traitorous organization. No complete roll of honor has been kept of those noble men and women who helped the cause at home. Their name was legion. In every village, hamlet, and town, both North and South, the people who waited and watched at home worked and suffered for the firing line. Their reward had to be a consciousness of duty performed, as they could reach it; and (in the North) the triumph of the cause they held to be just and right. The San- itary Commission aids, the hospital supply workers, sewing societies, and the men who quietly aided Governor Morton, were effective forces which he felt were backing him in the struggle at home and in the
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field. Of this element were Albert Henderson and his wife. With their neighbors they spared neither labor, funds, nor time. This whole group of citizens devoted the years to continuous service for the troops and the cause.
During the anxious war time, financial disaster had come to the subject of our sketch. Not from personal failure, but from "going surety for others." It was before the day of bond companies, and every land-holder was apt to be asked to go on paper. As John Clay said in his father's biography, "one helped another, and this man backed many a worthless note. He took his losses good-naturedly and the friendship continued." So with Albert Henderson-it was his one vice. He was always helping some one else to his own inconvenience, and the failing he never over- came. In the sixties it caused the crowning regret of his life. He had sacrificed the accumulated property of years of labor to cancel these security accounts, and in justice to those dependent upon him, he could not enlist in the army. Not to go to the front during the war caused his patriotic heart many sorrowful and weary nights. Because of these losses he declined to represent his district in Congress, saying that if he could leave home it must be for the "line of battle."
Although faithful at the primaries, and conscientious about his ballot, he never held political office. Near the close of the war, after paying his large indebted- ness, and readjusting his financial affairs, he moved to Lafayette and henceforth his life was passed in that community, where he and his wife started anew in life with limited means, but with the same ideals and earnest purposes. They went on performing the duties of the hour as the days brought them forth.
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The hopefulness of their youthful start in life could not be repeated; but the years that followed were years of usefulness and full of quiet pleasures, of books, of friendships, and family life.
Mr. Henderson's interest in civic affairs, in edu- cational movements, and public questions continued unabated during life, and he was always abreast of the times. Besides many benefactions, he was a "building and loan association" to all of his steadily employed workmen. By his accommodation and foresight for them, they all built homes for themselves.
When Mr. Henderson was over seventy years of age he wrote: "I have enjoyed my reveries of silent planning for the wrong-doer, for the homeless, and the enforced idleness of those who say, 'because no man hath hired us'; in planning for co-operative labor, as a cure for the cry against monopolies and capital, and sometimes in directing spiritual work. But having no time to spare, and not being inclined to leadership, I have tried to content myself by advis- ing individuals as they come in my way; starting and encouraging young people to qualify for business, by a word, or the small loan of means for a beginning." This "small loan of means" meant a hearthstone and home for many an employee.
Mr. Henderson was for a number of years president of the Tippecanoe Fair Association and took an active part in the development of farming and live-stock interests.
During the last years of his life a rash young clergy- man, with the instincts of a pope, proposed to the congregation of the Baptist church, of which Mr. Henderson was a member, that they adopt a written creed; which was thereupon produced. The " church
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meeting" had taken it up and were discussing the proposition, to which Mr. Henderson listened until all were through, and the young minister asked, "Are you ready for the question ?" Here Deacon Hender- son, for whose opinions all had such respect, arose and gravely said:
"My young brother and friends, in these days when the whole religious world is 'groaning and travailling in pain' trying to rend asunder the bands of their creeds, which are their heritage of the past, and an incubus to their present life and growth, it impresses me as a very dangerous and unnecessary proceeding for a congregation in a denomination which has always boasted freedom from any creed, save the New Testa- ment, to foist upon itself and load itself down with one, at this late day. Brethren, I move that the proposition be laid upon the table, and that we adjourn with the singing of 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.'" In which all joined, and went out wiser and better for his clear vision and foresight.
At the last week-night meeting of the church that he was ever able to attend, he arose and spoke of "two articles which have come to my notice during the last fortnight. One is the account in a current magazine of the great work being accomplished by the Salvation Army under General Booth and the vast good being done by that noble band, whose work at first was like our Saviour's, so 'despised and re- jected of men.' The other is a little book on charity, or love, written by Henry Drummond, and called The Greatest Thing in the World. I have not strength to comment on their usefulness to you, but I commend them to you for your careful and prayerful reading."
In closing this sketch of the everyday career of a
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representative Western man, who was a type of the best citizenship of Indiana, no tribute could have been especially written of Albert Henderson more fitting than the following words of Mr. Howells written about a man of similar character :
"He had all the distinctive American interest in public affairs. He was in full sympathy with the best spirit of his time. His conscience was as sensitive to public wrongs and perilous tendencies as to private and personal conduct. He voted with strong con- victions and labored with tender love for all. It was a life beneficent to every other life that it touched, and of the most essential human worth, charm of character, and truest manhood. His admirable mind, the natural loftiness of his aims, his instinctive sym- pathy with every noble impulse and human endeavor, his fine intellectual grasp of every question, all made for him friends of the best men and women of his time and neighborhood."
CHAPTER XVII
LETTERS AND ART IN INDIANA
T HE prevalence of authorship in the Hoosier State has occasioned one of its prominent writers to remark that one is distinguished in Indiana if he has not appeared in print. Recognizing the fact of this phase in the development of Indiana's people, no sketch of the State's growth would be complete without some notice of the manifestation of their interest in letters and the arts.
When it is remembered that Hoosiers have hitherto been of necessity hewers of wood and drawers of water, that only within the last generation have they emerged from actual frontier conditions, it will be evident, to the most casual thinker, that there has been scant time for artistic development. Mr. Riley felt and expressed this when he said that our brief history as a nation, and our finding and founding and maintaining of it, left our forefathers little time, indeed, for the delicate cultivation of the arts and graces of refined and scholarly attainments. Their attention was absorbed looking toward the protection of their rude farmhouses and their meagre harvests from the dread invasion of the Indians. When William Coggeshall published his Anthology of Western poets in 1860, he called attention to the short time which
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his collection of verses covered, and said that it had been a period significant for perilous wars, for hard work, for amazing enterprises; all of which furnished materials for literature, but, until the mellowing influences of time have long been hung over their history, repel poetry. Very few of these early singers made literature a profession. It has been noted that the poets of the West have been lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers, mechanics, farmers, editors, printers, and housekeepers. They have written at intervals of leisure snatched from engrossing cares and exacting duties. Their story is touching. The author of Ben Hur had made his difficult way in the world as a lawyer, had fought gallantly in two wars, served as governor of a territory, and given much attention to politics, before he found time to complete his Tale of the Christ, begun so many years before. Maurice Thompson wrote his stories between times, while doing his work in the world as a soldier, civil engineer, and lawyer. Benjamin Parker was surprised that the personal experiences in his poems about The Log Cabin in the Clearing, and other pioneer scenes, had found readers to exhaust the first edition within sixty days.
The material development and vast natural re- sources of the West have been exploited until, as an observer said, there is little wonder if the world has come to think of that section's ambition as bounded by acres and bushels and dollars. It is another kind of wealth and attainment that now arrests attention. In the individual expression of thought and fancy, on the canvas and in literature, Indiana is manifesting the effects of the dawn of more leisure for study, and what has been termed comparative freedom from
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worry about crops and clients. It has been truly said that an era of business prosperity in the Middle West means a succeeding era of intellectual activity, more attention to higher education, more search for culture, and higher standards of intellectual ability.
Mr. Maurice Thompson calls attention to the youth of the commonwealth, when comparing her production to those of older literary centres. He reminds us that Indiana was only eighty years a State when Old Glory was written, where New England was two hundred when Bryant produced Thanatopsis; that Ben Hur was given to the world less than a century after Clarke captured Vincennes in the howling wilderness.
It is significant of the extent of the attempt at literary expression that a sufficient number of talented people could be assembled within the first half-century of its settlement to form so flourishing a society for the advancement of general culture as the Association of Western Writers. Mr. Hamilton has collected a full volume, giving only a page to each author, of the fugitive pieces of Indiana writers; making it seem that the State had sprung full-handed from pioneer conditions into literary work. Remembering, then, the newness of habitation and the dearth of advantages for culture and instruction in art, the world is prepared to forgive any lack of constructive skill, of delicacy of style, of notable development of character, and of extraordinary literary achievement.
A poem published in 1787 lays claim to being the first Indiana production, and by the early date of 1827 a writer acknowledged that "we are a scribbling and forth-putting people." The most noticeable characteristic of the earliest writers in Indiana is their response to the charms of nature lying all about them.
The Early Poets all Sang of the Beauties of Forests and Streams.
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In William Coggeshall's collection, he assembles twenty-three writers of poetry, from the earliest Indiana scribblers. Their verses are full of the love of nature and of sentiment-many of them sentimental. They are idyllic songs of the forest home and experi- ences of frontier life. The rhetoric is rosy and they indulge in rhapsodical flights. Their chief claim on our interest is the reflection of the times in which they were written. The spell cast on poetic souls by forest and stream breathes through all of them. In the "Poet's Corner" of the newspapers of the time, in the Ladies' Repository, in the Literary Messenger, or in Mr. Prentice's encouraging columns, these poets presented their songs to the Western world. One wrote of how she
"Loved the thoughtful hour when sinks The burning sun to rest, And spreads a sea of flowing gold Along the illumined west."
A poet then very famous pictured the setting for her story, out
"In a green meadow, laced by a silvery stream, Where the lilies all day seem to float in a dream On the soft gurgling waves in their bright pebbled bed, Where the emerald turf springs up light from the tread."
Another poet, in time of grief, expressed the wish that the fair loved one might be buried
"In the vale where the willow and cypress weep; Where the wind of the West breathes its softest sigh ; Where the silvery stream is flowing nigh."
Sarah T. Bolton, who was one of these pioneer writers that lived on into the nineties, voices this feeling of response to their environment, in the lines:
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" I learned to sing in nature's solitude, Among the free wild birds and antlered deer; In the primeval forest and the rude Log cabin of the Western pioneer.
" They loved the whisper of the leaves, the breeze, The scent of rivulets, the trill of birds,
And my poor songs were echoes caught from these Voices of Nature set to rhythmic words."
In the later collection of Poets and Poetry of Indiana, made by Benjamin Parker and E. Hiney, we find that they have included one hundred and forty-six writers of verse, and the same pleasure in the fields, flowers, and forests is shown in all of the selections. Many of these poets are now known only by being preserved in these collections, but, like the local painters of those times, they were the pride of their village, in their day.
In the earliest times, when there were fewer period- icals and books published, oratory, in the most pon- derous and lofty style, and the addresses framed in sonorous periods with soaring flights of eloquence, beyond what would be acceptable now, took the place of printed composition. The oration had then a real literary influence. In this form of expression Indiana has always occupied a position of prominence. Her public men have enjoyed a national reputation for eloquence, both at the bar and in political life.
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